Context: In the Great Commission, the risen Christ commands His disciples: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." This is the climactic disclosure of the divine name in its fullest form — not a single word but a triune identity. The singular "name" (τὸ ὄνομα, not "names") applied to three Persons reveals that the one God who declared "I AM" at the bush now discloses Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This text stands at the culmination of Jesus' earthly ministry and inaugurates the global mission under the full revelation of God's identity.
Hebrew/Greek Key Terms:
OT-to-OT Development: The OT contains intimations of plurality within the divine identity that prepare for the trinitarian disclosure. God speaks in plural self-reference: "Let us make man in our image" (Genesis 1:26); "Who will go for us?" (Isaiah 6:8). The Angel of the LORD is simultaneously identified with YHWH and distinguished from Him (Genesis 16:7-13; 22:11-18; Exodus 3:2-6). The Spirit of God appears as a distinct agent — hovering over creation (Genesis 1:2), empowering judges and kings (Judges 3:10; 1 Samuel 16:13), and promised to be "poured out" eschatologically (Joel 2:28-29; Isaiah 44:3). Isaiah 48:16 presents a striking triadic statement: "And now the Lord GOD has sent me, and his Spirit." The Aaronic blessing (Numbers 6:24-26) invokes the name of YHWH in a threefold pattern. None of these texts articulate the Trinity explicitly, but they create the canonical soil in which the trinitarian revelation of Matthew 28:19 is planted — the full disclosure that the one divine name encompasses three Persons.
Connections:
Christological Connection: Matthew 28:19 represents the definitive moment in the Name of God trajectory when the divine name is revealed in its fullest and final form. The entire OT progression — YHWH at the bush, compound names revealing character, the name dwelling in the sanctuary, prophetic anticipation of universal name-knowledge — converges here in the triune name.
The Christological significance is inseparable from the trinitarian structure. When Jesus commands baptism "in the name" (singular) "of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit," He places Himself within the divine identity. The Son shares the one divine name with the Father and the Spirit. This is not the addition of new divine beings to Israel's monotheism but the full disclosure of what the one name YHWH always contained. The God who revealed Himself as "I AM" now reveals that His self-existent being is eternally relational — Father, Son, and Spirit. Christ does not introduce a different God but reveals the God whose name was spoken at the burning bush in His complete trinitarian identity.
The escalation from Exodus 3 to Matthew 28 is breathtaking in scope. At Horeb, God revealed one name (YHWH) to one man (Moses) for one nation (Israel). At the Great Commission, the risen Christ reveals the triune name to His disciples for all nations. The name once too sacred for common speech is now the name into which every believer from every nation is baptized. The Deuteronomic centralization — one name dwelling in one place — gives way to the missionary mandate: the one triune name proclaimed and invoked everywhere, from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.
The connection to the Shema is critical. Deuteronomy 6:4 declares "The LORD our God, the LORD is one" (יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ יְהוָה אֶחָד). Matthew 28:19 does not contradict the Shema but fulfills it — the one God is Father, Son, and Spirit. The Hebrew word אֶחָד (ʾeḥād, "one") can denote a composite unity (as in Genesis 2:24: "they shall become one flesh"), and the trinitarian revelation shows that the divine "oneness" is a unity of three Persons sharing one name, one nature, one glory. Christ's inclusion within the divine name does not divide God's identity but discloses its eternal depth.
The already/not-yet dimension is embedded in the commission itself. Baptism "in the name" inaugurates believers into relationship with the triune God now — present access to the Father through the Son by the Spirit (Ephesians 2:18). But the full knowledge of the triune name awaits the consummation: "Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known" (1 Corinthians 13:12). The name into which we are baptized is the name that will be written on redeemed foreheads (Revelation 22:4) — the triune identity that will be known without mediation in the new creation.
ANTI-DEFAULT CHECK: The primary method is Longitudinal Theme — the divine name traced from YHWH (singular) through progressive OT intimations of plurality to the full trinitarian disclosure. Redemptive-Historical Progression marks this as the decisive stage where the name-revelation reaches its fullest form. This is not typology — there is no OT type that prefigures the trinitarian name. Nor is it primarily Promise-Fulfillment, though it does fulfill the prophetic expectation of universal name-knowledge (Malachi 1:11). The connection is thematic: the one name progressively disclosed throughout the OT is now revealed in its ultimate trinitarian depth.
Connection Method(s): Longitudinal Theme (primary) — the divine name, traced from the singular YHWH through OT hints of plurality, reaches its fullest disclosure as the triune name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Redemptive-Historical Progression — marks the definitive stage of name-revelation at the threshold of the church age, commissioning the global proclamation of the triune name. Promise-Fulfillment (secondary) — fulfills the prophetic vision of God's name being "great among the nations" (Malachi 1:11) through baptismal proclamation to all peoples.
Trajectory Table: 105 - Name of God (Revelation of Divine Character)