Recently, I began seeing posts on social media sharing a public talk from Dawn Hutchings, a woman “pastor” of Holy Cross Lutheran Church near Toronto that identifies itself as “a small progressive Christian community” and “a place for seekers of a Christianity that is unconstrained by church dogma, liberated by reason and imagination, and nourished by our passion for peace, justice, and diversity.”¹https://pastordawn.com/about/ In her talk, Hutchings claims that the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20) is not only a fraudulent later addition to Matthew’s gospel but is, in fact, responsible for systemic racism and a legacy of white supremacy. While Hutchings actually delivered the talk over a year ago at the time of this writing, it is currently receiving renewed attention. So, how should Christians respond to these claims?

Hutchings, Eusebius, and the Great Commission

The “Great Commission” is the term used for Jesus’ final words in the gospel of Matthew where He sends out His Apostles to make disciples of all nations:

“And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age,'” (Matthew 28:18-20).

In Hutchings’s talk, she implies that this passage was maliciously added to Matthew’s gospel at or around the council of Nicaea. For example, she said:

“Here ends the gospel, not according to the anonymous gospel-storyteller which we call Matthew. No, no, I could not get out of a first year New Testament class and without learning about Eusebius, (265-339) an early Christian historian who quoted this text from Matthew and the trinitarian clause does not appear, suggesting to some that the text was altered. Could, the so-called ‘great commission’ have been added to the gospel by the Christian community sometime around 325 – to bring it into line with the brand spanking new Creed which you know as the Nicene Creed?”²https://pastordawn.com/2020/06/07/the-great-commission-birthed-white-supremacy-trinity-sunday-sermon/

We must first note that she is conflating two very distinct objections. One common critical objection, which I have dealt with elsewhere, is that the fourth-century Church historian Eusebius of Caesarea allegedly provides evidence that the Trinitarian formula within the Great Commission is a later addition. That erroneous claim is based on the fact that Eusebius sometimes summarized Jesus’ words in Matthew 28:19 as “baptizing them in my name” rather than fully quoting it as “in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” This argument ignores the fact that Eusebius’ elsewhere quotes the Trinitarian formula fully,³See, for example, Eusebius’ “Letter to the Church in Caesarea” but, more importantly for our context here, even the summarized form affirms the Great Commission passage as a genuine part of Matthew’s gospel. It does not in any way support Hutchings’s suggestion that the whole passage is a fourth-century invention.

The Authenticity of the Great Commission

Having said this, let’s answer her rhetorical question: could the great commission have been added to the gospel by the Christian community sometime around 325? No, actually, it could not. The evidence is overwhelming. First of all, the manuscripts are unanimous on this. There is no manuscript of Matthew that ends in any way other than the great commission. We have no objective reason to speculate that the gospel ever ended any other way. But beyond that, we also have a host of Christian writers from well before 325 who frequently quote the Great Commission. Let’s look at just a few examples. Way back in the second century, Irenaeus of Lyons wrote:

“That is the Spirit of whom the Lord declares, ‘For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.’ And again, giving to the disciples the power of regeneration unto God, He said to them, ‘Go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,'” (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, Book 3, Chapter 17, Section 1)⁴While Irenaeus doesn’t explicitly say he is quoting from Matthew, the source is obvious. He has already defended the exclusive authority of the four canonical gospels, and none of the others contain those words. What’s more, both biblical quotes in this passage are from Matthew. The first quote is Matthew 10:20, which is distinguishable from the parallel passage in Mark because only Matthew says “Spirit of your Father.” Mark says “Holy Spirit”. The second quote is from Matthew 28:19, the Great Commission.

Shortly afterward, Tertullian would cite the passage multiple times, writing things like:

“Accordingly, after one of [the twelve apostles] had been struck off, He commanded the eleven others, on His departure to the Father, to go and teach all nations, who were to be baptized into the Father, and into the Son, and into the Holy Ghost,” (A Prescription Against Heretics, Chapter 20).⁵Once again, though Tertullian does not outright say he is quoting Matthew, his source is indisputable. He follows Matthew’s distinctive narrative even in mentioning the death of Judas followed by Jesus giving the Great Commission to His remaining disciples. At any rate, writing in the late second and early third century, he clearly knew the words of the Great Commission long before the fourth-century Countil of Nicaea in 325 AD.

Tertullian is writing on the opposite side of the Mediterranean from Irenaeus. He is on a different continent and even writing in a different language. He was also part of the Montanist sect rather than a member of the mainstream Christian movement. Yet, he too knows the great commission.

Shortly thereafter, over in Egypt, Origen of Alexandria would quote Matthew 28:20, citing it as a quote from “the gospels,” and correctly identifying it as words that Jesus said to His Apostles.⁶Origen, Against Celsus, Book 2, Chapter 9 Even more to point, the Great Commission is found in Origen’s commentary on the gospel of Matthew. There is no doubt Matthew already contained the passage in Origen’s day, long before 325.

