CHAPTER 19

Discipling All the Peoples

John Piper

John Piper is founder and teacher of the website Desiring God and chancellor of Bethlehem College and Seminary. Since 1980, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis. He has authored more than fifty books, and his sermons, articles, books, and more are available at the Desiring God website free of charge.

From Let the Nations Be Glad, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1993. Used by permission.

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 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, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matt 28:18–20 ESV)

The words of our Lord are crucial for understanding the missionary task of the church. Specifically, the words “make disciples of all nations” must be closely examined. They contain the very important phrase “all nations” which is often referred to in the Greek form panta ta ethne (panta = all, ta = the, ethne = nations). The reason this is such an important phrase is that ethne, when translated as “nations,” sounds like a political or geographic grouping. That is its most common English usage. But we will see that this is not what the Greek means. Nor does the English always mean this. For example, we say the Cherokee Nation or the Sioux Nation. This means something like: people with a unifying ethnic identity. In fact, the word “ethnic” comes from the Greek word ethnos (singular of ethne). Our inclination then might be to take panta ta ethne as a reference to “all the ethnic groups.” “Go and disciple all the ethnic groups.” But this is precisely what needs to be tested by a careful investigation of the wider biblical context.

The Singular Use of Ethnos in the New Testament

In the New Testament, the singular ethnos never refers to gentile individuals.1 This is a striking fact. Every time the singular ethnos does occur, it refers to a people group or “nation”—often the Jewish nation, even though in the plural it is usually translated “gentiles” in distinction from the Jewish people.2

Here are some examples to illustrate the corporate meaning of the singular use of ethnos:

What this survey of the singular establishes is that the word ethnos very naturally and normally carried a corporate meaning in reference to people groups with a certain ethnic identity. In fact, the reference in Acts 2:5 to “every nation” is very close in form to “all the nations” in Matthew 28:19. And in Acts 2:5 it must refer to people groups of some kind.

The Plural Use of Ethnos in the New Testament

Unlike the singular, the plural of ethnos does not always refer to “people groups.” It sometimes simply refers to gentile individuals.3 Many instances are ambiguous. What is important to see is that in the plural, the word can refer either to an ethnic group or simply to gentile individuals who may not make up an ethnic group. For example, to illustrate the meaning of gentile individuals, consider the use of ethnos in the following texts.

When Paul turns to the gentiles in Antioch after being rejected by the Jews, Luke says, “And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorified the word of God” (Acts 13:48 ESV). This is a reference not to nations but to the group of gentile individuals at the synagogue who heard Paul.

“You know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to mute idols” (1 Cor 12:2 ESV). In this verse “you” refers to the individual gentile converts at Corinth. It would not make sense to say, “When you were nations . . .”

These are perhaps sufficient to show that the plural of ethnos does not have to mean nation or “people group.” On the other hand, the plural, like the singular, certainly can, and often does, refer to “people groups.” For example:

Referring to the taking of the promised land by Israel, Paul says, “And when he had destroyed seven nations (ethne) in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land for an inheritance” (Acts 13:19 ASV).

“For three and a half days some from the peoples, tribes, tongues and nations (ethnon) will gaze at their dead bodies” (Rev 11:9 ESV). In this sequence it is clear that “nations” refers to some kind of ethnic grouping, not just to gentile individuals.

It can be seen then that in the plural ethne can mean gentile individuals who may not be part of a single people group, or it can mean (as it always does in the singular) a people group with ethnic identity. This means that we cannot yet be certain which meaning is intended in Matthew 28:19. We cannot yet answer the question whether the task of missions is merely reaching as many individuals as possible or reaching all the people groups of the world.

The Use of Panta ta Ethne in the New Testament

Our immediate concern is with the meaning of panta ta ethne in Matthew 28:19, “Go and make disciples of all nations.”

