Fathers

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What the Fathers say

Mark 16:15

Eastern Fathers

Theophylact of Ohrid

Note the Lord's commandment: "preach to every creature." He did not say: preach only to the obedient, but to every creature, whether they will listen or not.

Commentary on Mark ↗

Justin Martyr

For from Jerusalem there went out into the world, men, twelve in number, and these illiterate, of no ability in speaking: but by the power of God they proclaimed to every race of men that they were sent by Christ to teach to all the word of God.

The First Apology, Chapter XXXIX ↗

Western Saints

Augustine of Hippo

The command to the apostles to be witnesses to him in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and even to the uttermost parts of the earth was not addressed exclusively to those to whom it was immediately spoken. They alone would not be the only ones who would carry such an enormous task to completion. …

Letter 199, To Hesychius 49 ↗

Gregory the Dialogist

After rebuking the hardness of their hearts, let us hear the words of advice which He speaks. For it goes on: Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. Every man must be understood by every creature; for man partakes something of every creature; he has existence as have stones, life as trees, feeling as animals, understanding as have Angels. …

Catena Aurea by Aquinas ↗

Bede

And he said to them: Go into the entire world and preach the Gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. Therefore, when you preach that whoever does not believe will be condemned, since he certainly does not believe what he has not seen, should not they themselves first be reproved, because they did not believe those to whom the Lord appeared before they had seen the Lord? …

On the Gospel of Mark ↗