Up in Italy, Hippolytus of Rome would write in the third century:

“[Jesus] gave this charge to the disciples after He rose from the dead: ‘Go ye and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.’ And by this He showed, that whosoever omitted any one of these, failed in glorifying God perfectly. For it is through this Trinity that the Father is glorified. For the Father willed, the Son did, the Spirit manifested. The whole Scriptures, then, proclaim this truth.” (Hippolytus of Rome, Against The Heresies of Noetus, Section 14).

It is worth noting that Hippolytus was part of a schism with the bishop of Rome and led a rival congregation. He had no reason to cooperate with some conspiracy to add the Great Commission to Matthew’s gospel. Yet, he quotes it right along with everyone else.

Meanwhile, back in Carthage, North Africa, Cyprian writes:

“For the Lord after His resurrection, sending His disciples, instructed and taught them in what manner they ought to baptize, saying, ‘All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.'” (Cyprian, Letter to Jubaianus, Concerning the Baptism of Heretics , Section 5)⁷Epistle LXXII in ANF, Vol. 5

Through the records of regional church councils of this time, we likewise see that other North African pastors knew and enthusiastically quoted the Great Commission:

“Lucius of Castra Galbæ said: Since the Lord in His Gospel said, ‘Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt should have lost its savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out of doors, and to be trodden under foot of men.’ And again, after His resurrection, sending His apostles, He gave them charge, saying, ‘All power is given unto me, in heaven and in earth. Go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.'” (Seventh Council of Carthage)

“Euchratius of Thenæ said: God and our Lord Jesus Christ, teaching the apostles with His own mouth, has entirely completed our faith, and the grace of baptism, and the rule of the ecclesiastical law, saying: ‘Go ye and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.'” (Seventh Council of Carthage)

All of this was long before the fourth-century Council of Nicaea. So no, it is not possible that the Christian community made up the Great Commission in 325 AD and added it to Matthew’s gospel. The Great Commission represents Matthew’s original ending and Jesus’ original words. To demean these words is to scoff at Christ Himself.

But is it racist?

Hutchings only challenged the passage’s authenticity as part of her larger point of claiming that the Great Commission is racist and contrary to the gospel. For example, she introduces the passage by saying:

“The prescribed reading for this day comes from the end of the Gospel According to Matthew, which was written by an anonymous gospel-storyteller that we call Matthew. This prescribed reading is known by the Church as ‘The Great Commission.’ I deliberately, did not read ‘The Great Commission’ and indeed, I doubt that I will ever again read The Great Commission and publicly claim it as ‘Gospel.’ Over the course of many years of study, I have come to believe that the so-called ‘Great Commission’ is anything but the ‘Gospel.’ Indeed, I have come to believe that this particular ending to the Gospel According to Matthew may be the source of the systemic racism which permeates, not just the Church, but also, all of the Western cultures and institutions”

She goes on to say:

“these words became the justification for The Doctrine of Discovery. In 1493, Pope Alexander VI (6th) issued the Papal Bull which would give license to European Christians to colonize the world.  The Church granted white European Christians the authority to claim, seize, conquer, and ‘Christianize’ any and all lands inhabited by people who were not Christian”

In these and other such words, she paints a picture of a world that has allegedly been turned into a racist dystopia by Jesus telling His disciples that the gospel is for all nations, that He wants people of every nation equally to be His disciples. If that seems quite backward to you, you’re not alone. Still, as you can see, she attempts to back it up by reasoning that, if people have ever abused Jesus’ words to falsely justify unbiblical political agendas, that must mean that Jesus’ words are bad.

The great commission sent the apostles (and all Christians after them) out to make disciples of people from all the ethnicities, nationalities, tribes, and language groups of the world. Making disciples is not oppressing, enslaving, or marginalizing. It unites us together in one baptism and under one teaching. Certainly, all disciples bow to CHRIST as our master and king, but we all do so equally right next to each other regardless of modern fictional categories like “race” or even legitimate categories like ethnicity, culture, or language. Indeed, if you look at the early Christian quotes I listed above, most of the champions of the great commission were from north Africa, not Europe! Christians did not see Jesus’ words as favoring one skin pigmentation or continental origin over another. They believed that the one faith, baptism, and teaching of Christ commanded in the Great Commission united all Christians into one universal church.

The Great Commission, as Jesus gave it, is not a source of racism. It is, in fact, the answer to it! As a disciple of Jesus, the ties that bind me to other disciples are far greater than those that bind me to blood relatives, members of my culture, or people who happen to physically resemble me in certain arbitrarily selected ways. A Christian who is a Palestinian Arab, or North Korean, or Kenyan, Haitian, Colombian, Brazilian, or Native North American, is more my brother than is a member of even my own nuclear family who is not Christ’s disciple. I learn that fact, in part, from Jesus’ words in Matthew 28:18-20. The Great Commission tells me that anyone from any nation is welcome to follow Jesus and become a disciple just as I am. Indeed, my own ethnic people according to the flesh (the people of the British Isles), never would have heard the gospel in the first place if this were not true! The diverse cultures of Europe that we clumsily lump together today as “white” received the gospel from Christians of other diverse cultures that we clumsily lump together today as “Asian,” “black,” and “middle eastern.” So no, the great commission is not the seed of racism. But, if we take Jesus’ words seriously, it can be the cure for it.