Out of the eighteen uses of panta ta ethne (or its variant) only the one in Matthew 25:32 would seem to demand the meaning “gentile individuals.” Three others demand the people group meaning on the basis of the context (Acts 2:5; 10:35; 17:26). Six others require the people group meaning on the basis of the Old Testament connection (Mark 11:17; Luke 21:24; Acts 15:17; Gal 3:8; Rev 12:5; 15:4). The remaining eight uses (Matt 24:9; 24:14; 28:19; Luke 12:30; 24:47; Acts 14:16; Rom 1:5; 2 Tim 4:17) could go either way.

What can we conclude so far concerning the meaning of panta ta ethne in Matthew 28:19 and its wider missionary significance?

The singular use of ethnos in the New Testament always refers to a people group. The plural use of ethnos sometimes must be a people group and sometimes must refer to gentile individuals, but usually can go either way. The phrase panta ta ethne must refer to gentile individuals only once, but must refer to people groups nine times. The remaining eight uses may refer to people groups. The combination of these results suggests that the meaning of panta ta ethne leans heavily in the direction of “all the nations (people groups).”

The Old Testament Hope

The Old Testament is replete with promises and expectations that God would one day be worshiped by people from all the nations of the world. We will see that these promises form the explicit foundation of New Testament missionary vision.

The phrase panta ta ethne occurs in the Greek Old Testament some one hundred times and virtually never carries the meaning of gentile individuals but always carries the meaning “all the nations” in the sense of people groups outside Israel.4

All the Families of the Earth Will Be Blessed

Foundational for the missionary vision of the New Testament was the promise which God made to Abram in Genesis 12:1–3 (ESV):

Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

This promise for universal blessing to the “families” of the earth is essentially repeated in Genesis 18:18; 22:18; 26:4; 28:14.

In 12:3 and 28:14 the Hebrew phrase for “all the families” (kol mishpahot) is rendered in the Greek Old Testament by pasai hai phulai. The word phulai means “tribes” in most contexts. But mishpaha can be, and usually is, smaller than a tribe.5 For example when Achan sinned, Israel is examined in decreasing order of size: first by tribe, then by mishpaha (family), then by household (Josh 7:14).

The singular use of ethnos in the New Testament always refers to a people group.

So the blessing of Abraham is intended by God to reach to fairly small groupings of people. We need not define these groups with precision in order to feel the impact of this promise. The other three repetitions of this Abrahamic promise in Genesis use the phrase “all the nations” (Hebrew: kol goyey) which the Septuagint translates with the familiar panta ta ethne in each case (Gen 18:18; 22:18; 26:4). This again suggests strongly that the term panta ta ethne in missionary contexts has the ring of people groups rather than gentile individuals.

The New Testament explicitly cites this particular Abrahamic promise twice. In Acts 3:25 (ESV) Peter says to the Jewish crowd, “You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’”

The other New Testament quotation of the Abrahamic promise is in Galatians 3:6–8 (ESV):

Just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness?” Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles (ta ethne) by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations (panta ta ethne) be blessed.”

What we may conclude from the wording of Genesis 12:3 and its use in the New Testament is that God’s purpose for the world is that the blessing of Abraham, namely, the salvation achieved through Jesus Christ, the seed of Abraham, would reach to all the ethnic people groups of the world. This would happen as people in each group put their faith in Christ and thus become “children of Abraham” (Gal 3:7) and heirs of the promise (Gal 3:29). This event of individual salvation as persons trust Christ will happen among “all the nations.”

The Great Commission: It Was Written!

Luke’s record of the Lord’s words in Luke 24:45–47 (ESV), when examined with their likely Old Testament context, shows further evidence for Christ’s desire for all the peoples.

Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations (panta ta ethne), beginning from Jerusalem.”

The context here is crucial for our purposes. First, Jesus “opens their minds to understand the Scriptures.” Then He says, “Thus it is written” (in the Old Testament), followed (in the original Greek) by three coordinate infinitive clauses which make explicit what is written in the Old Testament: first, that the Christ is to suffer, second, that He is to rise on the third day, and third, that repentance and forgiveness of sins are to be preached in His name to “all nations.”

