I have a picture of Jesus and the twelve disciples - but am I wrong?

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Eoghan

Puritan Board Senior
I have often pictured Jesus and the twelve disciples wandering around and preaching but Luke just burst that bubble. The twelve were with Him and also some women, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Susanna and many others.

This is not the group of disciples that I had pictured and yet it is Biblical!

Anyone else shocked that Jesus had women following as part of His posse?
 
Nice pull in on a Confessional board. LOL. Picture of Jesus?

To answer your question, no. But how often that whole group tied in together might be of dispute.
 
The idea of women, some of them married following as part of the group just never occurred to me. Nor, should I say, have I heard it discussed discussed in the pulpit.
 
Not only women. Luke 8:1-3 emphasizes the women and names some of them, of course. But the end of Luke suggests there were other men, too. The women get special mention again in Luke 23:49 and Luke 23:55, but when the larger group of followers is mentioned in Luke 24:9-11, it seems to include more than just "the women." Cleopas and the other disciple who met Jesus on the road to Emmaus seem to have been part of this larger group (Luke 24:35), who knew Jesus well enough to recognize him by his breaking of bread and all got a visit from him on the evening of his resurrection day.

I too have to remember to keep these facts in mind, because somehow I too got the image of just Jesus and twelve guys engrained in me as a child. I was aware that Luke mentioned others, but that detail felt incongruous—almost as if it was an apparent contradiction to what the Bible told us elsewhere. It isn't, but the way most of our Sunday school lessons get taught, it feels like one.
 
I have often pictured Jesus and the twelve disciples wandering around and preaching but Luke just burst that bubble. The twelve were with Him and also some women, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Susanna and many others.

This is not the group of disciples that I had pictured and yet it is Biblical!

Anyone else shocked that Jesus had women following as part of His posse?
There were often large crowds who followed him, which would have included people of every type. I would think that any but the twelve would come and go at different points.
 
Just a note, if you even picture Jesus in your mind you are violating the 2nd commandment, according to many Reformed. Thus your OP probably has caused us all to sin.
 
Just a note, if you even picture Jesus in your mind you are violating the 2nd commandment, according to many Reformed. Thus your OP probably has caused us all to sin.

Not until you mentioned this. :) Of course I was imagining The Last Supper from the title of the thread.
 
I’ve often thought how precious these women were- some of them were wealthy (comparatively at least) and financially supported the ministry of Christ and the apostles from their own means.
 
Just a note, if you even picture Jesus in your mind you are violating the 2nd commandment, according to many Reformed.

I probably listen to more radio than I watch TV. You can listen to the characters portrayed without having a definite "picture" in your head. One of the worst Christmas gifts was from my wife an Archers Calendar - WITH PICTURES OF THE CAST!@%#
:surrender:
 
He was going from one city and village to another accompanied by the twelve, three named women and many others who were contibuting financially and practically. This is a detail that the other gospels miss - am I wrong? Luke makes sure it is there to demonstrate it was not only men who were part of the group. Joanna was a married woman and who was Susanna?
 
Just a note, if you even picture Jesus in your mind you are violating the 2nd commandment, according to many Reformed. Thus your OP probably has caused us all to sin.

The very first sermon I heard in a Reformed church was on the second commandment, and the minister made this point exactly, "...not even in your mind." I remember thinking something along the lines of "these folks are very serious about worship and about following the Lord's commands". A good first impression.
 
Women played an important role in both Jesus' ministry and Paul's; what is so odd about that? Churches that ignore the talents of people because they're not suited to leadership miss a great deal of capability.
 
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The very first sermon I heard in a Reformed church was on the second commandment, and the minister made this point exactly, "...not even in your mind." I remember thinking something along the lines of "these folks are very serious about worship and about following the Lord's commands". A good first impression.

The first time I heard the notion that imagining Jesus in my mind was sin was from the PB. And it made me laugh out loud and say, "What? Really?" It still has that same effect since the New Testament thus becomes a temptation to sin because it describes the actions of our Lord in great detail, and yet we are to meditate upon his work (at the same time as we never picture anything of him). I still don't rightly understand this area of doctrine or how it can be true.

It's like Tolstoy's story of trying to successfully join a club by standing in a corner for 5 minutes and not ever imagining a white polar bear. Can you really ever do it?
 
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Most modern books focus on describing their characters. When someone makes a film from the book fans often criticise the casting because he is the wrong height, lacks a scar or is cleanshaven. Why, because the book describes these details.

I believe that one of the reasons Christ came before cameras and film was to avoid leaving a pictorial legacy. We don't even have verbal descriptions and I think that is deliberate. What the disciples or Christ looked like is unimportant and likely to be a stumbling block.

Anyway when I read the disciples (in the wider sense) I now have to imagine women as part of the group. The pace at which they walk slows down and men sleeping on the ground round a fire like 'Spartans' now becomes a more homely scene with men and women with cooking pots and 'camping gear'.

I am puzzled that a married woman could take a leave of absence to follow an itinerent preacher such as Christ. Then again Galilee was where Joanna would be based. We don't know the duration of their attachment to Christ's group so we probably shouldn't speculate too much.

I guess that I have never been told that Jesus was travelling around with only men. It just kinda seemed that way from the ommission of women being in the centre of things. Kinda late in life to make the correction but make it I must. Maybe it says more about me that this text sticks out like a green thumb (or is it a sore themb?)
 
The passages don’t say the women were traveling along with them, taking leaves of absences from husbands, camping out, or cooking! Just imagine more proper ways these women were lending their support and presence and maybe your problem is solved.
 
When I read about Paul, Peter, John, or any of the other guys in the scripture I don't have a picture of them in my mind. I have no idea how to picture them. I do picture their attitudes a bit. When I read about King David I get an image of that horrid statue with his donker hanging out in front and I think, What a Mess that is. I bet King David isn't flattered in the least and actually would lop off Michelangelo's head if he tried to do that when he was alive. lol
 
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