I’m going to go with the weight of agreement over centuries of translation by individuals and groups of scholars who are way smarter than me on this one.

But I could be wrong, of course.

And if I am, while I would concede that there weren’t some who worshipped and some who didn’t (due to their doubt), still…I think my main point remains essentially intact in that it would then appear that doubt and faith lived quite well together in the original 11 disciples in this critical moment of commissioning…and Jesus was not deterred by it one bit.

So I’m ok either way. But I’m sticking with the larger body of scholarship for now.

Thanks for pitching in on this, Joe!

Thanks, good teachng

I think this is the distinction I am trying to address here (and everywhere else, frankly) when it comes to showing up vs. “getting it” (meaning, having the correct understanding of some set of doctrines, the certainty of truth regarding some issue of faith). The disciples never really did “get it” completely, as far as I can tell…not even after the day of Pentecost (still fought over doctrinal issues, didn’t they?). But they kept showing up, just like they did that day on the mount above Galilee…just like Jesus asked them to.

Our correct understanding may or may not come on every issue, but our faith in Christ is demonstrated by our willingness to obey, to show up, to DO…even when we don’t really “get it” or understand. How we live is the new apologetic (as Todd Hunter suggests). It does not mean we don’t need verbal proclamation or correct doctrine (although we’ll only be totally correct to those who agree with us, honestly…we’ll always have our critics outside that circle). It just means that these formerly persuasive things are not at all persuasive these days without a corresponding life lived in cooperation with Jesus the King. That kind of life is powerfully persuasive and compelling to those seeking God.

I’m not really a bible scholar, either, but this passage is disturbing in it’s simple and clear message…in any translation, frankly. The contrast in verses 16 and 17 is clearly between those who “worshipped” and those who didn’t, and the “but some doubted” is the defining phrase that separates the two groups. This would seem to imply that the doubt was about whether they should (or could) worship Jesus in that moment, as Peterson’s translation clearly suggests (“some held back”). They may well have had doubts about themselves, as Peterson also suggests in his translation, but the worship issue is the biggee, even for him:

“The moment they saw him they worshiped him. Some, though, held back, not sure about worship, about risking themselves totally.”

I would submit the uncertainty about “risking themselves totally” might be about the risk involved for a Jew to worship anyone but God. But whatever that second phrase means (included only in Peterson’s translation, as far as I can tell, which he usually does to clarify intention), it is secondary to the initial and primary uncertainty about whether they should or could worship Jesus in that moment.

Now…whether that meant they doubted the deity of Christ, I cannot say with any certainty. But it seems reasonable to conclude that this is the issue, since if one were convinced that Jesus was the one and only God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob, one would be compelled to worship…Jew or not. Some of the eleven were so compelled, and some weren’t. I think it’s fair to conclude that those who weren’t had to have issue with whether or not Jesus was, as John put it in the first chapter of his Gospel account, “The Word become flesh.”

The undeniable truth in these verses is that some of them doubted something, and some of them didn’t worship Jesus. Oh…and Jesus included the doubters in the mission anyway. They figured it out later, of course, but I find it very encouraging that there wasn’t immediate disqualification for doubting. As I said, I think I would have ejected those guys, personally.

Also, I still find it amusing that there were other”doubters” back when Thomas was grilled as the only one who didn’t believe. Some things never change.

You’re right…this isn’t evangelism all by itself. But unless we DO show up, evangelism never happens at all. That seems to be the intent of the Great Commission. God has included us in the great rescue mission. He could do it without us, of course, but we get invited in to be part of the restoration of all things. That’s really good news. But we do, indeed, have to at least show up.

They didn’t have it all figured out and we don’t either, but evangelism isn’t about showing up out of obedience. We show up (obey) with belief. James reminds us how faith/belief and action/obedience are tied together.

Thanks for making us scratch our heads and examine our actions!