Good Day,<\/p>\n
My question concerns the number of Jesus’s disciples. I read your answer addressing 12 disciples, but isn’t there additional biblical evidence that there were somewhere around 70 disciples?<\/p>\n
Please clarify.<\/p>\n
Thanks.<\/p>\n\t
The word “disciple” simply means a student or follower. When people talk about the twelve disciples, they are referring to the twelve men Jesus picked.<\/p>\n
“And when He had called His twelve disciples to Him, He gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease. Now the names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus; Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed Him. These twelve Jesus sent out and commanded them, saying: “Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans<\/em>” (Matthew 10:1-5).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
But this doesn’t mean the twelve were the only students. People have a bad habit of assuming “only” when a specific is stated, even though it is not implied. John mentions, “Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John<\/em>” (John 4:1). Their numbers aren’t mentioned, but the implications are that the number of disciples was quite large.<\/p>\n
There was a time that Jesus sent seventy disciples ahead of him to prepare towns for his visits. “After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go<\/em>” (Luke 10:1). We are also told about the women who support Jesus during his ministry (Mark 15:40-41). Then in Acts, we read about a gathering of 120 disciples (Acts 1:15). And Paul mentioned that after Jesus’ resurrection Jesus had appeared to over 500 disciples at one time (I Corinthians 15:6).<\/p>\n\t
Response:<\/h2>\n
Okay.<\/p>\n
Thanks, Jeff! God bless!<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: Good Day, My question concerns the number of Jesus’s disciples. I read your answer addressing 12 disciples, but isn’t there additional biblical evidence that there were somewhere around 70 disciples? Please clarify. Thanks. Answer: The word “disciple” simply means a student or follower. When people talk about the twelve disciples, they are referring to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[1394],"class_list":["post-39638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-disciples"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8754,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-disciple-refer-to-the-apostles-or-all-of-jesus-followers\/","url_meta":{"origin":39638,"position":0},"title":"Does “disciple” refer to the apostles or all of Jesus’ followers?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 24, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: When the scriptures speak of \"the disciples\" or \"his disciples,\" how can we know if the apostles are meant? Answer: The only way to tell is to look at the context of how the word is used and even then that is not a guarantee.\u00a0 Obviously, if they are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":791,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/were-the-apostles-baptized-in-the-name-of-jesus\/","url_meta":{"origin":39638,"position":1},"title":"Were the apostles baptized in the name of Jesus?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 14, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Were the apostles baptized in the name of Jesus? Answer: Right after telling Nicodemus that no one can enter the kingdom unless they are born of water and the Spirit (John 3:5), we read in\u00a0John 3:22, \"After these things Jesus and His disciples came into the land of Judea,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":68992,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/modern-apostles\/","url_meta":{"origin":39638,"position":2},"title":"Modern Apostles?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 24, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton We know the names, power, and testimony of Jesus's twelve eye-witnessing apostles. We read their names and powers here: \"Now the names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4625,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/who-were-the-first-two-disciples\/","url_meta":{"origin":39638,"position":3},"title":"Who were the first two disciples?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 4, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I have a question: who were the first two disciples? Answer: \"Again, the next day, John stood with two of his disciples. And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, \"Behold the Lamb of God!\" The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. Then Jesus\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":52221,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-did-paul-say-jesus-appeared-to-the-twelve-when-judas-was-dead\/","url_meta":{"origin":39638,"position":4},"title":"Why did Paul say Jesus appeared to the twelve when Judas was dead?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 27, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good morning Jeffrey, I have a question on what Paul meant in I Corinthians 15:5 when he said Christ appeared to Peter and the 12. If Judas had died by that time, there were only 11. Can you please explain this to me? It has been bugging me for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":51476,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/which-verse-says-that-judas-the-brother-of-james-is-also-called-lebbaeus\/","url_meta":{"origin":39638,"position":5},"title":"Which verse says that Judas, the brother of James, is also called Lebbaeus?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 23, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Regarding one of the names of the twelve disciples of Jesus: Which verse says that Judas the brother of James is called Lebbaeus? Which verse says they are the same person? Answer: Matthew 10:2-4 Mark 3:16-19 Luke 6:14-16 Acts 1:13 Peter, brother of Andrew Simon, nicknamed Peter Simon, nicknamed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39638\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}