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This accretion also is expressed in that phraseology peculiar to the circle which most strongly cherished the type of world-view fostered by the preceding added saying, that is, the circle in the early community from which there came forth the Book of Revelation. It may be that it is to this later recession of these phenomena that there is to be ascribed the omission by Matthew of document P §7, though he inserts in his gospel both what precedes, P §§2-6, and what follows, P §§8, 9.

Jesus himself, under such circumstances, it may reasonably be assumed, would hardly make a contrast between a phase of the mission's activity ("Behold, I have given you authority,” etc.) and an assurance of the future ("Howbeit in this rejoice not," etc.), but, if at all, between this passing phase and the more significant fact of the message delivered and its ultimate effects.

§6. THE EXTENT OF THE MISSION

There have been brought under consideration at one point or another in preceding studies all references in the Synoptic Gospels to the extent of the mission, except one in gospel MT and one in gospel LK, namely,

GOSPEL MT 28:18-20

All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you: and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the consummation of the aeon.

GOSPEL LK 24:46, 47

And he said unto them, Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer, and rise again from the dead the third day; and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name unto all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

Before entering upon the study of these final passages, there may be summarized the results of the examination of all other sayings on this theme in the Synoptic Gospels. It will be observed that the above sayings belong to the post-resurrection life of Jesus; the following summary deals with those sayings which belong to the period before the death of Jesus.

1. The thought of Jesus.-It seems that Jesus at no time before his death defined with precision the limits of the mission. What his conception was must apparently be deduced mainly from the parables of "the mystery of the kingdom of God." By no one of these parables does Jesus explicitly set the bounds of the mission beyond I See Rev. 3:5; 5:1; 12:9, 10.

the Jewish people, though there seems to be clearly implicit in more than one of them such a conception of the form, method, and extent of the kingdom of God as compels the conviction that through his vision into the future Jesus foresaw and forecast the growth of the kingdom among the nations. The most explicit utterance is in an isolated saying, "And they shall come from the east and west, and from the north and south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God." But this does not necessarily include more than the Dispersion. Of similar suggestion to that in the parables of the kingdom, yet, like them, hinting at a larger outlook rather than aiming to define, is the saying, "Let the children first be filled."

2

2. The thought of the evangelist Matthew.-The thought of him who framed the Gospel of Matthew is made clear in his rewriting of the above saying of Jesus from document MK. He found it as "Let the children first be filled;" he rewrote it as "I was not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel." By so doing he limited the saying to the mission of Jesus himself, and, further, he limited that mission to the Jews. But his thought of the mission of the disciples is not of larger scope, as is evidenced by the sayings which he constructed for his discourse on the mission, Matt. 10:5, 6," Go not into any way of the Gentiles, and enter not into any city of the Samaritans: but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel," and Matt. 10:23, "Ye shall not have gone through the cities of Israel till the Son of man be come." These sayings from the evangelist seem to be the product of the union of his interpretations of document MK 7:27, document MK 13:30, and document MK 9:1-the first as interpreted by him in Matt. 15:24, the last as interpreted by him in Matt. 16:28.3

3. The thought of later editors of gospel MT.-The most complete expression of what was held at some time subsequent to the work of Matthew is found in that verse which, in any exhibit of the gospel sayings in parallelism, stands as the equivalent of Matt. 10:23, that is, Matt. 24: 14,4 "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a testimony unto all the nations; and then shall the end come." Apparently subsequent to the addi

1 Document P $40.

2 Document MK 7:27.

3 See pp. 88-92.

4 See the parallelism on p. 141.

tion of this saying to gospel MT, it was inserted in document MK as MK 13:10. Minor indications of the same editorial activity in gospel MT may be detected by comparing Matt. 24:9, "all the nations," with document MK 13:13, gospel LK 21:17, and gospel MT 10:22, "all men;" also by comparing gospel MT 10:18, "and to the Gentiles," with document MK 13:9 and gospel LK 21:13. It is seen, further, in the interpretation or application of one of the parables, "The kingdom of God shall be taken away from you, and shall be given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof," Matt. 21:43. The original application of the parable had been perceived without explication by those to whom it was directed, document MK 12:12; and this interpretation had already been taken over by the evangelist Matthew, Matt. 21:45.2

4. The thought of the evangelist Luke.-There is one indication only in the gospel LK record of the words of Jesus previous to his death as to the extent of the mission, and that wholly incidental and vague, namely, in the saying, "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled," Luke 21:24. By the phrase, "until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled," Luke probably means what Paul expresses in chaps. 9–11 of his letter to the Romans. But it is not important for present purposes to determine the thought, for it is a part of Luke's rewriting of the forecast of the destruction of Jerusalem recorded by document MK 13:14-20, and there is no equivalent for the phrase in the document.

