Missionary Matthew: Matthew 28: 16-20 As Summary of the Gospel‪.‬

Robert Smith has ranged widely over the New Testament, authoring a book on the resurrection stories, commentaries on Acts, Hebrews, Matthew, and Revelation, (1) and numerous articles. I hope in this article to pick up some of his ideas and extend them, in a manner that I hope he approves--even when I at times argue against one of his interpretations. I can think of no better way to recognize a friend, a colleague over many years, and an insightful interpreter of the New Testament. My aim here is to extend and, in part, correct Smith's interpretation of the conclusion of Matthew's Gospel by arguing that the conclusion is the goal toward which the entire text tends, designed to pick up earlier motifs of the Gospel, thus making the entire Gospel a missionary text.