Five-minute study · Day 38 · Matthew 28
Matthew 28:19
A word worth stopping on: make disciples μαθητεύω matheteuo
Go. That is what most people remember about the Great Commission. Go into all the world. The Greek says something different. 'Go' is a participle. It modifies the main verb. The actual command, the only imperative in the sentence, is matheteuo: make disciples. Enroll apprentices. Bring people into a relationship where they learn by doing, not by sitting in a lecture hall. The commission is primarily about formation.
Word study: make disciples
- Greek
- μαθητεύω
- Pronounced
- matheteuo
- Strong's
- G3100
- Definition
- To enroll as a student-apprentice, to bring into a master-disciple relationship. The main imperative verb in the Great Commission.
Greek grammar distinguishes between the main verb in a sentence and participles that support it. In Matthew 28:19-20, there is one imperative: matheteusate, 'make disciples.' The words 'go' (poreuthentes), 'baptizing' (baptizontes), and 'teaching' (didaskontes) are all participles. They describe how the main command gets carried out. Daniel Wallace, in 'Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics,' identifies poreuthentes as an attendant circumstance participle, meaning 'as you go' or 'having gone.'
Matheteuo comes from mathetes, 'learner' or 'disciple.' A mathetes in the ancient world was an apprentice. The relationship was personal, sustained, and imitative. A mathetes of Socrates did not just read Socrates. He walked with him, ate with him, watched him think, and practiced thinking the same way. The Stoic, Epicurean, and rabbinic traditions all operated on this model.
Jesus did not commission the eleven to start a lecture series. He told them to replicate the relationship he had built with them. Walk with people. Teach them to do what I taught you to do. Baptize them into the community. The imperative is relational, not informational.
Historical context · First century AD
The Apprenticeship Culture
Rabbinic education in the first century followed the master-disciple pattern. A talmid (the Hebrew equivalent of mathetes) attached himself to a rabbi, followed him physically, memorized his teachings, imitated his practices, and eventually reproduced his way of life in the next generation. The Mishnah records that disciples of Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai could recite his rulings from memory decades later.
Greco-Roman philosophical schools operated similarly. Plato's Academy, Aristotle's Lyceum, and the Stoic and Epicurean schools were all communities organized around a master. Students lived in proximity, absorbed the master's worldview through daily interaction, and were expected to carry the tradition forward. Education was formation, not information transfer.
Matthew's audience understood matheteuo in this context. The command to 'make disciples of all nations' was a commission to extend the master-apprentice relationship across ethnic and geographic boundaries. The scope was unprecedented. No rabbi had ever claimed authority over 'all nations.' No philosopher had issued a universal enrollment. The command assumed an authority that only the preceding verse could justify: 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.'
For reflection
The imperative is matheteuo, not 'go.' Think about your own faith. Who discipled you? Whose walking, eating, and living taught you how to follow Christ? Now think about who you are doing that for. Apprenticeship requires presence. Whose life are you present in?
Matheteuo cannot happen at a distance. It requires proximity, time, and shared meals.
Sources: BDAG Lexicon; Wallace, 'Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics'; Wilkins, 'Discipleship in the Ancient World and Matthew's Gospel'