The seventy disciples (Greek: ἑβδομήκοντα μαθητές, hebdomikonta mathetes), known in the Eastern Christian traditions as the seventy apostles (Greek: ἑβδομήκοντα απόστολοι, hebdomikonta apostoloi), were early emissaries of Jesus mentioned in the Gospel of Luke. The number of those disciples varies between either 70 or 72 depending on the manuscript.
The passage from Luke 10 in the Gospel of Luke, the only gospel in which they are mentioned, includes specific instructions for the mission, beginning with (in Douay–Rheims Bible):
And after these things the Lord appointed also other seventy-two: and he sent them two and two before his face into every city and place whither he himself was to come.
In Western Christianity, they are usually referred to as disciples, whereas in Eastern Christianity they are usually referred to as apostles. Using the original Greek words, both titles are descriptive, as an apostle is one sent on a mission (the Greek uses the verb form ἀποστέλλειν – ’apostéllein), whereas a disciple is a student, but the two traditions differ on the scope of the words apostle and disciple.
Analysis
This is the only mention of the group in the Bible. The number is seventy in some manuscripts of the Alexandrian (such as Codex Sinaiticus) and Caesarean text traditions but seventy-two in most other Alexandrian and Western texts. Samuel Dickey Gordon notes that they were sent out as thirty-five deputations of two each.
The number may derive from the seventy nations of Genesis 10 or the many other occurrences of the number seventy in the Bible, or the seventy-two translators of the Septuagint from the Letter of Aristeas. In translating the Vulgate, Jerome selected the reading of seventy-two.
The Gospel of Luke is not alone among the synoptic gospels in containing multiple episodes in which Jesus sends out his followers on missions. The first occasion (Luke 9:1–6) is closely based on the "limited commission" mission in Mark 6:6–13, which, however, recounts the sending out of the twelve apostles, rather than seventy, though with similar details. The report of the second commission is likely a Lukan construct. The text has parallels with the Gospel of Thomas, which is likely dependent on Lukan redaction in 14.4. Luke also mentions the Great Commission to "all nations" (Luke 24:44–49) but in less detail than Matthew's account, and Mark 16:19–20 mentions the Dispersion of the Apostles.
What has been said to the seventy (two) in Luke 10:4 is referred in passing to the Twelve in Luke 22:35:
He said to them, "When I sent you forth without a money bag or a sack or sandals, were you in need of anything?" "No, nothing", they replied.
Feast days
The feast day commemorating the seventy is known as the "Synaxis of the Seventy Disciples" in Eastern Orthodoxy, and is celebrated on January 4. Each of the seventy disciples also has individual commemorations scattered throughout the liturgical year (see Eastern Orthodox Church calendar).
Lists of the disciples' names
Attributed to Hippolytus
A Greek text titled On the Seventy Apostles of Christ is known from several manuscripts, the oldest in Codex Baroccianus 206, a ninth-century palimpsest lectionary. The text is ancient, but its traditional ascription to Hippolytus of Rome is now considered dubious. An 1886 translation is:
James the Lord's brother, bishop of Jerusalem
Cleopas, bishop of Jerusalem
Matthias, who supplied the vacant place in the number of the twelve apostles
Thaddeus, who conveyed the epistle to Augarus (Abgar V)
Ananias, who baptized Paul, and was bishop of Damascus
Stephen, the first martyr
Philip, who baptized the Ethiopian eunuch
Prochorus, bishop of Nicomedia, who also was the first that departed, 11 believing together with his daughters
Nicanor died when Stephen was martyred
Timon, bishop of Bostra
Parmenas, bishop of Soli (either in Cyprus or in Asia Minor) .
Nicolaus, bishop of Samaria
Barnabas, bishop of Milan
Mark the Evangelist, bishop of Alexandria
Luke the Evangelist
These two [Mark and Luke] belonged to the seventy disciples who were scattered by the offence of the word which Christ spoke, "Except a man eat my flesh, and drink my blood, he is not worthy of me." But the one being induced to return to the Lord by Peter's instrumentality, and the other by Paul's, they were honored to preach that Gospel on account of which they also suffered martyrdom, the one being burned, and the other being crucified on an olive tree.
Silas, bishop of Corinth
Silvanus, bishop of Thessalonica
Crisces (Crescens), bishop of Carchedon in Galatia
Epænetus, bishop of Carthage
Andronicus, bishop of Pannonia
Amplias, bishop of Odessus
Urban, bishop of Macedonia
Stachys, bishop of Byzantium
Barnabas, bishop of Heraclea
Phygellus, bishop of Ephesus. He was of the party also of Simon
Hermogenes. He, too, was of the same mind with the former
Demas, who also became a priest of idols
Apelles, bishop of Smyrna
Aristobulus, bishop of Britain
Narcissus, bishop of Athens
Herodion, bishop of Tarsus
Agabus the prophet
Rufus, bishop of Thebes
Asyncritus, bishop of Hyrcania
Phlegon, bishop of Marathon
Hermes, bishop of Dalmatia
Patrobulus, bishop of Puteoli
Hermas, bishop of Philippopolis (Thrace)
Linus, bishop of Rome
Caius, bishop of Ephesus
Philologus, bishop of Sinope
Olympus and ...
...Rhodion were martyred in Rome
Lucius, bishop of Laodicea in Syria