Twelfth Apostle

Okay, I confess. I didn't resolve all the questions from the last posting. In fact I probably raised more questions. That would be good I think since questions help us eliminate the improbable and focus on logical answers.

Many of the questions and the assumptions that we build upon seem to be based on an unworkable paradigm. Which should make one ask what presuppositions are we using when we first begin to think about these issues. An even better question would be what framework should we be using?

Recently I had a conversation with a pastor over some of these same questions. It began with me asking him about his views on Hebrews 8 as the fulfillmen of Jeremiah's New Covenant prophecy (chap. 31). He informed me that we live under a new covenant, but not The New Covenant of Jeremiah and that the Heb 8 passage (and most of Hebrews) did not apply to the church at all. Following the same line of thought he said that before Paul began to write, no one understood the mystery of the church. That Jesus intended to set up an earthly kingdom and only later brought about the church.
Now that is a big mouthful and hopefully makes you say, "nuhuh." I hope you can see that following such a line of thought would affect many other points of interpretation.

I remember when I thought the selection of the 12th man worthy only of a question for Trivial Pursuit. After all, who ever heard of any thing that Mathias ever did after induction. Taking such an attitude now seems sinful to me. It marks us as exceedingly arrogant, willing to judge the Apostles 2,000 years later in such a manner as the historian Luke did not.

Maybe the way to untangle this is to look at the gospels for the beginning point of the twelve. They were chosen individually from among those who had been there from the beginning. The beginning, being the ministry of John the Baptist.None of them were baptized by Jesus, though they themselves baptized many people. (John 4) They were Jewish, called to minister to Jewish people.

Assuming that Jesus wanted to set up His earthly kingdom we would be able to see the twelve selected as having that specific purpose. They would rule His people. That also gives understanding as to why his people (mother and brothers) came out to take custody of him. They were not upset that He was having success healing people, it was the appointing of twelve that make them say He had lost His mind. Choosing the twelve would have been equated with a move to restructure the nation. Just as Adonijah asking for Abishag the Shunnammite as his wife was seen by Solomon as a claim to the throne of David, so Jesus appointment of twelve and later seventy was a recognizable claim to be the greater Moses.

Now so far we haven't said anything that my extreme dispensational brother could not have said, but here we will begin to see a different paradigm.

Choosing 12 and then choosing 70 was a deliberate tie that any Israelite should have been able to see. The twelve and the seventy would take one back to Exodus and the trip to Sinai. On the way they stopped at Elim where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees. When they reached Sinai and the covenant was accepted, there were twelve tribes and out of the tribes seventy elders went up on the mountain to attend a feast prepared by God. Beyond even these points is the making of the Septuagint, the Greek translation of God's Hebrew text for the world. The common way of referring to the Septuagint in theological writings is LXX. (Seventy). Hmmmm, Twelve tribes sending the LXX out to the world.

Agreeing that Jesus was setting up a kingdom we should ask how would that be done without an insurrection? Well, the leader would gather around Himself a number of fine men and began to teach them. He would teach them the law (second Moses--greater Moses). He would give them one on one counsel. He would demonstrate His authority in many ways. He would show the weakness of the current governing structure. (scribes and pharisees). He would send them out to practice what they had learned. He would regather them for evaluation.

Twelve for twelve tribes, seventy for the world, how could we miss this. In choosing the twelfth man, it is easy to think that one of the seventy just moved up and filled that spot. Recognizing this pattern we should stop criticizing the twelve for not leaving Jerusalem. They obviously felt that they were fulfilling the very mission to which they had been called. The fact that they still had problems understanding the new wineskin and how to relate to their traditions should not keep us from accepting that they understood their mission.