Matthew Chapter 28 verse 16 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerses 16-20. - Our Lord appears to the disciples in Galilee, and gives them a commission to teach and baptize. (Peculiar to St. Matthew; but comp. Mark 16:15-18.) Verse 16. - Then the eleven disciples. There is no note of time in the original, which gives merely, But the eleven, etc. The meeting here narrated took place on some day after the first Easter week. The number "eleven" shows the loss of one of the sacred college, whose complement was not filled up till just before Pentecost (Acts 1:15-26). Went away into Galilee. St. Matthew takes pains to show the exact fulfilment of Christ's very special injunction and promise concerning Galilee (see vers. 7, 10, and notes there, and Matthew 26:32). The evangelist's object being to set forth Christ in his character as King and Lawgiver, he puts aside all other incidents in order to give prominence to this appearance, where Jesus announces his supreme authority (ver. 18), gives the commission to his apostles, and promises his perpetual presence (vers. 19, 20). Into a mountain (τὸ ὄρος, the mountain), where (οῦ instead of οῖ) Jesus had appointed them. We do not know the locality intended, though it must have been some spot familiar to the disciples, and was probably plainly designated at the time when Christ appointed the meeting. Some have fixed on Tabor as the scene of this revelation, others on the Mount of Beatitudes; but where nothing is stated it is best to lay aside conjecture and accept the designed indefiniteness. Many commentators have determined that this appearance on the Galilaean mountain was that mentioned by St. Paul (1 Corinthians 15:6), as manifested to five hundred brethren at once. This is a mere conjecture, probable, but not certain. If it was the case, we must consider that St. Matthew singles out the eleven apostles as the most eminent among the company, and those to whom the Lord specially addressed the commission which he mentions. Of the five hundred brethren, St. Paul, writing some twenty years or more after this time, testifies that the greater number were still alive, only some having "fallen asleep." There never was, indeed, any historical fact the authenticity of which was more remarkably and irrefragably certified than the resurrection of Christ.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(16) Then the eleven disciples.--The writer passes over, for some reason which we cannot now discover, all the intermediate appearances, and passes on at once to that which connected itself with the mission and work of the Apostles, and through them of the universal Church.Into a mountain.--Better, to the mountain. The words imply some more definite announcement than that of Matthew 28:7; Matthew 28:10, and therefore, probably, some intermediate meeting. We may think of the mountain as being one that had been the scene of former meetings between the Master and His disciples. They had seen Him there before, in the body of His humiliation. They were now to see Him in the body of His glory. (Comp. Philippians 3:21.)