XI. THE 12 AND THE 70 WHOM JESUS CHOSE

Luke 6:13.—“And when it was day, he called unto him his disciples: and of them he chose twelve, whom also he named Apostles.”

10:1.—“After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face,” &c.;

There is something in the selection of these numbers which indicates veracity in the narrative. They were, on several accounts, favourite numbers amongst the Jews; the one (to name no other reason) being that of the Tribes, the other (taken roundly) that of the Elders. Accordingly we read in Josephus, that Varus, who held a post in the government under Agrippa, “called to him twelve Jews of Cæsarea, of the best character, and ordered them to go to Ecbatana, and bear this message to their countrymen who dwelt there: ‘Varus hath heard that you intend to march against the king; but not believing the report, he hath sent us to persuade you to lay down your arms, counting such compliance to be a sign that he did well not to give credit to those who so spake concerning you.’ ” “He also enjoined those Jews of Ecbatana to send seventy of their principal men to make a defence for them touching the accusation laid against them. So when the twelve messengers came to their countrymen at Ecbatana, and found that they had no designs of innovation at all, they persuaded them to send the seventy also. Then went these seventy down to Cæsarea together with the twelve ambassadors.”—(Life of Josephus, § 11.)

This is a very slight matter, to be sure, but it is still something to find the subordinate parts of a history in strict keeping with the habits of the people and of the age to which it professes to belong. The Evangelist might have fixed upon any other indifferent number for the Apostles and first Disciples of Jesus, without thereby incurring any impeachment of a want of veracity; and therefore it is the more satisfactory to discover marks of truth, where the absence of such marks would not have occasioned the least suspicion of falsehood.