The seventy disciples (Greek: ἑβδομήκοντα μαθητές, hebdomikonta mathetes), known in the Eastern Christian traditions as the seventy apostles (Greek: ἑβδομήκοντα απόστολοι, hebdomikonta apostoloi), were early emissaries of Jesus mentioned in the Gospel of Luke.
According to the Gospel of Luke, the only gospel in which they appear, Jesus appointed them and sent them out in pairs on a specific mission which is detailed in the text. The number of those disciples varies between either 70 or 72 depending on the account.
In Western Christianity, they are usually referred to as disciples,[1] whereas in Eastern Christianity they are usually referred to as apostles.[2] Using the original Greek words, both titles are descriptive, as an apostle is one sent on a mission (the Greek uses the verb form: apesteilen) whereas a disciple is a student, but the two traditions differ on the scope of the words apostle and disciple.
And after these things the Lord appointed also other seventy-two: and he sent them two and two before his face into every city and place whither he himself was to come.
Analysis
This is the only mention of the group in the Bible. The number is seventy in some manuscripts of the Alexandrian (such as Codex Sinaiticus) and Caesarean text traditions but seventy-two in most other Alexandrian and Western texts. Samuel Dickey Gordon notes that they were sent out as thirty-five deputations of two each.[4]
What has been said to the seventy (two) in Luke 10:4 is referred in passing to the Twelve in Luke 22:35:
He said to them, "When I sent you forth without a money bag or a sack or sandals, were you in need of anything?" "No, nothing", they replied.
Feast days
Erastus, Olympus, Rhodion, Sosipater, Quartus and TertiusStachys, Amplias, UrbanPatrobulus, Hermas, Linus, Caius, PhilologusSosthenes, Apollo, Cephas, Tychicus, Epaphroditus, Cæsar and Onesiphorus
The feast day commemorating the seventy is known as the "Synaxis of the Seventy Apostles" in Eastern Orthodoxy, and is celebrated on January 4. Each of the seventy apostles also has individual commemorations scattered throughout the liturgical year (see Eastern Orthodox Church calendar).
Lists of the disciples' names
Attributed to Hippolytus
A Greek text titled On the Seventy Apostles of Christ is known from several manuscripts, the oldest in Codex Baroccianus 206, a ninth-century palimpsestlectionary.[6] The text is ancient, but its traditional ascription to Hippolytus of Rome is now considered dubious.[6] An 1886 translation is:[6]
These two [Mark and Luke] belonged to the seventy disciples who were scattered by the offence of the word which Christ spoke, "Except a man eat my flesh, and drink my blood, he is not worthy of me." But the one being induced to return to the Lord by Peter's instrumentality, and the other by Paul's, they were honored to preach that Gospel on account of which they also suffered martyrdom, the one being burned, and the other being crucified on an olive tree.
These are the twelve who were rejected from among the seventy, as Judas Iscariot was from among the twelve, because they absolutely denied our Lord's divinity at the instigation of Cerinthus. Of these Luke [recte 1 John] said, They went out from us, but they were not of us;' and Paul called them 'false apostles and deceitful workers'.
Matthias, who would later replace Judas Iscariot as one of the twelve apostles, is also often numbered among the seventy, since John Mark ("John, surnamed Mark", "Mark, who is also John") is typically identified with Mark the Evangelist.[11]
^Catholic Encyclopedia: Disciple: "The disciples, in this disciples, in this context, are not the crowds of believers who flocked around Christ, but a smaller body of His followers. They are commonly identified with the seventy-two (seventy, according to the received Greek text, although several Greek manuscripts mention seventy-two, as does the Vulgate) referred to (Luke 10:1) as having been chosen by Jesus. The names of these disciples are given in several lists (Chronicon Paschale, and Pseudo-Dorotheus in Migne, P.G., XCII, 521–24, 543–45, 1061–65); but these lists are unfortunately worthless."
^ abcRoberts, Alexander; Donaldson, James; Coxe, A. Cleveland, eds. (1886). "Appendix to the Works of Hippolytus; containing Dubious and Spurious Pieces". The Ante-Nicene Fathers: Translations of the Writings of the Fathers Down to A. D. 325. Vol. V. translated by J. H. McMahon (American reprint of the Edinburgh ed.). Buffalo: Christian Literature Company. pp. –256.
^Burke, Tony (25 February 2022). "List of Apostles and Disciples, by Pseudo-Irenaeus". e-Clavis: Christian Apocrypha. North American Society for the Study of Christian Apocryphal Literature. Retrieved 25 May 2022.
^Budge, Ernest A. Wallis, ed. (1886). "Chapter XLIX; The Names of the Apostles in Order". The Book of the Bee: The Syriac Text Edited from the Manuscripts in London, Oxford, and Munich with an English Translation. Anecdota Oxoniensia: Semitic series. Vol. 2. Oxford: Clarendon Press. pp. 113–114.
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