The Great Commission

Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.

He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned and these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. (Mar 16:15-18)

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The so called "Great Commission" of Jesus Christ, as given to His disciples/apostles before His returning to the right hand of the Father, and is the foundation of many Christian's beliefs as to what our Lord desires of those who follow Him.

The question here is:

Do we go the way of Mark's gospel or Matthew's gospel? In the book of Mark we see that the "gospel" is supposed to be "preached"and in Matthew's gospel we see:

Go ye therefore, and "teach" all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost "teaching" them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.  Mat (28:19-20)

The same event recorded by two of Jesus's 11 remaining disciples that are vastly different!

To "preach" (kērussō) means to herald (as a public crier) and to "teach" (mathēteuō) means to disciple, two vastly different things within the context of the texts.

The question here is: If both men were in the same place at the same time when Jesus spoke these words and heard two vastly different things, which one is correct and which is, at the very least, incomplete?

Now I believe with all of my soul and spirit that the scriptures that we have are the inspired word of God but I also believe that man has more than enough opportunity over the past two thousand years to corrupt the scriptures in more than a few ways.

First there are numerous divergences between the many passages duplicated within the Hebrew Bible itself—e.g., the parallels between Samuel-Kings and Chronicles.

Then there are the citations of the Old Testament to be found in the books of the Apocrypha and apocalyptic literature (works describing the intervention of God in history in cryptic terms), in the works of Philo and Josephus, in the New Testament, and in rabbinic and patristic (early Church Fathers) literature.

There are also rabbinic traditions about the text-critical activities of the scribes (soferim) in Second Temple times. These tell of divergent readings in Temple scrolls of the Pentateuch, of official “book corrector's” in Jerusalem, of textual emendations on the part of scribes, and of the utilization of sigla (signs or abbreviations) for marking suspect readings and disarranged verses.

The Samaritan Pentateuch and the pre-Masoretic versions of the Old Testament made directly from Hebrew originals are all replete with divergences from current Masoretic Bibles.

Finally, the scrolls from the Judaean desert, especially those from the caves of Qumrān, have provided, at least, illustrations of many of the scribal processes by which deviant texts came into being. The variants and their respective causes may be classified as follows: aurally conditioned, visual in origin, exegetical, and deliberate.

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Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: 

But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and as ye go, preach, saying,

The kingdom of heaven is at hand. 

(Mat 10:7)

There are basically two problems with the idea of "teaching over preaching" put forward by the Pharisees of our day, the "theologians":

The fist is that when Jesus Himself is recorded as using the word "teach" in scriptures (Mat 15:9, 28:19 - Luke 12:12 - John 14:26 - Rev 2:20) He always used the word didaskō (a prolonged (causative) form of a primary verb δάω daō (to learn); to teach (in the same broad application): - teach), but in Matthews account Jesus is recorded as having used the word mathēteuō which means both to become the disciple of one and or to make a disciple.

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Jesus's "Teaching" Verses

(Mat 5:19)  Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. (Luk 12:12)  For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say.

(Joh 14:26)  But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

(Rev 2:20)  Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.

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Jesus's "Preaching" Verses

(Mat 4:17)  From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

(Mat 10:7)  And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.

(Mat 10:27)  What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops.

(Luk 4:18-19)  The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. 

(Luk 4:43)  And he said unto them, I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also: for therefore am I sent.

(Luk 9:60)  Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.

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Now albeit I can't reconcile the difference between what both men heard and subsequently recorded within their writings, I can say with confidence that the Great Commission of Jesus was to preach about the kingdom of God, to preach the acceptable year of our Lord, to preach deliverance, and to preach what Jesus tells us in darkness from the rooftops.

In other words, to preach the good news (the gospel) and to preach what Holy Spirit teaches us, which is all things that we should say.

These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you.

But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as He hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him.

(1Jn 2:26-27)

Why is it then that we so often hear "bible teachers" proclaim that the body of Christ needs more teaching and less preaching?

Why is it that Jesus commanded that his disciples preach so many times throughout scriptures and not one time (save Mat 28) did He command His disciples to teach anyone anything?

Think About It, Pray About It, Receive the truth, and Be Blessed!