All Nations

There’s been a good bit of discussion recently asking whether the Jews are included in the “all nations” to which Jesus sends His disciples.  Is Matthew suggesting that Jesus has abandoned the Jewish mission, and now turns to the Gentiles?  Or are the Jews included among the ethne ?

I think the latter.  After all, Matthew has gone to some lenths in the course of his gospel, and especially in his passion narratives, to show that the Jews have lost their distinctiveness and have become one of the nations.

It begins with Herod, a new Pharaoh.  It continues through all the allusions to Psalm 2 in the Passion narratives, all the “gathering together” and “plotting” that occupies the chief priests and elders.  ”Why are the nations in an uproar, and why do the peoples imagine a vain thing?” is not a bad summary of Matthew’s passion narrative.  So when Jesus instructs His disciples to disciple the nations, the Jews are among them.