So Jesus is saying that His commission to take the message of repentance and forgiveness to all nations “is written” in the Old Testament “Scriptures.” This is one of the things He opened their minds to understand. But what is the Old Testament conception of the worldwide purpose of God (which we saw above)? It is just what Paul saw that it was—a purpose to bless all the families of the earth and win a worshiping people from “all nations.”6

Therefore, we have strong evidence that the panta ta ethne in Luke 24:47 was understood by Jesus not merely in terms of gentile individuals, but as an array of world peoples who must hear the message of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

A House of Prayer for All Nations

Another pointer to the way Jesus thought about the world-wide missionary purposes of God comes from Mark 11:17 (ESV). When Jesus cleanses the temple, He quotes Isaiah 56:7:

Is it not written, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations [pasin tois ethnesin]?”

The reason this is important for us is that it shows Jesus reaching back to the Old Testament (just like He does in Luke 24:45–47) to interpret the worldwide purposes of God. He quotes Isaiah 56:7 (ESV), which in the Hebrew explicitly says, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples (kol ha’ammim).”

The people group meaning is unmistakable. Isaiah’s point is not that every individual gentile will have a right to dwell in the presence of God, but that there will be converts from “all peoples” who will enter the temple to worship. That Jesus was familiar with this Old Testament hope, and that He based His worldwide expectations on references to it (Mark 11:17; Luke 24:45–47), suggests that we should interpret His “Great Commission” along this line.

Back to the “Great Commission” in Matthew

We come back now to our earlier effort to understand what Jesus meant in Matthew 28:19 when He said, “Go and make disciples of panta ta ethne.” This command has its corresponding promise of success in Matthew 24:14 (ESV), “And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations (pasin tois ethnesin), and then the end will come.” The scope of the command and the scope of the promise hang on the meaning of panta ta ethne.

My conclusion from what we have seen in this chapter is that one would have to go entirely against the flow of the evidence to interpret the phrase panta ta ethne as “all gentile individuals” (or “all countries”). Rather, the focus of the command is the discipling of all the people groups of the world. This conclusion comes from the following summary of our biblical investigation:

1. In the New Testament, the singular use of ethnos never means gentile individuals, but always means people group or nation.

2. The plural ethne can mean either gentile individuals or people groups. Sometimes context demands that it mean one or the other. But in most instances, it could carry either meaning.

3. The phrase panta ta ethne occurs eighteen times in the New Testament. Only once must it mean gentile individuals. Nine times it must mean people groups. The other eight times are ambiguous.

4. Virtually all of the one hundred or so uses of panta ta ethne in the Greek Old Testament refer to nations in distinction from the nation of Israel.

5. The promise made to Abraham that in him “all the families of the earth” would be blessed and that he would be “the father of many nations” is taken up in the New Testament and gives the mission of the church a people group focus because of this Old Testament emphasis.

6. The Old Testament context of Jesus’s missionary commission in Luke 24:46–47 shows that panta ta ethne would most naturally have the meaning of “all the peoples or nations.”

7. Mark 11:17 shows that Jesus probably thinks in terms of people groups when He envisions the worldwide purpose of God.

Therefore in all likelihood Jesus did not send His apostles out with a general mission merely to win as many individuals as they could, but rather to reach all the peoples of the world and thus to gather the “children of God” which are scattered (John 11:52), and to call all the “ransomed from every tribe and language and people and nation” (Rev 5:9 ESV), until redeemed persons from “all the peoples praise Him” (Rom 15:11).

