the apostles

OK!! forgive me but i have a dumb question. i thought there were 70 apostles but in a vespers book at church it said 72 and my bro said 60. i'm really confused, enlighten me ??? :)

Comments

  • Nah, you're question isnt stupid. I know for sure its either 70 or 72. See at church tasoni said 70 and someone here said 72. Anybody have a definite answer?
  • i thought maybe its 60 apostles and 12 disciples and together its 72 but i dont know anymore lol
    comment ppl ;D
  • its definitely 12 disciples so its got to be 72 apostles...
  • The disciples aren't counted among the apostoles....so it's just 12 disciples and 70 apostoles.
  • that's the question, is it 70 or 72 apostles???
  • we want to know whether there are:
    a: 60 apostles and 12 disciples counted as 72
    b: 72 apostles and 12 disciples
    c: 70 apostles and 12 disciples
    if answer is c: why do church say both 70 and 72?
    please add other questions and ask abounas for us


    [move]TAIO[/move]
  • EpNomos EnTaio,

    Jesus chose 12 men to be His apostles (Matthew 10:1-4;Mark 3:13-19; Luke 6:12-16; Acts 1:13). He chose Matthias to replace Judas (Acts 1:15-26) and He chose Saul of Tarsus (Paul) to also be an apostle (Acts 26:16).

    And according to the New King James Version it states that there were 70 disciples chosen “After these things the Lord appointed seventy others also, and sent them two by two before His face into every city and place where He Himself was about to go.” Luke 10:1. The Seventy appointed by Christ may fulfill the type of the seventy elders appointed by Moses (Ex. 18:21,22,24:1). The Orthodox Church commemorates the Seventy as Saints.

    So the answer according to the bible is C.

    Here’s some extra information about the apostles and the disciples, since this thread relates to that nature.

    Apostle is derived from the Greek word, pronounced ap-os-tol-os, which means messenger, or ambassador. Disciple is derived from the Greek word, pronounced math-ay-tes, which means learner, or student. The difference in meaning between disciple and apostle is that Disciples (70) are those who sit and listen and learn from the master/teacher. Apostles (12) are those who are sent out with a mission.

    There were the original twelve apostles, minus Judas Iscariot. In Acts1:12-26, these eleven, after much prayer and under the direction of the Holy Spirit, chose Matthias as the replacement for Judas Iscariot. Acts 1:26 informs us that Matthias "was numbered with the eleven" (i.e., he was number 12).

    Here are the Twelve Apostles plus Matthias:

    Andrew - Fisherman from Galilee, Peter's brother.    

    Simon (Peter) - Fisherman from Galilee, Andrew's brother.

    James - Son of Zebedee, brother to John; from Capernaum

    John - Son of Zebedee, brother to James; from Capernaum

    Philip - From Bethsaida         

    Bartholomew (Nathaniel) - From Cana in Galilee   

    Thomas (Didymus) - Possibly also a fisherman    

    Matthew (Levi) - Tax collector in Capernaum; son of Alphaeus, possibly James's brother

    James - Son of Alphaeus, possibly Matthew's brother

    Lebbaeus Thaddaeus (Judas) - May have taken the name Thaddaeus ("warm-hearted") because of the infamy that came to be attached to the name Judas         

    Simon (the Cananite) - From Cana; one of the Zealots, Jewish revolutionaries who opposed Rome       

    Judas Iscariot - From Kerioth, and possibly the only Judean among the twelve, *was the betrayer of Jesus and committed suicide by hanging      
          
    Matthias - *After Jesus's ascension to heaven, the eleven Apostles met in the upper room where they were staying and cast lots to decide between two disciples, Matthias and Joseph called Barsabus, who was surnamed Justus. Matthias replaced Judas Iscariot to bring the Apostles number back to twelve.

    In His Name
  • I remember the Bible calling the 12 disciples....
  • thank you joyislife that helped a lot. so the extra 2 are mathias and paul? so that means judas is still counted as one of the original disciples? and what is mathias counted as, an apostle or a disciple? lol im srry i'm still confused
  • Marmar91,

    You stated that in the doxology it mentions 72 disciples. I am not disagreeing with that statement, but since you were siding with 72 disciples I just wanted to show that 70 disciples is also considered, and I did so by clearly stating twice in my response that 70 disciples was according to the bible.

    The 70 and 72 disciples is actually a technical dilemma, and we really should not get to hung up on such insignificant issues, when there are many more valid arguments that need to be considered. Personally I find it to be quiet pleasing that 70 or 72 men were willing to leave their lives and families to go and follow Christ and spread his teachings. Now when you look at it from that point of view then does it really matter the “actual” number of disciples?

    EpNomos EnTaio,

    Christ chose 12 original apostles and Judas Iscariot was one of those 12. However, when Judas betrayed Christ our Savior and hung himself obviously he could no longer spread Christ’s teachings around the world. So after a lot of prayers and guidance of course from the Holy Spirit the 11 apostles chose Matthias to be the 12 and last apostle.

    Some churches consider Paul to be an apostle and not a disciple. But the word disciple and apostle can be used interchangeably that it really shouldn’t make a difference but in my previous post I explained the difference between the two titles.

    I hope I helped answer your question.

    LoL and btw my screen name is JoyisGod not joyislife ;) life has no joy if a person doesn't have a close relationship with God, and once you feel and accept the warmth and love of God you will truly witness that all the joy in your life is sent from above because he is the source of all our Joy and Happiness always.

    In His Name
  • ok then joyisGOD i'll remember that lol
    thanks again for ur help, i guess i was getting too many conflicting views on it so i was confused lol
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