The Call of the Twelve

“In these days he went out to the mountain to pray; and all night he continued in prayer to God. And when it was day, he called his disciples, and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles;”

In the face of rising opposition, Jesus goes to a mountain and spends the entire night in prayer. Mountains for Luke are places of divine revelation.[1] This prayer before the selection of the Twelve is recorded only in the Gospel of Luke. Furthermore, Luke alone makes explicit that the twelve are selected from a larger group of disciples. According to Darrell Bock, “The account simply narrates the gathering of the Twelve to show the authoritative credibility they have as Jesus’ chosen representative.”

However it is clear that the early church followed the example set by Jesus of prayer before decisions (Acts 6:6; 13:2-3; 14:23; I Tim. 4:14; 2 Tim. 1:6).

[1] Hans Conzelmann (The Theology of Luke [1960], 44).

copyrighted 2005

Religion