by John Piper
The Use of Panta ta ethnin the New Testament
Our immediate concern is with the meaning of panta ta ethn in Matthew 28:19: “Go and make disciples of all nations.” Since this is such a crucial phrase in the understanding of missions, and since it is tossed about as a Greek phrase today even in nontechnical writings, it is important to make all the uses of it readily accessible for the non-Greek reader to consider. Therefore, the following discussion provides all the texts in which the combination of pas (“all”) and ethns (“nation/Gentile”) occur in the New Testament, either in the singular (“every nation”) or plural (“all nations/ Gentiles”). The different forms of pan, panta, pasin, and pantn are simply changes in the grammatical case of the same word to agree with the various forms of the noun ethns (ethn, ethnesin).
Matthew 24:9—“You will be hated by pantn ton ethnn for my name’s sake.”
Matthew 24:14 (= Mark 13:10)—“This gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to pasin tois ethnesin, and then the end will come.”
Matthew 25:32—“Before him will be gathered panta ta ethn, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.” (This context seems to demand the meaning
“Gentile individuals,” not people groups, because it says that Jesus will “separate people from one another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.” This is a reference to individuals who are being judged as the “cursed” and the “righteous” who enter hell or eternal life. Cf. verses 41, 46.)
Matthew 28:19—“Make disciples of panta ta ethn.”
Mark 11:17—“My house shall be called a house of prayer for pasin tois ethnesin.” (This is a quote from Isaiah 56:7. The Hebrew phrase behind pasin tois ethnesin is lekol ha‘ammim, which has to mean “all peoples” rather than “all people.”)
Luke 12:29–30—“Do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. For panta ta ethn of the world seek after these things.”
Luke 21:24—“They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among ta ethne panta.” (This warning echoes the words of Ezekiel 32:9, where the corresponding Hebrew word is goyim, which means “nations” or “people groups.” See also Deuteronomy 28:64.)
Luke 24:47—“Repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to panta ta ethn, beginning from Jerusalem.”
Acts 2:5—“Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from pantos ethnous under heaven.” (This must clearly refer to people groups rather than individuals. The reference is to various ethnic or national groups from which the diaspora Jews had come to Jerusalem.)
Acts 10:35—“In panti ethnei anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.” (Again, this must be a reference to people groups or nations, not to individual Gentiles, because the individuals who fear God are “in every nation.”)
Acts 14:16—“In past generations he allowed panta ta ethn to walk in their own ways.”
Acts 15:16–17—“I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen . . . that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord, and panta ta ethn upon whom is called my name upon them.” (I render this verse with this awkwardly literal translation simply to highlight the fact that this is a quotation from Amos 9:12, which in Greek follows the Hebrew with similar literalness. Again, the Hebrew word behind ethn is goyim, which means “nations” or “people groups.”)
Acts 17:26—“And he made from one man pan ethnos of mankind to live on all the face of the earth.” (As with Acts 2:5 and 10:35, this is a reference to every people group rather than to individuals because it says that every nation is made up “of mankind.” It would not make sense to say that every individual Gentile was made up “of mankind.” Nor does the suggestion of some that it means “the whole human race” fit the meaning of ethnos or the context.)13
Romans 1:5—“We have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among pasin tois ethnesin.”
Galatians 3:8—“And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘In you shall panta ta ethn be blessed.’” (This is a quote from Genesis 12:3 that clearly refers to people groups. The corresponding Hebrew phrase, kol mishpehot, means “all families.” See discussion below on Genesis 12:3 for more concerning Paul’s translation.)
2 Timothy 4:17—“But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and panta ta ethn might hear it.”
Revelation 12:5—“She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule panta ta ethn with a rod of iron.” (Cf. Psalm 2:9. The Old Testament allusion makes it likely that the Old Testament reference to nations in Psalm 2:8 is intended here as well.)
Revelation 15:4—“Who shall not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. Panta ta ethn will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.” (Cf. Psalm 86:9; 85:9 LXX.14 Again, the Old Testament allusion suggests a corporate understanding of nations coming to worship the Lord.)
Out of these eighteen uses of panta ta ethn (or its variant), only the one in Matthew 25:32 seems to demand the meaning “Gentile individuals.” (See the comments above on that verse.) Three others demand the people-group meaning on the basis of the context (Acts 2:5; 10:35; 17:26). Six others require the people-group meaning on the basis of the Old Testament connection (Mark 11:17; Luke 21:24; Acts 15:17; Gal. 3:8; Rev. 12:5; 15:4). The remaining eight uses (Matt. 24:9; 24:14; 28:19; Luke 12:30; 24:47; Acts 14:16; Rom. 1:5; 2 Tim. 4:17) could go either way.
