Creatures, not Persons?

[KatharineCruick]

In Mark 16:15, it says that Jesus commissioned the apostles to spread the gospel to all creatures In the translation, why would it just not simply say, to all people? Creatures encompasses living beyond just homo sapiens. Besides people of all nations, who or what else was supposed to hear the Word? Thank you.

 

[Fr.Charles_Grondin]

Some translate this as “all creation” rather than “all creatures.” Either way it’s an expression similar to telling them to go preach to “all the world.” It would have been clearly understood as referring to people. It stands in contrast to Jesus’ command during his earthly ministry for the disciples to avoid non-Jewish populations (Matthew 10:5-6). It was the beginning of the universal mission of the Church.
While in the modern world we would understand “creatures” to include animals, we can’t superimpose our usage on another time and culture. Some note that the use of “creatures” here may have had some symbolic word play with Jewish expressions for Gentiles. However, that is not considered definitive.
The clearest sign of Jesus’ meaning is that Jesus follows up this command by talking about those who will be converted by this preaching, clearly he’s talking about human beings.