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Summary
- The Great Commission is Jesus’s command in Matthew 28:18–20 to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to keep his commands.
- Parallel commissions appear in Mark 16:15–16, Luke 24:46–49, John 20:21–23 and Acts 1:8, given at different places and times after the resurrection.
- Matthew and Mark both name baptism; Mark 16:16 joins it to salvation, and Catholic and Baptist statements of faith read that differently.
- Mark 16:9–20 is missing from the earliest complete Greek manuscripts, Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus; the Catholic Church accepts it as canonical, and Irenaeus quoted it about 180.
- The Book of Acts records the mission spreading from Jerusalem to Samaria, to the Gentile Cornelius and on to Rome, in the order given in Acts 1:8.
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (1611), text of Project Gutenberg eBook no. 10 (Matthew 10:5–6; 28:16–20; Mark 16:8–20; Luke 1:3; 24:29–51; John 14:15; 20:19–23; Acts 1:1–12; 2:38–41; 8:5, 12; 10:45–48; 11:26; 28:16). https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10
- Blue Letter Bible. Matthew 28:19–20, KJV with Strong’s concordance and Greek parsing (G3100 mathēteuō, G1321 didaskō). https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/mat/28/19/t_conc_957019 ; https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/mat/28/20/t_conc_957020
- Blue Letter Bible. “G1484 – ethnos.” Strong’s Greek Lexicon. https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g1484/kjv/tr/0-1/
- Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft. Lutherbibel 2017, Matthäus 28 (“Der Missionsbefehl”). https://www.die-bibel.de/bibel/LU17/MAT.28
- English Standard Version and New International Version, Mark 16, with notes on verses 9–20. BibleGateway. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+16&version=ESV;NIV
- United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. New American Bible, Revised Edition, Mark 16, note on 16:9–20. https://bible.usccb.org/bible/mark/16
- Head, Peter M. “A Case against the Longer Ending of Mark.” Text & Canon Institute, 14 June 2022. https://textandcanon.org/a-case-against-the-longer-ending-of-mark/
- Codex Sinaiticus Project. “About Codex Sinaiticus.” https://codexsinaiticus.org/en/codex/
- Irenaeus of Lyon. Against Heresies, book 3, chapter 10. In Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1. https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103310.htm
- Britannica Editors. “Saint Irenaeus.” Encyclopaedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Irenaeus
- The Didache, chapter 7. In Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 7. https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0714.htm
- Britannica Editors. “Didache.” Encyclopaedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Didache
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1997. Paragraph 849: https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P29.HTM; paragraph 1257: https://www.vatican.va/content/catechism/en/part_two/section_two/chapter_one/article_1/vi_the_necessity_of_baptism.html
- Council of Trent, Fourteenth Session (25 November 1551), canons on the sacrament of penance, canon 3. Translated by J. Waterworth (1848). Hanover Historical Texts Project. https://history.hanover.edu/texts/trent/ct14.html
- Augsburg Confession (1530), Article 28, “Of Ecclesiastical Power.” BookOfConcord.org. https://bookofconcord.org/augsburg-confession/of-ecclesiastical-power/
- Southern Baptist Convention. The Baptist Faith and Message (2000), articles 7 and 11. https://bfm.sbc.net/bfm2000/