What can we conclude so far concerning the meaning of panta ta ethn in Matthew 28:19 and its wider missionary significance?
The singular use of ethnos in the New Testament always refers to a people group. The plural use of ethnos sometimes must be a people group and sometimes must refer to Gentile individuals but usually can go either way. The phrase panta ta ethn must refer to Gentile individuals only once but must refer to people groups nine times. The remaining eight uses may refer to people groups. The combination of these results suggests that the meaning of panta ta ethn leans heavily in the direction of “all the nations (people groups).” It cannot be said with certainty that this phrase always carries this meaning wherever it is used, but it is far more likely that it does in view of what we have seen so far.
This likelihood increases even more when we realize that the phrase panta ta ethn occurs in the Greek Old Testament nearly one hundred times and virtually never carries the meaning “Gentile individuals” but always carries the meaning “all the nations” in the sense of people groups outside Israel.15 That the New Testament vision for missions has this focus will appear even more probable when we examine the Old Testament background.
The Old Testament Hope
The Old Testament is replete with promises and expectations that God would one day be worshiped by people from all the nations of the world. These promises form the explicit foundation of New Testament missionary vision.
All the Families of the Earth Will Be Blessed
Foundational for the missionary vision of the New Testament was the promise that God made to Abram in Genesis 12:1–3:
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
This promise for universal blessing to the “families” of the earth is essentially repeated in Genesis 18:18; 22:18; 26:4; 28:14.
In 12:3 and 28:14, the Hebrew phrase for “all the families” (kol mish-pehot) is rendered in the Greek Old Testament by pasai hai phylai. The word phylai means “tribes” in most contexts. But mishpahah can be and usually is smaller than a tribe.16 Fo
r example, when Achan sinned, Israel is examined in decreasing order of size: first by tribe, then by mishpahah (“family”), then by household (Josh. 7:14).
So the blessing of Abraham is intended by God to reach to fairly small groupings of people. We need not define these groups with precision in order to feel the impact of this promise. The other three repetitions of this Abrahamic promise in Genesis use the phrase “all the nations” (Hebrew: kol goye), which the Septuagint translates with the familiar panta ta ethn in each case (18:18; 22:18; 26:4). This again strongly suggests that the term panta ta ethn in missionary contexts refers to people groups rather than to Gentile individuals.
The New Testament explicitly cites this particular Abrahamic promise twice. In Acts 3:25, Peter says to the Jewish crowd, “You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’” The Greek phrase in Acts 3:25 for “all the families” is pasai hai patriai. This is an independent translation of Genesis 12:3, differing from both the Greek Old Testament (pasai hai phylai) and the way Paul translates it in Galatians 3:8 (panta ta ethn).17 But by choosing another word that refers to people groups (patriai), the writer confirms that the promise was understood in the early church in terms of people groups, not in terms of Gentile individuals. Patria can be a subgroup of a tribe or more generally a clan or tribe.
The other New Testament quotation of the Abrahamic promise is in Galatians 3:6–8:
Just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness?” . . . Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles [ta ethn] by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations [panta ta ethn] be blessed.”
Interestingly, all English versions translate the word ethn differently in its two uses in verse 8: in the first case, “Gentiles,” and in the next, “nations.”
One could try to argue that Paul’s use of the promise to support the justification of individual Gentiles means that he did not see people groups in the Abrahamic promise, since it is individuals who are justified. But that is not a necessary conclusion. More likely is the possibility that Paul recognized the Old Testament meaning of panta ta ethn in Genesis 18:18 (the closest Old Testament parallel) and drew the inference that individual Gentiles are necessarily implied. So the English versions are correct to preserve the two meanings in the two uses of ethn in Galatians 3:8.
Paul’s use of the promise warns us not to get so swept up into people-group thinking that we forget that the “blessing of Abraham” is indeed experienced by individuals, or not at all.
What we may conclude from the wording of Genesis 12:3 and its use in the New Testament is that God’s purpose for the world is that the blessing of Abraham, namely, the salvation achieved through Jesus Christ, the seed of Abraham, would reach to all the ethnic people groups of the world. This would happen as people in each group put their faith in Christ and thus become “sons of Abraham” (Gal. 3:7) and heirs of the promise (Gal. 3:29). This event of individual salvation as persons trust Christ will happen among “all the nations.” The size and makeup of the nations or people groups referred to in this promise and its New Testament usage are not precise. But the words point to fairly small groupings, since the reference to “all the nations” in Genesis 18:18 (= Gal. 3:8) is an echo of “all the families” in Genesis 12:3.
