“The evidence is, as usual, fragmentary and open to various interpretations; but there is little doubt that the earliest confessions were tied to the administration of baptism. Some inkling of this is given in the Great Commission of Matthew 28:18, in which the risen Christ tells his disciples to teach all nations, ‘baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit’. This familiar formula is often thought to have been a later insertion, ascribed to Jesus by an evangelist who wished to give later liturgical practice some basis in the teaching of Christ.”

(Gerald Bray, Creeds, Councils and Christ: Did the Early Christians Misrepresent Jesus?, Great Britain: Mentor, 1997, 95)

“. . . ‘Go you therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.’ But here we meet with the difficulty. This is the only place in the New Testament were Baptism is spoken of as given in the name of the Trinity. Baptism is mentioned many times in the New Testament. But with the exception of this one passage it is mentioned either without any formula given, or with some such form as ‘in’ or ‘into Christ,’ or ‘into the name of the Lord Jesus.’ Examples of this are so common in Acts and in the epistles of St. Paul that it is not necessary to quote cases. If it were not for this one passage in Matthew we should take it for granted that early Baptism was always given in the name of Jesus or Christ. How shall we explain this diversity?”

(Edward S. Drown, The Apostles’ Creed To-Day, New York: The MacMillan Company, 1917, 30-31)