Thus when Jesus says in Mark 13:10 that “the gospel must first be preached to all nations (panta ta ethne),” there is no good reason for construing this to mean anything other than that the gospel must reach all the peoples of the

Jesus did not send His apostles out with a general mission merely to win as many individuals as they could, but rather to reach all the peoples of the world and thus to gather the “children of God” which are scattered.

world before the end comes. And when Jesus says, “go and make disciples of all the nations (panta ta ethne),” there is no good reason for construing this to mean anything other than that the missionary task of the church is to press on to all the unreached peoples until the Lord comes. Jesus commands it and He assures us that it will be done before He comes again. He can make that promise because He Himself is building His church from all the peoples. All authority in heaven and on earth have been given to Him for this very thing (Matt 28:18). Image

GO TO THE BEGINNING OF LESSON 5: Unleashing the Gospel

Notes

1. Gal 2:14 ESV appears to be an exception in the English text (“If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”). But the Greek word here is not ethnos, but the adverb ethnikos, which means to have the life patterns of gentiles.

2. Following are all the singular uses in the New Testament. Matt 21:43; 24:7 (= Mark 13:8 = Luke 21:10); Luke 7:5; 23:2 (both references to the Jewish nation); Acts 2:5 (“Jews from every nation”); 7:7; 8:9; 10:22 (“whole nation of the Jews”), 35; 17:26; 24:2, 10, 17; 26:4; 28:19 (the last five references are to the Jewish nation); John 11:48, 50, 51, 52; 18:35 (all in reference to the Jewish nation); Rev 5:9; 13:7; 14:6; 1 Pet 2:9. Paul never uses the singular.

3. For example, Matt 6:32; 10:5; 12:21; 20:25; Luke 2:32; 21:24; Acts 9:15; 13:46–47; 15:7, 14, 23; 18:6; 21:11; 22:21; Rom 3:29; 9:24; 15:9, 10, 11, 12, 16; 16:26; Gal 2:9; 3:14; 2 Tim 4:17; Rev 14:18; 16:19; 19:15–18; 21:24. When I use the term “gentile individuals” in this chapter I do not mean to focus undue attention on specific persons. Rather, I mean to speak of non-Jews in a comprehensive way without reference to their ethnic groupings.

4. My survey was done searching for all case variants of panta ta ethne in the plural. The following texts are references to Greek Old Testament (LXX) verse and chapter divisions which occasionally do not correspond to the Hebrew and English versions. Gen 18:18; 22:18; 26:4; Exod 19:5; 23:22; 23:27; 33:16; Lev 20:24, 26; Deut 2:25; 4:6, 19, 27; 7:6, 7, 14; 10:15; 11:23; 14:2; 26:19; 28:1, 10, 37, 64; 29:24; 30:1, 3; Josh 4:24; 23:3, 4; 24:17, 18; 1 Sam 8:20; 1 Chr 14:17; 18:11; 2 Chr 7:20; 32:23; 33:9; Neh 6:16; Esth 3:8; Pss 9:8; 46:2; 48:2; 58:6, 9; 71:11, 17; 81:8; 85:9; 112:4; 116:1; 117:10; Isa 2:2; 14:12, 26; 25:7; 29:8; 34:2; 36:20; 40:15, 17; 43:9; 52:10; 56:7; 61:11; 66:18, 20; Jer 3:17; 9:25; 25:9; 32:13, 15; 33:6; 35:11, 14; 43:2; 51:8; Ezra 25:8; 38:16; 39:21, 23; Dan 3:2, 7; 7:14; Joel 4:2, 11, 12; Amos 9:12; Obad 1:15, 16; Hab 2:5; Hag 2:7; Zech 7:14; 12:3, 9; 14:2, 16, 18, 19; Mal 2:9; 3:12.

5. Karl Ludwig Schmidt argues that the mishpahot are “smaller clan-like societies within the main group or nation” (Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, vol. 2, ed. Gerhard Kittel, trans. Geoffrey Bromiley [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1964], 365).

6. From all the uses of panta ta ethne in the Old Testament that Jesus may be alluding to, at least these relate to the missionary vision of the people of God: Gen 18:18; 22:18; 26:4; Pss 48:2; 71:11, 17; 81:8; 85:9; 116:1; Isa 2:2; 25:7; 52:10; 56:7; 61:11; 66:18–20 (all references are to the LXX verse and chapter divisions).

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