It is probably true to say that most people have assumed that all of the apostles, elders and others mentioned in the gospel accounts were all men. However, there are those who may not be sure about such a conclusion.
In Luke 10:1-12, we read about 70 disciples who were sent out, and this is the only place where this group is mentioned in the Bible.
In Wikipedia we read: “The seventy disciples known in the Eastern Christian traditions as the seventy apostles 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.” There are those who feel that this may have been a copyist error.
We want to clarify that the Church of God has never taught, to our knowledge, that these 70 disciples were apostles. This is very unlikely as Christ chose 12 apostles [not 70 plus] out of the disciples who followed Him.
We mention this group because there will be those who may feel that women were included in this group, but as we will see in this series, that could not be so. For example, one writer said that “While I have used the term mystery men to describe these evangelists (the 70), there is no way to know if the group was exclusively made up of male preachers.”
Even the designation of “evangelist” is doubtful. The Bible says nowhere that these disciples were evangelists.
As they were to be sent out in pairs, there would be 35 pairs doing this work.
Could it be that they were part of the 120 disciples mentioned in Acts 1:15 at the beginning of the New Testament Church? It is possible but again, the Bible does not say so. We read in Acts 1:21-22: “Therefore, of these men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John to that day when He was taken up from us, one of these must become a witness with us of His resurrection.”
Some may think that the term “one of these” may refer to or include the 70 disciples. But the context shows that Peter was just referring to TWO disciples who had accompanied them, and one of these two was chosen to replace Judas, bringing the number of the original apostles back to twelve.
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers states that: “Seventy elders had been appointed by Moses to help him in his work of teaching and judging the people (Numbers 11:16), and to these the spirit of prophecy had been given that they might bear the burden with him. In appointing the Seventy our Lord revived, as it were, the order or ‘school’ of prophets which had been so long extinct. The existence of such men in every Church is implied in well-nigh every Epistle (e.g, Acts 13:1; Acts 15:32; 1 Corinthians 12:28; 1 Corinthians 14:29…), and the fact that… Paul and others join together the ‘Apostles and Prophets’ as having been jointly the foundation on which the Church was built (Ephesians 2:20…, Ephesians 4:11, 2 Peter 3:2), makes it probable that the latter words, no less than the former, pointed in the first instance to a known and definite body. The Seventy presented such a body.”
Again, this is mere speculation, not supported by Scripture. The Apostles as part of the foundation of the Church refer here to the original 12 Apostles (with Matthias replacing Judas). Still, this Commentary obviously feels that they were all men, as we have underlined in the quotation above.
When Moses appointed the seventy, they were elders (therefore, men) as it states in Exodus 24:1; and Numbers 11:16 reads: “So the LORD said to Moses: ‘Gather to Me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them; bring them to the tabernacle of meeting, that they may stand there with you.’” “Elders” in the Old Testament cannot be equated with “ministers” in the New Testament. Rather, they were tribal leaders. The Hebrew (“zagen”) means “beard” or “advanced age.” But as it says “men of the elders of Israel” and as we compare these seventy of Moses with the seventy sent out to preach by Jesus, it is a good indication that it would likely be composed only of men.
There is a list of the seventy on the Wikipedia website under the heading “The Holy Seventy Apostles [correct: Disciples].” We will not reproduce this speculative list of names, all of which are men, but the introduction reads as follows:
“Hippolytus of Rome (+235) had produced an early list of the Seventy Apostles [correct: Disciples], however it was regarded as dubious, and was put in the Appendix of his works in the voluminous collection of Early Church Fathers.
“Dorotheus of Tyre (+362) traditionally is the one credited with recounting the names of the Seventy Apostles [correct: Disciples]. These names were also given in the Chronicon Paschale, a 7th-century Byzantine universal chronicle of the world. However there were errors in the list attributed to… Dorotheus, including the repetition of four names, the omission of other names, and the inclusion of some men who were Apostles [correct: Disciples] at first, but later fell from the faith and the dignity of their office.
“It was… Dimitri of Rostov (+1709) who consulted the Holy Scriptures, the traditions passed down by the Fathers, and the accounts of trustworthy historians in attempting to correct the mistakes and uncertainties in the list when compiling his collection of Lives of the Saints…”
They then give designations of the men in quite some detail, but we would have to question the accuracy and especially the alleged names of those disciples, as the Bible does not give any names and traditions passed down by the Fathers would be highly suspect. Still, it is noteworthy that only men were listed. Therefore, we want to go further and put some biblical principles and correct understanding as to why they would indeed all be men, irrespective of the list of seventy names.
Government in the Family of God
It might surprise you why we are discussing now the government in the Family of God and, in the next two instalments, the government in the human family and in the Church of God, but keep reading, and the relationship between government and the question posed in these Q&As will become clear.
In his book “Mystery of the Ages,” Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong writes on pages 48-49:
“The very fact of law presupposes GOVERNMENT. Government is the administration and enforcement of law by one in authority. This necessitates authoritative leadership–one in command. When the only conscious Life-Beings existed, God was leader–in authoritative command. Thus, even when the only conscious Life-Beings were God [the Father] and the Word [Jesus Christ], there was GOVERNMENT, with God in supreme command. The government of God is of necessity government from the top down. It cannot be ‘government by the consent of the governed.’ Its laws originate and are handed down from God—never legislated by the people—never dictated by the governed and how the government over them shall rule them. Since they created other conscious, thinking life-beings, this very fact of necessity put the GOVERNMENT of God over all creation, with God supreme Ruler.”
In John 14:28 we see the same order of authority, as Jesus Christ said: “You have heard Me say to you, ‘I am going away and coming back to you.’ If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said, ‘I am going to the Father,’ for My Father is greater than I.” The same order is revealed in John 10:29: “My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.”
Here, Jesus is saying that His Father is greater than all – and that must include Himself. Obviously, therefore, the Father is in authority. And so, even in the Family of God, where there is God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, we have governmental structure. Someone is in ultimate charge; someone who has ultimate responsibility and someone – the Father – rules everything He created through Jesus Christ (compare 1 Corinthians 1:16-20). It is a simple structure – someone has to be in charge and that is reflected in the government of God.
In our recent booklet “God the Father Is the Highest,” we read the following conclusion: “Through His ultimate and supreme Sacrifice, Christ provided atonement for the forgiveness of our sins, but we must accept it and believe in it. And with accepting that atonement, we become reconciled with God the Father, the HIGHEST in the God Family.”
Government is defined by the Concise Oxford Dictionary as “rule, sway, influence and to be the predominating influence.” In governments around the world we have Prime Ministers, Presidents and others, who are overall leaders of their country, and then there will be different positions of authority and rule under them. It is the governmental structure, the way that countries are run.
In the next instalment, we will see how this fact is important for answering the question posed in these Q&As.
(To be continued)
Lead Writers: Brian Gale and Norbert Link