# Matthew 28.19

<!-- type: passage | created: 2026-04-26 | updated: 2026-05-28 -->

**Book:** [Matthew](/codex/matthew-the-apostle/) · NASB95

## Verse

> <span class="rl-speech">Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,</span> (Matthew 28:19, NASB95)

## Immediate context (±2 verses)

**NASB95** ([NASB95](/codex/nasb95/))
> 17. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some were doubtful. 18. And Jesus came up and spoke to them, <span class="rl-speech">saying, 'All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.'</span>
> 
> **19. <span class="rl-speech">Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,</span>**
> 
> 20. <span class="rl-speech">teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.</span> (Matthew 28:17-20, NASB95)

## Setting

- **Speaker:** the resurrected Jesus.
- **Audience:** the eleven remaining disciples (Matthew 28:16), Judas has died (Matthew 27:5).
- **Location:** "the mountain in Galilee which Jesus had designated" (Matthew 28:16). Galilee, not Jerusalem, Jesus's home region for His public ministry; the specific mountain is unnamed in the text.
- **Time period:** post-resurrection appearance, c. AD 30 (or AD 33 on later-dating chronologies). Prior to the ascension narrated in Acts 1.

## Theological reading

The verse is the **Great Commission** and the locus classicus of the Trinitarian baptismal formula. Three interlocking claims:

1. **Christ's universal authority.** "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth" (v. 18) parallels Daniel 7:13-14, where dominion is given to "one like a son of man." The Great Commission flows *from* this authority, disciples are sent because Jesus rules.
2. **The mission's scope.** *Panta ta ethnē*, "all the nations", universalizes what was Israel-particular under the old covenant. The Abrahamic promise that "all the families of the earth shall be blessed" (Genesis 12:3) is the substructure.
3. **The Trinitarian formula.** *Eis to onoma tou patros kai tou huiou kai tou hagiou pneumatos*, into the *name* (singular *onoma*, not plural *onomata*) of three persons. One name shared by three; the Trinitarian unity of being and distinction of persons in fourteen Greek words.

**Patristic.** The Didache (c. AD 100) prescribes the Trinitarian formula explicitly (*Did.* 7) and is the earliest extra-canonical witness. Tertullian (*Against Praxeas* 26, c. AD 213) cites the verse against modalism: the three persons cannot be one *qua* person, since they are named distinctly in this very formula. Athanasius (*Discourses Against the Arians* II.41, c. AD 358) and the Cappadocians use the singular *onoma* over three persons against tritheism and Arianism alike, one divine being, three persons. Basil of Caesarea (*On the Holy Spirit* 28, c. AD 375) develops the Trinitarian rule of faith from this verse: baptism *in this name* establishes the dogmatic structure of all Christian theology.

**Textual question.** Eusebius of Caesarea (early 4th c.) sometimes paraphrases the verse without the Trinitarian formula ("baptizing them in My name"), prompting some critical scholars to wonder if the formula is a later addition. However: (a) every extant Greek manuscript contains the Trinitarian wording; (b) Eusebius elsewhere quotes the formula in full; (c) the Didache attests it well before Eusebius. The textual evidence is unanimous. Eusebius's variants are paraphrases, not citations of a different text.

**Acts and the "name of Jesus" formulations.** Acts 2:38, 8:16, 10:48, 19:5 record baptisms "in the name of Jesus", singular focus, not the full Trinitarian formula. This is not a contradiction: the Acts formulations emphasize Christological identification (over against John's water-baptism, Jewish proselyte baptism, etc.). The full Trinitarian formula is the normative liturgical pattern (Didache; Tertullian; subsequent church practice). Oneness Pentecostal and Sabellian readings invert this, claiming the Acts shorthand abolishes the Matthew formula, but this contradicts every patristic witness and the unanimous textual tradition.

**Reformed.** Calvin (*Institutes* IV.15.6) reads the formula as encoding both the doctrinal substance ("the Trinity is what we are baptized *into*") and the covenantal structure (baptism is incorporation into the Triune God's covenant, not merely a witness of personal faith). The Westminster Larger Catechism Q. 165 grounds Trinitarian baptism on this verse.

