Matthew 28 v19 Go and Teach
Matthew 28:19 and 20 are rich in their connection to the Old Testament, which is very well hidden in the English Translations. Let’s take a closer look at a few of the words found in Verse 19.
Make Disciples vs Teach
Right off we see something we should explore because when we do a comparison of translations we can see a significant difference right away. We all know there is a difference between making something and doing something. Thinking in a school setting.
- There is a difference between what a recruiter does and what a coach does.
- If I tell someone to “Go and teach all 2nd grade” does that imply I have to make the 2nd grade? Or is it assumed the 2nd grade will already be there?
- What if I said, “Go and make 2nd grade?” Does that imply I will also teach them? Or is it assumed once I make them I am to teach them?”
- In most churches today the mission is typically focused toward the ‘make disciples’ concept. This tends to translate into phrases such as these: “get people saved by meeting Jesus,” “Bringing Jesus to the …,” “preaching the gospel,” “making followers of Jesus,” “helping people take their next steps toward Jesus,” “helping lost and broken people find Jesus,” “turning non-Christians into converts,” “to bring people to Jesus.”
- When the word ‘teach’ is used, it translates as teach all nations (peoples). By teaching them, will they become disciples? When the word ‘make’ is used, it translates as make disciples of all nations (people), do we make them disciples by teaching them? It seems a bit like the chicken/egg question doesn’t it? It all turns out the same right? You have someone teaching and someone turning into a disciple right? Yet there is a fundamental difference – the goal. Is the goal to teach or make disciples? Does it matter?
Let’s hold those thoughts for a moment and see what else we can find out.
If we read the Hebrew Gospels translation we read the word ‘preach’.
Teach, make, and disciple are all verbs. Teacher, maker, and disciple are nouns. Notice the word disciple can be both a verb and a noun? Let’s look at the concordance to see which this word is – a verb or a noun. Using Blueletterbible we see the word translated as either teach or make disciples (mathēteuō) is a verb. We can also see there isn’t any word after this verb – it goes straight into “all nations.” There isn’t any word for word match to disciple, it seems to be an added concept which can significantly change the goal or focus of those being told to go – doesn’t it?
Back to mathēteuō – we see where this word is used 4 times in the NT. The only time it is kind of translated in a manner close to “make disciples” is in Matthew 27, and there is a special note there. But this note is not on Matthew 28.
If we look at the Hebrew word, we see its (לְהוֹרוֹת) meaning is to teach, to lead, to instruct. When we make our way back to the Hebrew, it helps us make some connections back into the OT. One of those such places is Exodus 24:12. If we look at all the different translations here, we see it as either teach or instruct. When we start breaking this down, we see where Matthew 28:19-20 matches up with Exodus 24:12.
This word is yārâ, in our English translations we see it translated many ways.
The KJV translates Strong’s H3384 in the following manner: teach (42x), shoot (18x), archers (5x), cast (5x), teacher (4x), rain (2x), laid (1x), direct (1x), inform (1x), instructed (1x), shewed (1x), shooters (1x), through (1x), watered (1x)
If you listen to the Bible Project’s video on Salt of the Land, you will see how they make a connection between Torah, Orh, and Yara.
They said, underneath the noun Torah is y, but you can hear the rhyming of Ohr=light, and Tor. Torah comes from the Hebrew verb Yar. In the Yar form it means to give instruction or to teach someone. In the form of Torah, it means instruction. God will yara/teach them so that God’s Torah/instruction will go out to the nations. God’s orh/light to the nations is people walking in his Torah/instruction.
When we dive into this we can see the idea here is to teach and instruction all the nations/people. Our focus should be on the teaching, not on the making. By learning God’s instruction, living by them, and teaching them, we are fulfilling this part of what Jesus has told his disciples to do.
This is exactly what his disciples at that time did and they changed the world. Those who believed in and wanted to become followers of Jesus went into the synagogues each week and learned from the Old Testament. No one had their own copy, they had to work to memorize it so they could then share it. The disciples would keep up with those communities they couldn’t be at in person through letters. Some of those letters are preserved in our NT as examples of some of the questions these communities had as they were trying to adjust from their previous Jewish and pagan/gentile traditions. For both traditions they had to overcome the requirement to provide blood sacrifices because Jesus was their forever blood sacrifice. They both had to overcome the idea of working their way back into righteousness through repetitive traditions. Jesus came and brought it back to the heart of things and not the doing of things as was taught by man.
Jesus’s disciples used the Old Testament to teach what Jesus had done by providing a blood sacrifice which covers the penalty of death from sinning. Jesus set everyone back into right relationship (righteousness) with YHWH so they can draw near to him. If you love YHWH with all your heart, mind, and strength, then you will follow his ways.
There is nothing against “making disciples,” however, this particular part of the ‘Great Commission,’ is about teaching. We are only a few words in, we have more to discover.
Go and teach … next we’ll look at who we teach.
Video Teaching
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