Why Foreign Missions? 7. The
meaning of ‘ethnoi’ in Matthew 28.19
The previous discussion examined the relationship between
Mt. 28.16-20 and Is. 66.18-23. One
specific issue in this comparison deserves attention: who are the ‘nations’
(Greek ethnoi) to whom the disciples are to go (Isaiah 66.19 says 'from those being saved' for the remnant who are 'sent out to the nations')?
The Greek word can be translated as ‘peoples,’ ‘nations,’ or
‘Gentiles.’
Are the disciples to go to each people group in the world? Are they
to go to the nations in the sense of each country in the world? Or are they to go to the Gentiles in general,
without the more particular idea of each distinct people group with its own
language and customs being reached?
‘Gentiles’: If we are to look internally in Matthew’s Gospel, we
might say that ethnoi typically means
‘Gentiles.’[1] Mt. 4.15 speaks of ‘Galilee of the Gentiles,’
that is, where many non-Jews live. The
word ethnoi is further used in this sense
in Mt. 6.32; 10.5; 20.19; 20.25.
‘Gentiles’ or possibly ‘peoples’: The word is also probably used
this way in Mt. 10.18; 12.18; 24.9, although the word could be translated as
‘peoples’ in these verses.
‘People’ or ‘nation’: In the singular, in Mt. 21.43; 24.7, ‘ethnos’ should be translated as ‘people’
or ‘nation,’ but not as ‘Gentiles.’ Josephus, the first
century Jewish historian, also uses the singular ‘ethnos’ in the sense of a specific group of people. Several examples may be cited: the
‘Sodomite people’ and the ‘Arabic people’ (Antiq.
1.1); ‘Median people’ (Antiq. 1.124);
a city called ‘Mazaca’ gave its name to the entire ‘people’ (Antiq. 1.125); the ‘Judadaians, a people
of Western Ethiopia’ (Antiq. 1.135);
Moabites are ‘even now a people/nation’ (Antiq.
1.206); Ishmael is said to be the founder of the Arab people (Antiq. 1.214); Amram, being well
established among the Hebrews, was afraid for the whole ‘nation’ (Antiq. 2.210), etc. Thus the term could be used with specific
groups with their own characteristics, languages, and histories in mind.
‘Peoples’ or ‘nations’: Yet there are a few occasions where the
word in the plural probably does mean ‘peoples,’ or at least ‘nations’ in the
general sense rather than the specific sense of ‘Gentiles, not Jews’:
And this good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the world,
as a testimony to all the nations; and then the end will come (Mt. 24.14).
All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one
from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats (Mt. 25.32).
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name
of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Mt. 28.19).
Matthew’s typical use of
‘ethnoi’ for ‘Gentiles’ may lead us
to suppose that the word in these three passages could again mean ‘Gentiles.’ Yet the adjective ‘all’ suggests otherwise. Moreover, the relation between Mt. 28.19 and Is.
66.18 also suggests that ‘ethnoi’ should
be translated as ‘peoples’ or ‘nations.’
Is. 66.18 clearly has
‘all peoples’ or ‘all nations’ in view: ‘For I know their works and their thoughts, and I am
coming to gather all nations and tongues;
and they shall come and shall see my glory….’ (this is so in both the Hebrew
and the Greek; the Aramaic adds a third term: ‘peoples, nations, and
tongues’). Is. 66.21 says, ‘And I will
also take some of them as priests and
as Levites, says the LORD.’ The ‘them’
in this verse seems to refer to the nations.
This notion has already been stated in Isaiah 56:6-7:
6 And the foreigners who
join themselves to the LORD, to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD,
and to be his servants, all who keep the sabbath, and do not profane it, and
hold fast my covenant-- 7
these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of
prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my
altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.
The places to which the survivors of Is. 66 will go are
mentioned in v. 19: ‘toTarshish, to the Libyans and Lydians (famous as archers), to Tubal and
Greece, and to the distant islands….’
The mention of these specific lands seems to carry the meaning of
far-away lands. The mission of the
survivors is not limited to these places; the point is that they will go even
to these far-away places, and therefore to every other place.
This mission in Is. 66 includes the peoples or nations of
the world, but it is also a mission to recover the exiled Jews from these
places:
They shall bring all your kindred from all the nations as an offering to the
LORD, on horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and on mules, and on
dromedaries, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, says the LORD, just as the
Israelites bring a grain offering in a clean vessel to the house of the LORD
(Is. 66.20).
Thus Is. 66.18-23 has the survivors ministering far and wide
to both the exiled Jews and to the peoples of the earth.
We must, however, exercise caution. To say that ‘all nations’ in this passage or
in Mt. 28.16-20 means every people group on earth is simply to read too much
into the word. Moreover, through time
the earth’s ‘peoples’ and ‘nations.’ The
texts rather have a more general sense of various groups on the earth. What both Is. 66 and Mt. 28 have in view is a
mission that goes outwards to the various peoples of the earth, without trying
to identify and target each people group in the world.
Here, then, is the basis for the Church’s concern with foreign missions. Mt. 28.16-20 claims that the time has come to
fulfill the prediction of Is. 66.18-23.
Thus the Church’s very purpose is to fulfill this mission to the
world. Believers and churches may well ask,
‘Where do I/we fit into this commission?’
The Church is being built through missions, and it exists for
missions. Its history is the history of
missions.
[1]
There is a related word that means ‘Gentile’—ethnikos. Matthew uses this
word to discount only greeting one’s brothers, since even the ethnikoi do this (5.47). We find this word used again in Mt. 6.7 and
18.17.
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