## Key words

- [G3686 - onoma](/codex/g3686-onoma/), *onoma* (name), singular, governing three persons; one name shared
- [G0907 - baptizo](/codex/g0907-baptizo/), *baptizō* (baptizing), immersing into the reality named
- [G3962 - pater](/codex/g3962-pater/), *patēr* (Father)
- [G5207 - huios](/codex/g5207-huios/), *huios* (Son)
- [G4151 - pneuma](/codex/g4151-pneuma/), *pneuma* (Spirit)
- *G1484 - ethnos*, *ethnos* (nation / Gentile), universal mission scope

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## Quoted in

**Arguments and defeaters:**

- [Anointing Implies Subordination Objection Defeater](/codex/anointing-implies-subordination-objection-defeater/)
- [Argument from the Proportionate-Causality Convergence](/codex/argument-from-the-proportionate-causality-convergence/), via [Matthew 28.18-20](/codex/matthew-28-18-20/)
- [Causal Adequacy Argument](/codex/argument-from-the-proportionate-causality-convergence/), via [Matthew 28.18-20](/codex/matthew-28-18-20/)
- [Christian God is the Only True God](/codex/christian-god-is-the-only-true-god/)
- [Christianity Is the White Mans Religion Objection Defeater](/codex/christianity-is-the-white-mans-religion-objection-defeater/)
- [Christians Not Under Mosaic Law](/codex/christians-not-under-mosaic-law/)
- [David Bathsheba Objection Defeater](/codex/david-bathsheba-objection-defeater/), via [Matthew 28.18-20](/codex/matthew-28-18-20/)
- [Did Jesus Send Muhammad Dilemma Argument](/codex/did-jesus-send-muhammad-dilemma-argument/)
- [Five Pillars Outside Quran Objection Defeater](/codex/five-pillars-outside-quran-objection-defeater/)
- [Gentiles Cannot Be Saved Objection Defeater](/codex/gentiles-cannot-be-saved-objection-defeater/)
- [Jesus Came Only for Israel Objection Defeater](/codex/jesus-came-only-for-israel-objection-defeater/)
- [Jesus Has a God Therefore Not God Objection Defeater](/codex/jesus-has-a-god-therefore-not-god-objection-defeater/)
- [Khazar Hypothesis Ashkenazi Replacement Objection Defeater](/codex/khazar-hypothesis-ashkenazi-replacement-objection-defeater/), via [Matthew 28.18-20](/codex/matthew-28-18-20/)
- [Liar Lunatic or Lord](/codex/liar-lunatic-or-lord/)
- [Manuscript Variants Bible Corruption Objection Defeater](/codex/manuscript-variants-bible-corruption-objection-defeater/)
- [Muhammad as Paraclete Refutation](/codex/muhammad-as-paraclete-refutation/)
- [Paul Invented Christianity Objection Defeater](/codex/paul-invented-christianity-objection-defeater/)
- [Religious Pluralism Objection Defeater](/codex/religious-pluralism-objection-defeater/)
- [Sacred Name Yahawah Yahawashi Required for Salvation Objection Defeater](/codex/sacred-name-yahawah-yahawashi-required-for-salvation-objection-defeater/), via [Matthew 28.18-20](/codex/matthew-28-18-20/)
- [Trinity Coherence Defense (Latin-Thomist)](/codex/trinity-coherence-defense-latin-thomist/)
- [Trinity Invented at Nicaea Objection Defeater](/codex/trinity-invented-at-nicaea-objection-defeater/)
- [Unitarian Oneness Binitarian Objection Defeater](/codex/unitarian-oneness-binitarian-objection-defeater/)

