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chapter 28
1. After Shabbat, as the next day was dawning, Miryam of Magdala and the other Miryam went to see the grave.
After Shabbat, toward dawn on Sunday, literally, "And late of the Shabbatot, at the drawing on toward [number] one of the Shabbatot [ = weeks]." Jewish days begin at sundown, so that "the first day of the week" includes Saturday night, Motza 'ei-Shabbat ("the going out of Shabbat"); see Ac 20:7&N, 1С 16:2&N. But here the reference is definitely to Sunday morning.

2. Suddenly there was a violent earthquake, for an angel of Adonai came down from heaven, rolled away the stone and sat on it.
3. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were as white as snow.
4. The guards were so terrified at him that they trembled and became like dead men.
5. But the angel said to the women, “Don’t be afraid. I know you are looking for Yeshua, who was executed on the stake.
6. He is not here, because he has been raised — just as he said! Come and look at the place where he lay.
He has been raised. This is the central fact about the Messiah — he is not dead but alive! Many people think of Yeshua as a great teacher who lived and died two thousand years ago: end of story! But the same documents that tell of his life, teachings and death also tell, in the same matter-of-fact way, of his resurrection — and not merely of a resuscitation only to die again later, but of a new creation by God (Romans 5, 1 Corinthians 15, Messianic Jews 7), so that he can never die but is our brother, savior, king and cohen gadol forever. Faith in a dead Messiah is no faith at all. To trust in Yeshua is to trust in someone who is alive and is in intimate, continuing relationship with everyone in his Community (Yochanan 17).

7. Then go quickly and tell the talmidim, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and now he is going to the Galil ahead of you. You will see him there.’ Now I have told you.”
8. So they left the tomb quickly, frightened yet filled with joy; and they ran to give the news to his talmidim.
9. Yeshua met them and said, “Shalom!” They came up and took hold of his feet as they fell down in front of him.
10. Then Yeshua said to them, “Don’t be afraid! Go and tell my brothers to go to the Galil, and they will see me there.”
11. As they were going, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the head cohanim everything that had happened.
12. Then they met with the elders; and after discussing the matter, they gave the soldiers a sizeable sum of money
13. and said to them, “Tell people, ‘His talmidim came during the night and stole his body while we were sleeping.’
14. If the governor hears of it, we will put things right with him and keep you from getting in trouble.”
15. The soldiers took the money and did as they were told, and this story has been spread about by Judeans till this very day.
16. So the eleven talmidim went to the hill in the Galil where Yeshua had told them to go.
17. When they saw him, they prostrated themselves before him; but some hesitated.
18. Yeshua came and talked with them. He said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
All authority in heaven and on earth is given to me. See Daniel 7:14.

19. Therefore, go and make people from all nations into talmidim, immersing them into the reality of the Father, the Son and the Ruach HaKodesh,
This "Great Commission" of Yeshua is stated with varying emphases at Mk 16:15-20, Lk 24:46-49, Yn 20:21-23 and Ac 1:8. Make people from all nations into talmidim. This must have shocked his hearers, who surely thought that the Messiah was only, or at least primarily, for Jews. Today the situation is reversed, for many Christians think it wrong to evangelize Jews. But their position is inconsistent; for if they really respect Yeshua they should obey his command to make people from all nations, including Ihe Jewish nation, into talmidim.

Immersing them (see 3:1N) into the reality of the Father, the Son and the Ruach HaKodesh. KJV has "baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Christianity has tended to regard this phrase as a "baptismal formula" to be pronounced when someone is baptized. This understanding leads to such questions as: What is this "name" of the Father, Son and Spirit? Is it Jehovah? Jesus (compare Ac 2:38, 8:16)? or something else? Must all three "persons of the Godhead" be mentioned for a baptism to be valid?

So far as I am concerned, these questions miss the point. First of all, Greek eis generally means "into" rather than "in." Secondly, although "name" is the literal meaning of Greek onoma, "immersing into a name" describes no possible literal act. My rendering expresses what I believe to be the intended meaning, since in the Bible "name" stands for the reality behind the name. While "in the name of can mean "on the authority of," that seems weak here; more is meant than identifying who authorizes immersion. It is possible that the Greek for "into the name" renders Hebrew lashem, "for, for the sake of, with reference to"; if so, the JNT renders the sense well.

The Father, the Son and the Ruach HaKodesh. This is the closest the New Testament comes to stating the proposition that YHVH, Adortai, the one God of Avraham, Yitzchak and Ya'akov, consists of Father, Son and Holy Spirit (compare 2C 13:14). The word "trinity" appears nowhere in the New Testament; it was developed later by theologians trying to express profundities which God has revealed about himself. The New Testament does not teach tritheism, which is belief in three gods. It does not teach unitarianism, which denies the divinity of Yeshua the Son and of the Holy Spirit. It does not teach modalism, which says that God appears sometimes as the Father, sometimes as the Son and sometimes as the Holy Spirit, like an actor changing masks. It is easy to wander astray into error or nonsense in thinking about God, since his ways are not our ways and his thoughts are not our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8). Some Messianic Jews use the term "triunity" in conscious avoidance of the word "trinity," which has such a non-Jewish, traditionally Christian ring to it, and in order to emphasize the unity of God as proclaimed in the Sh'ma without neglecting what this verse highlights. But the bottom line is that it is more important to believe God's word and to trust him than to argue over particular doctrinal or verbal formulas used in attempting to describe the nature of God.

There is also a textual issue. Although nearly all ancient manuscripts have the trinitarian formula, Eusebius, the Church historian, who may have been a non-trinitarian, in his writings preceding the Council of Nicea in 325 C.E., quotes the verse without it. Most scholars believe die formula is original, but papers by Hans Kosmala ("The Conclusion of Matthew," Annual of the Swedish Theological Institute, 4 (1965), pp. 132-147) and David Flusser ("The Conclusion of Matthew in a New Jewish Christian Source," ibid., 5 (1966-7), pp. 110-119) take the opposite view.

20. and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember! I will be with you always, yes, even until the end of the age.”