Objection · Case 04 · The Trinity
Didn’t Eusebius quote Matthew 28:19 without “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,” suggesting the Trinitarian wording was added later?
One objection from the free evidence repository at apologetics.pro.
Response
In several of his works Eusebius quotes the verse in a short form, “make disciples of all nations in my name,” and some critics take that as evidence the fuller wording is a later insertion. The manuscript evidence points the other way: every surviving Greek manuscript of Matthew, and every early translation, carries the full formula, and Eusebius himself quotes the full form in other writings. The Didache, a church manual usually dated around AD 100, already directs baptism “into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” (chapter 7). The short form is best read as Eusebius abbreviating a text he knew, not as a window onto a different original.
About this exhibit
This objection is to One name shared by three, Matthew 28:19.
Jesus commands baptism into the single “name” of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Note the singular word name, joined to three who are named.
Under Claim 06: The New Testament shows Father, Son, and Spirit as distinct from one another, speaking to and sending one another.