All nations

In the Great Commission Jesus instructs the disciples to "make disciples of all nations, ... teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you" (Matt. 28:19-20). This implies that Jesus' teaching will spread among the nations and will be understood and obeyed. But that means that His teaching has to become available to these nations and they speak thousands of different languages. Therefore, when Jesus gave the Great Commission it implied that His followers eventually would have to translate His teaching into many different languages. Translation of Jesus' teaching (and, by implication, the message of the whole Bible) plays a part in the total process of fulfilling the Great Commission.

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 ethne 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 ethne leans heavily in the direction of “all the nations (people groups).”

In Genesis12:3 and 28:14 the Hebrew phrase for “all the families” (kol mishpahot) is rendered in the Greek Old Testament by pasai hai phulai. The word phulai means “tribes” in most contexts. But mishpaha can be, and usually is, smaller than a tribe. For example when Achan sinned, Israel is examined in decreasing order of size: first by tribe, then by mishpaha (family), then by household (Josh 7:14). So the blessing of Abraham is intended by God to reach to fairly small groupings of people.

The globe has been circumnavigated by God’s messengers, but there remain untouched areas geographically. The annual discovery of previously unknown languages elongates the noble task of getting the message into all the world’s tongues. And by no means has the gospel reached all the earth’s “peoples,” regardless of how they are defined.