Matthew 28 · a question people ask
Jesus says, "baptizing them" (28:19). Who is to be baptized?
First, what the chapter says: "Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you." (28:19-20). Christians who share the same beliefs read who is to be baptized in two main ways, each resting on its verses, and these notes don't choose between them. Both agree that Jesus commanded it, "baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (28:19), with teaching: "teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you" (28:20). These notes don't take up how baptism is done or with how much water, or what place it has in salvation.
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
Those who believe and are taught
Those who read it this way note that Jesus says "make disciples" (28:19) and "teaching them" (28:20). They set beside it what Acts tells: "Then those who gladly received his word were baptized" (Acts 2:41), and "when they believed … they were baptized, both men and women" (Acts 8:12).
Matthew 28:19-20 · Acts 2:41 · Acts 8:12
Believers and their households, children with them
Those who read it this way note Peter's words, "For the promise is to you and to your children" (Acts 2:39), and the households baptized in Acts: "When she and her household were baptized" (Acts 16:15), and the jailer "was immediately baptized, he and all his household" (Acts 16:33). Paul writes, "I also baptized the household of Stephanas" (1 Corinthians 1:16). And Colossians says, "In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands" (Colossians 2:11), "having been buried with him in baptism" (Colossians 2:12).
Acts 2:39 · Acts 16:15 · Acts 16:33 · 1 Corinthians 1:16 · Colossians 2:11-12
The verses
“Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.”