Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

§13.3 For Whom Did Jesus Intend His Message?
Does this also mean that Jesus hoped for a national return to God along the
lines, perhaps, of the national revival of the time of Josiah (2 Chron. 34-35)? Did
he share the later belief that if Israel would only repent, then the eschatological
transition to the new age would take place and the full range of expectation for
the age to come would be fulfilled? 84 The answers to these questions are less
than clear.
b. The Choice of Twelve
Despite some counter-hypotheses (more idiosyncratic than persuasive), few
questers have doubted that Jesus drew a circle of twelve disciples round him, a
more intimate group than the larger ill-defined group of disciples. John Meier
has recently reviewed the whole question thoroughly and little more needs to be
added. 85 The key arguments are as they have always been.
(1) 'The twelve' as a description of a group of disciples close to Jesus is
firmly rooted and widespread in the Jesus tradition. 86 The degree of variation 87 is
typical of oral presentation. Notable is the fact that Paul recalls the summary of
the gospel, which he received at his conversion (within two or three years of Jesus'
crucifixion), as including a reference to a resurrection appearance to 'the
twelve' (1 Cor. 15.5). It is hardly likely that this already traditional description of
Jesus' closest disciples was established only as a result of the resurrection
appearances 88 and much more likely that it reflects a core group already established
round Jesus during his Galilean mission.
84. Str-B 1.162-65; but already implicit in Acts 3.19-21.
85. J. P. Meier, 'The Circle of the Twelve: Did It Exist during Jesus' Public Ministry?',
JBL 116 (1997) 635-72, with full bibliographical details; also Marginal Jew 3.128-47; Meier
also examines the data relating to each of the twelve (3.199-245). Of earlier treatments see particularly
R. P. Meye, Jesus and the Twelve (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1968) 192-209.
86. Mark 3.16/Matt. 10.2/Luke 6.13; Mark 4.10; Mark 6.7/Matt. 10.1/Luke 9.1; Mark
9.35; Mark 10.32/Matt. 20.17/Luke 18.31; Mark 11.11; Mark 14.10/Matt. 26.14/Luke 22.3;
Mark 14.17/Matt. 26.20; Mark 14.20; Mark 14.43/Matt. 26.47/Luke 22.47; Matt. 19.28/Luke
22.30; Matt. 10.5; 11.1; Luke 8.1; 9.12; John 6.67, 70, 71; 20.24.
87. E.g., Matthew sometimes speaks of 'twelve disciples' (Matt. 10.1; 11.1; 20.17);
Luke 9.12 reads 'the twelve' where Matthew and Mark have 'the disciples'; all three Synoptics
refer to them as 'apostles' (Mark 6.30/Luke 9.10; Matt. 10.2/Luke 6.13; Luke 11.49; 17.5;
22.14; 24.10), partly in reflection of their role as Jesus' envoys (Mark 3.14; Matt. 10.2/Luke
6.13) and partly because of their subsequent status (hence the prominence of the term in Luke;
cf. Acts passim).
88. The implication of the list of witnesses in 1 Cor. 15.3-8 is that the appearance to 'the
twelve' was early. By then Judas had presumably disappeared from the scene, but 'the twelve'
had already become fixed as a designation of Jesus' closest disciples. The Evangelists, how-
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