Most scholars agree that in
Jesus’s statement regarding all authority in heaven and on earth being given to
him (Matt 28:18), there is an allusion to LXX Dan 7:13-14, such that Jesus is
identified with Daniel’s heavenly figure (“one like a son of man”), who is
given authority from God, whom all the nations shall serve (cf. Matt 28:19-20a
[cf. also 28:9, 17]), and whose authority and reign are eternal (cf. Matt
28:20b). One could argue that Jesus’s transcendence surpasses that of Daniel’s
heavenly Son of Man since, while the latter is said to have been given
authority (εδοθη αυτω εξουσια), Jesus has been given all authority,
both on earth and in heaven (εδοθη μοι πασα εξουσια εν ουρανω και επι [της] γης).
It is also often observed that
Jesus’ commission of the disciples (Matt 28:19-20) resembles several OT
commission narratives where God (or his spokesman) calls his servants to a
task, charges them to observe his commands, and/or promises to be with them as
they do so (Deut 31:1-8, 23; Josh 1:1-9; Judg 6:11-16; 1 Chron 22:7-16; Jer
1:4-10). Jesus acts precisely as God in this way: he commissions his disciples
to continue the task of disciple making for all the nations, calls for his commandments
to be observed, and promises that he is with them forever. By contrast,
note how Moses assures Joshua and Israel of God’s presence (Deut 31:6; cf. 1
Chron 22:11, 16). By echoing these OT divine commissions in Jesus’s closing
words, Jesus appears to be harkening back to his identification as Emmanuel signify—“God
with us.”
From the risen Jesus’s resemblance
to divine figures such has the deified Romulus, to the more direct links to the
Danielic Son of Man, and even to God himself, it is clear that Jesus is
presented as a transcendent, godlike figure, even taking a place alongside God
the Father and the Holy Spirit, and in this divine association, identifying
himself by the highly suggestive designation “Son” (i.e., God’s Son).
In view of the foregoing, it is
again reasonable to conclude that the προσκυνησις of the risen Jesus is intended to correspond to his superhuman
loftiness and thus is to be understood as a proper reverential response to it.
Certain details linked to both instances of προσκυνησις seem to further support this. The
women’s προσκυνησις, for
example, is described with the somewhat unique accompanying action of grasping
Jesus’ feet (28:9). While this may simply further signify the lowly posture of
those who reverence another with προσκυνησις
(cf. 2:11; 4:9; 18:26), it is probably not a coincidence that whereas in all
three of these other instances, Matthew consistently uses πιπτω + προσκυνεω to describe the prostration, here
he departs from this pattern and instead combines προσκυνεω with εκρατησαν αυτου ποδας. It may be that along with
reverencing Jesus with προσκυνησις,
the women grasp his feet to be assured of his corporeality, since the
appearance of Jesus following his death might have given the women the initial
impression that they were encountering a spirit (cf. Luke 24:36-43). Although
Matthew gives no description of Jesus’ appearance, hints of its epiphanic
character are suggested by Jesus’s words to the women, “μη φοβεισθε” (28:10), which again, the words
of comfort typically spoken by heavenly figures in angelophanic and theophanic
appearances (cf. 28:5, where the angel who suddenly appears to the women also
utters these words). (Ray M. Lozano, The Proskynesis of Jesus in the New
Testament: A Study on the Significance of Jesus as an Object of “Proskuneo” in
the New Testament Writings [Library of New Testament Studies 609; London:
T&T Clark, 2020], 62-63)
