Hello, I am studying the sending out of the 12 and also the 70.

What are the differences in these sendings? How do they relate to the Great Commission?

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Pergamum


"If a commission by an earthly king is considered a honor, how can a commission by a Heavenly King be considered a sacrifice?"
-- David Livingstone

anyone?

I had heard that the Jews believed that there were 70 nations in the table of nations and so the 12 were to go the 12 tribes of the jews and the 70 began a more outward expansion that began the mission to the Gentile nations (the whole world being encompassed by this design of the 12 and then the 70), like a pre-Great Commmission.

It shows, like the Apostle Paul's mention of the 500 seeing Jesus after the resurrection, maybe on a hill in Galilee for the Great Commission, that there were a lot more followers of Jesus out there than the impression you might sometimes get from the Gospels. But when we say "followers", obviously He only asked some to follow Him around literally and be with Him.

The Twelve obviously accompanied Him in a more regular way.

May be the Seventy were more part time and went back to their homes after their evangelistic journey, as it would be difficult to support a large number of full time workers; and wives and children of the disciples also needed support when the disciples were not in their usual occupations. Maybe our Lord had set aside something from the carpentry work he had done for this? Maybe the Wise Mens' present of gold helped? Maybe there were voluntary donations? Pure speculation.

Jesus is the New Covenant Moses, who gives His exposition of God's law from a mountain/hill (like Sinai) - Matthew 5-7.

The 12 correspond to the fact that there were Twelve Tribes in Israel or Twelve Sons of Israel.

The number 70 seems to be an abbreviation of 72 often in Jewish thought and history (see the 70 or 72 of the LXX, and the 70 or 72 members of the Synedrion or Sanhedrin).

As well as the 12 tribes or sons of Jacob being the nucleus of the OT church, there were also the 70 or 72 that went down with Jacob to Egypt to form the nucleus of the nation there.

These numbers may just point to the fact that God is calling out a new people for Himself out of the husk/carcase of Old Covenant Judaism by His New Moses, and that these are the foundation and nucleus of the New Testament Church, just as the 12 sons of Jacob and the 70/72 that went down to Egypt were of the Old Covenant Church.

Is there any indication that Jesus sent any to the Gentiles before the Great Commission? His mission was to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and that left them without excuse. "He came to His own, etc"

Jesus obviously looked upon the Samaritans as of the lost sheep of the house of Israel, although they were a mixed Israelite/Gentile race and had changed their religion. They were the remnants of the 10 Northern Tribes, apart from those who had joined the Jews e.g. Anna of the Tribe of Asher.

II Kings 17:24-41 on the origin of the Samaritans. There's a lot of silliness spoken about the 10 "Lost" Tribes.

The Bible seems to indicate that:

(a) Some were destroyed by the very cruel Assyrians - the Nazis of their day, which makes Jonah's attitude more understandable.

(b) Some were absorbed into the Assyrian Empire.

(c) Some were left in the Northern Kingdom area and were mixed with various races.

(d) Some "returned" to Judah rather than Israel after the Exile and became part of the Jewish nation.

It's always possible some may have wandered off somewhere, but such speculation is not in the Bible.

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Richard
communicant member, FCoS
Perth, Scotland UK

His Name forever shall endure;
last like the sun it shall:
Men shall be blessed in Him,
and blessed all nations shall Him call (Ps. 72:17)

Count the grandsons of Shem, Ham and Japheth listed in Genesis 10 and you get 70 nations. I believe that's where the idea comes from, as well as from Rabbinic literature. So the idea that the 70 are, at least, a witness to the fact that the gospel comes to all nations is a sensible theory.

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Jack K.
PCA, worshiping with some fine Baptists in Colorado

But does it say that the 70/72 were sent to the Gentiles by Jesus?

Could it simply be that 70 were needed to sufficiently preach to every city in Judea, therefore leaving the Jews without excuse?

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I think it's apparent that there were two periods of "dispersal" for Jesus' followers. The first occasion Jesus sent out of the Twelve as a means of "hands-on" training. He taught them, he dispersed them 2X2, and they returned probably within a few weeks full of enthusiasm for the success of putting into practice the things he taught them. The scope of the only-six-pairs dispersal could not have been further than a swath through the Gallilean highlands, but covering most of the smallish territory, probably on an SW-NE trajectory (if we recognize Nazareth as the starting point, and Capernaum as the terminus).

The later dispersal was probably a full year or two later. The body of close followers was bigger, and they had more time (generally) for a full course of instruction. The crowds following Jesus' ministry had also been thinned out, and Jesus had gone (or was about to go into) a more private ministry to his closest followers, centered on the Twelve (those who had been with him from the beginning).

The path to the cross was opening up before Christ. The 70/72 were sent out into all the territory of the Jews, blazing the testimony of the Messiah's arrival. The scope of their dispersal was throughout Judea, even to the whole house of Israel. And they were probably still largely dispersed when Jesus entered Jerusalem for the last time. The reception of Jesus on Palm Sunday is only one sign that interest had been stirred up fairly effectively.

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Rev. Bruce G. Buchanan
ChainOLakes Presbyterian Church, CentralLake, MI


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