Re: Matthew 28:19

From: Carl William Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Fri Jan 23 1998 - 13:09:09 EST


On Fri, 23 Jan 1998, Scott Schreiber wrote:
> >And in this gospel of Matthew,
> >which is so heavily charged with first-century Jewish, even Pharisaic,
> >perspectives on learning and the authority of the teacher and the distinct
> >status of the apprentice who sits at the feet of the rabbi, the notion of
> >"make disciples" means considerable more than "turn them into
> >Christians"--it means "transform them into intense students of what Jesus
> >said and deed who will not only transmit the rabbi's lore but also act it
> >out in their lives." More or less ... (but more rather than less).
>
> I think we agree here. I took the verb "disciple" to mean to affect this
> intense transformation through specific, detailed instruction, which would
> include as part of it, the baptism and teaching mentioned by Jesus in the
> next phrase. Would you agree?
 
Yes indeed. I'm sorry--I didn't realize you were using "disciple" that
way; I'm one of those old-fashioned people who aren't used to and don't
really much like the coining of new verbs out of nouns in English when
there are verbs ready to hand in the language already. I think "make
disciples" is both intelligible and powerful language already, while
"disciple" as a verb is likely to communicate only to those who've already
added it to their vocabulary.

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University
One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO, USA 63130
(314) 935-4018
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cwc@oui.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat Apr 20 2002 - 15:38:59 EDT