The Great Commission

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briankarman

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I have a friend who is of the apostolic faith and he told me that in the original Hebrew the commandment by our Lord to the apostles to baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit really only translates to baptize in my name. Meaning baptize in Jesus’ name. I’ve never heard of this and since I don’t know Hebrew I had no response. Please help. Thanks.
 
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briankarman:
I have a friend who is of the apostolic faith and he told me that in the original Hebrew the commandment by our Lord to the apostles to baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit really only translates to baptize in my name. Meaning baptize in Jesus’ name. I’ve never heard of this and since I don’t know Hebrew I had no response. Please help. Thanks.
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Welcome, briankarman

The original language of the gospels was Greek, not Hebrew.
 
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briankarman:
I have a friend who is of the apostolic faith and he told me that in the original Hebrew the commandment by our Lord to the apostles to baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit really only translates to baptize in my name. Meaning baptize in Jesus’ name. I’ve never heard of this and since I don’t know Hebrew I had no response. Please help. Thanks.
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Hmmmm…“in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” = “baptize in my name”. Every single tranlator in 2000 years blew it? I don’t think it’s too likely. Now I have heard pentecostal types say that the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is Jesus since their oneness doctrine means that the name of all three together is Jesus. That is probably where he was coming from.
 
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briankarman:
I have a friend who is of the apostolic faith and he told me that in the original Hebrew the commandment by our Lord to the apostles to baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit really only translates to baptize in my name. Meaning baptize in Jesus’ name. I’ve never heard of this and since I don’t know Hebrew I had no response. Please help. Thanks.
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When you say he is of the apostolic faith, what do you mean? What church does he belong to?
 
Jimmy,

Thanks for the welcome. You can tell I’m not a scripture scholar, I have trouble remembering which books of the bible were written in which language.

Thess.,
Good point about every translater saying that it’s the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but I’d still like to know what the original word(s) are from the original.

And I know that’s difficult because nobody has the original, the best we have is translations of translations.

Your point about the oneness doctrine has some weight, he does deny the Trinity.
 
"You can tell I’m not a scripture scholar, "

I’m guessing your friend isn’t either. By the way I’m not too up on the languages myself. Just enough to be dangerous. 🙂
 
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jimmy:
When you say he is of the apostolic faith, what do you mean? What church does he belong to?
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Jimmy et al,
I should have been more clear, but it’s not clear to me either. He called it an apostolic church, but I don’t have a real good handle on what he believes. I live in Wisconsin and this “church” or ecclessial communion is a small group that I will find out more about. I wish I had a better answer.
 
Those I run in to who baptize “in the name of Jesus” usually don’t believe the trinity and are oneness types.
 
For those who want the original words, here’s the Textus Receptus Greek and a literal, phrase for phrase, translation of the relevant part of the verse:

Mat 28:19πορευθεντες ουν μαθητευσατε παντα τα εθνη βαπτιζοντες αυτους εις το ονομα του πατρος και του υιου και του αγιου πνευματος

Hope you have a Greek font! If not, hope it’s clear enough anyway.

βαπτιζοντες αυτους - baptising them
εις το ονομα - in the name (of)
του πατρος - the Father
και του υιου - and the Son
και του αγιου πνευματος - and the Holy Spirit

I’ve just checked my Greek New Testament with the modern Nestle-Aland Greek text that takes into account all the manuscripts discovered more recently. The Greek is the same. In fact the footnotes give no variant readings at all for that verse, in any manuscripts.

Firstly this is Greek. Secondly, how is your friend managing to translate this as just the name of Jesus? The above gives a literal translation of the text and it is quite a stretch to say “the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit” means “Jesus”. Wonder how it can be justified.

I once heard someone from the United Pentecostal Churches say that this verse says “the name of…” and so, since “name” is singular it must refer to one person only. But that’s an argument from bad grammar. The morning he said that to me I’d been reading something that happened to contain a sentence along the lines of “Open Up in the name of the king and his government”. Something like that. There’s a grammatical term for using language in this way but I can’t remember what it is.
 
Your Oneness Pentecostal friend is flat-out wrong. All three names appear in the original Greek: Father (Pater), Son (Huios), and Holy Spirit (Pneuma). take him to the library or book store and show him a Greek translation.
 
In the Bible, the phrase, “in the name of,” answers the question: “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” (Matthew 21:23).

If my boss orders me to do something and I do it, I am acting in my boss’ name. Here are a couple examples from the Old Testament that use the phrase “in the name of”:In Deut 18:22, it says, “when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word which the LORD has not spoken.”

David sent some young men to say something to Nabal. In 1 Sam 25:9, it says, “When David’s young men came, they said all this to Nabal in the name of David; and then they waited.”

Anything done in the name of Jesus, is done in the name of the Father as well since Jesus came in his Father’s name (John 5:24). Therefore, the phrase “in the name of Jesus” means the same as “in the name of the Father, and of the Son (Jesus).” Further, since the Spirit was sent in Jesus’ name (John 14:26), if I am moved by the Spirit to do something (such as baptize), I do it (baptize) in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit because the Spirit acts in Jesus’ name, and Jesus acts in the Father’s name.
 
Thank you to all of you who helped out. It was great. I now have plenty of backing to confirm what I already believed. This is the first time I’ve started a thread and by the great answers I received I’m sure it won’t be my last. You guys are great!!
 
As asteroid noted, the United Pentecostal Church is the largest denomination to advocate that there is only one divine person, wearing three different hats. I believe there are a few other related splinter groups that also hold this position.

Most pentecostals have a more traditional understanding of the trinity. For instance, the largest denomination that would properly be considered pentecostal is the Assembly of God.

This idea is not a new one. The heresy is best-known from the second and third centuries, when it was known by several different names (all of these apply, but they are not necessarily identical):

Modalism - one person, three modes: like a man can be simultaneously a father, husband, and farmer
Sabellianism - after Sabellius, a modalist priest excommunicated by Pope Callistus I in 220
Patripassianism - this belief logically suggests that the Father (patris) was on the cross suffering
Monarchianism - from the monarchia, or unity, of God

Two of the big problems with this are 1) Jesus is apparently schizophrenic when he is praying to himself in the Garden of Gethsemene, or says that the Father is greater than I, and 2) As you see from the name Patripassianism, the Father apparently suffered and died on the cross.
 
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briankarman:
I have a friend who is of the apostolic faith and he told me that in the original Hebrew the commandment by our Lord to the apostles to baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit really only translates to baptize in my name.
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Who cares? Jesus spoke Aramaic.
 
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dirtydog:
Who cares? Jesus spoke Aramaic.
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dirtydog,

Are you saying my thread is useless? Or are you refering to my mistake that the gospel was in Hebrew? I guess you don’t subscribe to the saying, “There’s no such thing as a stupid question?”
 
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