The Matthew 28:19 Conundrum: Later Addition?

In this post we are going to be looking at one of the most used arguments that Christians use to prove the “Trinity” and why this specific bible verse is more thank likely a later addition to the biblical text and not actually a verbatim word-for-word saying from the prophet Isa “Jesus”.

Lets start with the verse in question, Matthew 28:19

• NIV: “19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,”
• KJV: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:”
• Wycliffe Bible: “Therefore go ye, and teach all folks, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost;”

This verse is used by many Christian and Catholic apologists for the proof/evidence of both the trinity and divinity of Isa “Jesus” and for unlearned Muslims can be a sticking point when having a conversation or debate. We have seen many apologists such as Sam Shouman using this verse quite aggressively as factual evidence for the trinity, however is this actually the case, or is there more than meets the eye.

Lets look at one piece of evidence from a Christian Scholar.

Dr. Peake a Biblical Scholar born in 1865 appears to have a different view, lets have a quick look with this excerpt from Wikipedia about his life.

“Arthur Peake was born in Leek on 24 November 1865 into a family of long-established Primitive Methodists, of which his father was a minister. He had four brothers and two sisters. The family moved several times during Arthur’s childhood, with longest stays at Leintwardine, from where Arthur attended Ludlow Grammar School, Stratford, where he studied at King Edward VI School in Stratford-upon-Avon, and King Henry VIII School, Coventry. There he won a classical scholarship to study at St John’s College, Oxford.

Arriving in Oxford in 1883, he studied the classics without great success for two years,[3] but then switched to the study of theology, in which he excelled, winning a first-class degree and a further scholarship. Although he formed at this time an intention to seek ordination in the Church of England, he was never ordained, remaining a Methodist layman for the rest of his life.”

From this we can see that he was in fact himself not only a Biblical Scholar but also a Methodist Christian, however in The Bible Commentary 1919 page 723: Dr. Peake makes it clear that: “The command to baptize into the threefold name is a late doctrinal expansion. Instead of the words baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost we should probably read simply-“into My Name.”

So why would a Christian biblical scholar hold this viewpoint? and what made him come to the reasoning that the text should read differently to the way that it is printed in todays Bibles.

Lets look at some more points.

• The Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics:
  • As to Matthew 28:19, it says: It is the central piece of evidence for the traditional (Trinitarian) view.  If it were undisputed, this would, of course, be decisive, but its trustworthiness is impugned on grounds of textual criticism, literary criticism and historical criticism. The same Encyclopaedia further states that: “The obvious explanation of the silence of the New Testament on the triune name, and the use of another (JESUS NAME) formula in Acts and Paul, is that this other formula was the earlier, and the triune formula is a later addition.”
• The Catholic Encyclopedia, II, page 263:
  • “The baptismal formula was changed from the name of Jesus Christ to the words Father, Son, and Holy Spirit by the Catholic Church in the second century.”
• The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, page 2637, Under “Baptism,” says:
  • “Matthew 28:19 in particular only canonizes a later ecclesiastical situation, that its universalism is contrary to the facts of early Christian history, and its Trinitarian formula (is) foreign to the mouth of Jesus.”
• Catholic Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger:
  • He makes this confession as to the origin of the chief Trinity text of Matthew 28:19. “The basic form of our (Matthew 28:19 Trinitarian) profession of faith took shape during the course of the second and third centuries in connection with the ceremony of baptism. So far as its place of origin is concerned, the text (Matthew 28:19) came from the city of Rome.” The Trinity baptism and text of Matthew 28:19 therefore did not originate from the original Church that started in Jerusalem around AD 33. It was rather as the evidence proves a later invention of Roman Catholicism completely fabricated. Very few know about these historical facts.

With these few points, we can see that many Biblical Scholars and Christians and even a Catholic Cardinal who is extremely well known all agree that the Triune formula was a later addition between the second and third centaury and was more than likely not something that was stated verbatim by Isa “Jesus”

So what does this mean?

Well in fact this completely wipes out the possibility of being able to use this passage as evidence/proof of the Trinity and the Divinity of Isa “Jesus”. We actually see there are more historical forces and events at play that led to the verse found in Mathew being the verse we read today in the Bible. Any well learned Christian should do well to do their research on biblical verses when we as Muslims know there to me many contradictions and falsely attributed words to Isa “Jesus”.

Conclusion: The verse in Matthew was a later addition added over 2 centuries after the events that took place and was more of a doctrinal addition to the bible to allow for ceremonial creation and probably give the triune doctrine more of a political push back in the early days of the Roman Catholic church.

I hope you enjoyed this post and have been able to learn something you may not have known before. As always please leave your comments and questions, and I will answer these when I can. Please feel free to check out our other posts and head over to our YouTube Channel for more content.