Matthew 28:18 is an authority saying which appeals to the solemn onoma (“name”) of Christ (“in my name”)…This authority saying is probably a further expansion of Luke 10:19 ( = Psa. 91:13)…Compare Matt. 4:6 and parallel…R. Bultmann [supposed that] the missionary charge did not contain a triadic onoma but a Christological “into my name.” The “name” stands for the person himself, recalls the appeal, proclamation, instruction, confession of someone…It seems to me necessary to retain this “baptismal statement” whatever our reservations. The short form found in Eusebius’ ante-Nicene writings can hardly be regarded as original…There is no avoiding seeing this “name” that is transmitted in triadic form as a normal confessional formula at the time of Matthew and the Didache…In Matthew “teaching” gains its own emphatic significance. The words which Jesus transmitted to the disciples are now his real legacy, and it becomes the task of the disciples to preserve and hand on the tradition in the form of the “commands”…Matthew thus underlines the special significance of the sayings tradition and reminds us of the related material of the Johannine farewell discourses which can likewise set the words of Jesus under the rubric “commands” (John 13:14; 14:15, 21; 15:10, 20)…This transmission is wholly unecstatic. It does not make a gift of the spirit central, though the triadic “name” includes a liturgical echo of the gift of the spirit. [n. 19: It is an important fact that Matthew 28:19 and Didache 7:1, 3 place the triadic formula under a single “name” (“into the name…”). Triadic formulae are popular in Hellenistic antiquity, but require a thorough theological interpretation. This threefold “name” in Matthew clearly aims to summarize the peculiarity of early Christian proclamation as against other baptismal formulae and cannot be taken in the sense of later Trinitarian doctrine. Cf. E. Norden, Agnostos theos (1913), 348ff.] Otto Michel, The Interpretation of Matthew, “The Conclusion of Matthew’s Gospel,” pp. 35-41.
Posted on: Wed, 01 Oct 2014 01:00:54 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015