**Concepts:**

- [Apostle](/codex/apostle/), via [Matthew 28.18-20](/codex/matthew-28-18-20/)
- [Apostolic Succession](/codex/apostolic-succession/), via [Matthew 28.18-20](/codex/matthew-28-18-20/)
- [Authority to Cast Out Demons](/codex/authority-to-cast-out-demons/), via [Matthew 28.18-19](/codex/matthew-28-18-19/)
- [Baptism](/codex/baptism/)
- [Black Hebrew Israelite Doctrine](/codex/black-hebrew-israelite-doctrine/)
- [Christianity](/codex/christianity/)
- [Churches the Disciples Started](/codex/churches-the-disciples-started/), via [Matthew 28.18-20](/codex/matthew-28-18-20/)
- [Council of Constantinople I](/codex/council-of-constantinople-i/)
- [Didache](/codex/didache/)
- [Divine Gender Polarity and Feminine Imagery](/codex/divine-gender-polarity-and-feminine-imagery/)
- [Doctrine](/codex/doctrine/)
- [Evangelism](/codex/evangelism/), via [Matthew 28.18-20](/codex/matthew-28-18-20/), [Matthew 28.19-20](/codex/matthew-28-19-20/)
- [Evangelist](/codex/evangelist/)
- [Father-Son Authority Asymmetry](/codex/father-son-authority-asymmetry/)
- [Fivefold Ministry](/codex/ephesians-4-11/), via [Matthew 28.18-20](/codex/matthew-28-18-20/)
- [Islamic Dilemma](/codex/islamic-dilemma/)
- [Jesus Said](/codex/jesus-said/), via [Matthew 28.18-20](/codex/matthew-28-18-20/)
- [Kingdom of God](/codex/g932-basileia/), via [Matthew 28.18-20](/codex/matthew-28-18-20/)
- [Mission Geography (Acts 1-8)](/codex/mission-geography-acts-1-8/)
- [Modalism](/codex/modalism/)
- [Monotheism](/codex/monotheism/)
- [Oneness Pentecostalism](/codex/oneness-pentecostalism/)
- [Pneumatology](/codex/pneumatology/)
- [Salvation of the Unevangelized](/codex/salvation-of-the-unevangelized/), via [Matthew 28.18-20](/codex/matthew-28-18-20/)
- [Spiritual Warfare](/codex/spiritual-warfare/), via [Matthew 28.18-19](/codex/matthew-28-18-19/)
- [Synoptic Problem](/codex/synoptic-problem/)
- [The Hebrew Israelite Defense](/codex/the-hebrew-israelite-defense/)
- [Trinity](/codex/trinity/)
- [Trinity Common Objections](/codex/trinity-common-objections/)
- [Trinity OT Stack (Five Texts)](/codex/trinity-ot-stack-five-texts/)
- [Trinity vs Oneness vs Modalism vs Arianism](/codex/trinity-vs-oneness-vs-modalism-vs-arianism/)
- [Young's Literal Translation](/codex/ylt/)

**People:**

- [Hebrew Israelites](/codex/hebrew-israelites/)
- [Matthew the Apostle](/codex/matthew-the-apostle/)

**Lexicon:**

- [G0907 - baptizo](/codex/g0907-baptizo/)
- [G1577 - ekklesia](/codex/g1577-ekklesia/)
- [G3686 - onoma](/codex/g3686-onoma/)
- [G3962 - pater](/codex/g3962-pater/)
- [G4151 - pneuma](/codex/g4151-pneuma/)
- [G5207 - huios](/codex/g5207-huios/)
- [G5218 - hypakoe](/codex/g5218-hypakoe/)
- [H0001 - ab](/codex/h0001-ab/)
- [H1285 - berith](/codex/h1285-berith/)
- [H8034 - shem](/codex/h8034-shem/)

**Passages:**

- [1 Corinthians 10.1-4](/codex/1-corinthians-10-1-4/)
- [1 John 5.7](/codex/1-john-5-7/)
- [2 Corinthians 13.14](/codex/2-corinthians-13-14/)
- [Acts 1](/codex/acts-1/)
- [Acts 1.8](/codex/acts-1-8/)
- [Acts 11](/codex/acts-11/)
- [Acts 19.4](/codex/acts-19-4/)
- [Acts 2.38](/codex/acts-2-38/)
- [Acts 9](/codex/acts-9/)
- [Galatians 3.28](/codex/galatians-3-28/)
- [Isaiah 48.12-16](/codex/isaiah-48-12-16/)
- [John 1.29-31](/codex/john-1-29-31/)
- [John 1.29-34](/codex/john-1-29-34/)
- [John 3](/codex/john-3/)
- [Luke 12.50](/codex/luke-12-50/)
- [Luke 3.21-22](/codex/luke-3-21-22/)
- [Luke 3.21-23](/codex/luke-3-21-23/)
- [Mark 1.4](/codex/mark-1-4/)
- [Mark 10.35-40](/codex/mark-10-35-40/)
- [Mark 16.16-18](/codex/mark-16-16-18/)
- [Mark 6](/codex/mark-6/)
- [Matthew 28.18-19](/codex/matthew-28-18-19/)
- [Matthew 28.19-20](/codex/matthew-28-19-20/)
- [Matthew 3.13](/codex/matthew-3-13/)
- [Matthew 3.16](/codex/matthew-3-16/)
- [Matthew 3.16-17](/codex/matthew-3-16-17/)
- [Romans 6.3-4](/codex/romans-6-3-4/)

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_Scripture quotations taken from the **New American Standard Bible®** (NASB), Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by **The Lockman Foundation**. Used by permission. All rights reserved. [www.lockman.org](https://www.lockman.org)_