The smallness of the people groups envisioned in the Old Testament hope is brought out again by the phrase “families of the nations” in Psalms 22:27 (21:28 LXX) and 96:7 (95:7 LXX).
All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you. For kingship belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations.
Psalm 22:27–28
The phrase “all the families of the nations” is pasai hai patriai ton ethnon. So the hope in view is not just that “all the nations” (panta ta ethne) would respond to the truth and worship God but that even smaller groupings, “all the families of the nations,” would. “Family” does not carry our modern meaning of nuclear family but something more like clan.18 This will be confirmed when we look at the hope expressed in Revelation 5:9, where worshipers have been redeemed not only from every “nation” (ethnous) but also from every “tribe” (phyles).
The Hope of the Nations
One of the best ways to discern the scope of the Great Commission as Jesus gave it and the apostles pursued it is to immerse ourselves in the atmosphere of hope that they felt in reading their Bible, the Old Testament. One overwhelming aspect of this hope is its expectation that the truth of God would reach to all the people groups of the world and that these groups would come and worship the true God. This hope was expressed in people-group terminology again and again (peoples, nations, tribes, families, etc.). Here is a sampling from the Psalms and Isaiah of the kind of hope that set the stage for Jesus’ Great Commission. The texts fall into four categories of exhortation, promise, prayers, and plans.
“DECLARE HIS GLORY AMONG THE NATIONS!”
The first category of texts expressing the hope of the nations is a collection of exhortations that God’s glory be declared and praised among the nations and by the nations.
Sing praises to the Lord, who sits enthroned in Zion! Tell among the peoples his deeds!
Psalm 9:11
Clap your hands, all peoples! Shout to God with loud songs of joy!
Psalm 47:1
Bless our God, O peoples; let the sound of his praise be heard.
Psalm 66:8
Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples!
Psalm 96:3
Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength! . . . Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns! Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity.”
Psalm 96:7, 10
Oh give thanks to the Lord; call upon his name; make known his deeds among the peoples!
Psalm 105:1
Praise the Lord, all nations! Extol him, all peoples!
Psalm 117:1
And you will say in that day: “Give thanks to the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted.
Isaiah 12:4
Draw near, O nations, to hear, and give attention, O peoples! Let the earth hear, and all that fills it; the world, and all that comes from it.
Isaiah 34:1
“NATIONS SHALL COME TO YOUR LIGHT!”
The second category of texts expressing the hope of the nations is a collection of promises that the nations will one day worship the true God.
I will make the nations your heritage.
Psalm 2:8; cf. 111:6
I will cause your name to be remembered in all generations; therefore nations will praise you19 forever and ever.
Psalm 45:17
The princes of the peoples gather as the people of the God of Abraham.
For the shields of the earth belong to God; he is highly exalted!
Psalm 47:9
All the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name.
Psalm 86:9
The Lord records as he registers the peoples, “This one was born there.”
Psalm 87:6
Nations will fear the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth will fear your glory.
Psalm 102:15
Peoples gather together, and kingdoms, to worship the Lord.
Psalm 102:22
He has shown his people the power of his works, in giving them the inheritance of the nations.
Psalm 111:6
In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.
Isaiah 11:10
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On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich foods, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations.
Isaiah 25:6–7
[The Lord] says: “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
Isaiah 49:6
My righteousness draws near, my salvation has gone out, and my arms will judge the peoples; the coastlands hope for me, and for my arm they wait.
Isaiah 51:5
The Lord has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.
Isaiah 52:10
So shall [my Servant] sprinkle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths because of him; for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand.
Isaiah 52:15
Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know, and a nation that did not know you shall run to you, because of the Lord your God, and of the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you.
Isaiah 55:5
These I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.
Isaiah 56:7
And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.
Isaiah 60:3
For I know their works and their thoughts, and the time is coming to gather all nations and tongues. And they shall come and shall see my glory.
Isaiah 66:18
The time is coming to gather all nations and tongues. And they shall come and shall see my glory, and I will set a sign among them. And from them I will send survivors to the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, who draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, to the coastlands afar off, that have not heard my fame or seen my glory. And they shall declare my glory among the nations.
