NT Text: Matthew 28:18-20 — "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me… make disciples of all nations… And surely I am with you always, even to the end of the age."
OT Source(s):
Source: Anchor-Text Network — Genesis 1:28 (Beale, The Unfolding of the Old Testament in the New Testament; Köstenberger & O'Brien, Salvation to the Ends of the Earth)
Reference Type: Allusion
Connection Method(s): Typology + Redemptive-Historical Progression
Anchor Text: Gen 1:28 — The Adamic Commission
Significance: The Great Commission is the Adamic Commission reissued by the risen Last Adam. The threefold structure of Matthew 28:18-20 deliberately re-speaks Genesis 1:28: (a) "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me" fulfills the dominion / subdue clause now consummated in the exalted Christ (also echoing the universal authority given to the Son of Man in Dan 7:14); (b) "make disciples of all nations" fulfills the be fruitful and multiply / fill the earth clause, now realized spiritually through disciple-making rather than mere biological increase; (c) "I am with you always" re-voices the divine-presence formula that accompanied every patriarchal recommissioning (Gen 26:3, 24; 28:15; Exod 3:12) and that itself flows from the blessing-presence of the original commission. The Text Form is allusive rather than verbatim — there is no citation formula — but the threefold echo is recognized by Beale, Wright, and Köstenberger as the NT's clearest restatement of the creation mandate. Christ the Last Adam succeeds where every prior Adam-figure failed, and through him the commission becomes the church's mission: this is the most important NT use of Gen 1:28 in the canon (Beale's "indirect typological fulfillment").