5. The thought of the four documents.-It is a most noteworthy and significant fact that the four great documents, G, MK, P, and M, do not have within them, if the evidence has been correctly interpreted, any indications of the extent of the mission, except, of course, such implicit statements as were made by Jesus in parable or saying, as set forth in paragraph 1 above. That is to say, the explicit and definitive sayings on this subject, whether those that unmistakably limit the mission to Israel, or those that as clearly make it world-wide, are apparently all traceable to editorial activity, some of it early, some of it late, in the history of the gospel tradition.3

3 To this general assertion about the content of the documents on this theme, there may be opposed the appearance of an incidental reference to the scope of the

What is true of these four documents in the period previous to the death of Jesus holds also for their record of his post-resurrection sayings; that is to say, the two independent sayings about the mission credited to Jesus in his post-resurrection life seem to have come from sources outside these documents. But from whence do they come? By whom were they inserted in their present place in the gospels MT and LK? It seems very difficult, if not quite impossible, to believe that the Matthaean report of the Great Commission, Matt. 28: 18-20, was placed in the gospel MT by the evangelist who framed gospel MT from the documents G, MK, P, and M. For that person makes it clear from his interpretation of document MK 7:27 in gospel MT 15:24 that he regarded the mission of Jesus as limited to the house of Israel; and, by his construction of the saying in gospel MT 10:23 from document MK 13:30+ document MK 9:1 as interpreted in gospel MT 16:28, he testifies to his conviction as to the limits of the mission of the disciples after the death of Jesus. One having and so clearly expressing on his own account these views can hardly be held to have been in possession of the definition of Jesus as given in the Great Commission; he would not, it may reasonably be contended, set himself in so direct opposition to the plain words of Jesus.

It seems difficult to avoid the conclusion that gospel MT, as it left the hands of Matthew, did not contain the Great Commission of Matt. 28:18-20. How the gospel MT did close when completed by Matthew may not be asserted with confidence. Perhaps it closed with Matt. 28:8, that is, when the end of document MK had been reached. If, however, the non-Markan narrative in Matt. 27:62-66

mission in document MK 14:9, "Wheresoever the gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, that also which this woman hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her." But one ought probably to regard this saying as the product of that same tendency highly to exalt the benevolent attitude which apparently gave origin to the saying in document MK 9:41, and to the basis of judgment in the paragraph Matt. 25:31-46. These most notable estimates of the worth of simple acts of kindness and good-will toward the Christ and his representatives are examined at some length on pp. 235-45. Taken as a saying of Jesus, it is most difficult to understand what there is in this act of the woman that should call forth so extraordinary a measure of praise from Jesus. Further, one must take account of the fact that, if the saying is from Jesus, it is the sole definition of the extent of the mission previous to his death. To announce so significant a future in terms so incidental to another purpose seems hardly to accord with the customary wisdom, insight, and balance of Jesus.

was inserted by the original editor of gospel MT,' then its complement in Matt. 28:11-15 probably formed the conclusion to the gospel. It will be observed that it closes in a way to make it a suitable conclusion for the gospel. In that event, the narrative in Matt. 28:9, 10 was probably added by the same hand that supplemented the gospel by the addition of Matt. 28:16-20. For this conjecture there is more reason than simply the fact that Matt. 28:9, 10 is not derivable from document MK; for, it will be observed, this brief narrative has as its apparently central purpose the preparation of the mind to expect some event of unusual significance as about to take place in Galilee-"Go, tell my brethren that they depart into Galilee, and there shall they see me." The significant event is recorded by Matt. 28:16-20.

It seems true, indeed, that the key to the whole Matthaean conception of the resurrection and post-resurrection history is had when it is recognized that the act of resurrection and the activity after resurrection have one end and one end only, namely, the assuring that the disciples reach a certain point in Galilee, and there receive at the hands of Jesus a fitting commission for their future activity as the representatives of Jesus among men. This representation begins with the resurrection, at the scene of which the angelic being is stated to have been as solicitous that the disciples hasten at once to Galilee as he was to assure them of the primal fact of resurrection itself, Matt. 28:7. It continues in the following narrative, Matt. 28:9, 10, the difference being that here it is Jesus who turns the whole thought upon the desirability of immediate departure to Galilee. His appearance to the women seems secondary to the purpose of making certain that there be no failure to meet him in Galilee. These repeated exhortations of the angel and of Jesus are represented as effectual, for it is now said, Matt. 28:16, that "the eleven disciples went into Galilee, unto the mountain where Jesus

That it was inserted at that time seems suggested by the reference to "the watchers" in the rewriting of document MK 16:1-8 as gospel MT 28:1-8. It seems less likely that, if 27:62-66 and its complement 28:11-15 were added subsequently, the later editor would think it necessary to adapt the intervening narrative in 28:1-10 by the words of 28:4.

2 The opening words of the paragraph Matt. 28:11-15, "Now while they were going," follow quite as naturally upon Matt. 28:8 as upon Matt. 28:10.