Peter, James and John, Page 11

POINT #2: The Composition of the Twelve Disciples

At all times there were “Twelve” disciples, including successively Judas Iscariot, Lazarus/John and Matthias. Up until now it has generally been assumed, I believe, that from the time of the betrayal until the election of Matthias there were only eleven—an assumption abetted by the scriptures themselves, to wit (emphasis mine):

Mt 28,16: Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them.

Mk 16,14: Afterward he appeared to the eleven themselves as they sat at table;

Lk 24,9,33: (9) and returning from the tomb they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest . . . . And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven gathered together and those who were with them,

Acts 1,26: And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias; and he was enrolled with the eleven apostles.

Only one other time does the New Testament use the term “eleven,” in Acts 2,14, “But Peter, standing with the eleven, . . .” but obviously here a full complement of “Twelve” was acting.

How then can we say there were always “Twelve” acting?

Only John’s Gospel gives us the answer. And only Koenig has thus far pointed it out insofar as I am aware. John shows us that Jesus appeared to the disciples three times (Jn 21,14), the first in Jn 20,19-23, the second in Jn 20,24-29 and the third in Jn 21:

Jn 20,19: On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”

Jn 20,26: Eight days later, his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. The doors were shut, but Jesus came and stood among them, and said, “Peace be with you.”

Jn 21,1: After this Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias; and he revealed himself in this way.

The appearance cited above in Mark and Luke was in the upper room and was the first of the three. As Jn 20,24 tells us in the “doubting Thomas” passage, “Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came” (emphasis mine). Clearly we are here being told that there were still “Twelve” disciples, although Judas has already left and Matthias has not yet been elected. The reason Mark and Luke speak of only eleven disciples is simply that Thomas was not there.

One can notice, as Koenig points out, that the appearances are described in progressively greater detail as one moves in canonical order through the four Gospels. Matthew collapses all of the appearances into a brief and general statement that “the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them.” Only here do we have what, on the surface, appears to be a conflict with the statement that there were at all times “Twelve” acting. Yet upon careful consideration it is not so. First, this appearance is succinctly stated to have been upon a “Mountain.” As we shall see in a later volume, that term is virtually always speaking about the spiritual, and not the physical, world. It is, so to speak, in sacred literature a term of art designating the nature of one’s experience. Certainly in Matthew, perhaps more than any other, this is true. Examine the commentaries on this passage; no mountain is identified. The experiences in Galilee centered upon its “Sea,” and those on a “Mountain” were of an intensely spiritual nature. Furthermore, for the disciples to have bodily gone to Galilee would have violated Christ’s instructions in Acts 1,4, “And while staying with them [during the “forty days”] he charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father. . . .”

If we so understand the “Mountain” terminology, it would seem that Mt 28,16 is speaking of the third appearance, that described in Jn 21 at the lake in Galilee. But if so, then it appears, again on the surface, that Matthew is at odds with John about the number of disciples then acting. However, if we understand Matthew in the sense that the “eleven” were to go up into the spiritual realm designated by the term “Mountain,” then we can understand that Lazarus/John would not have been included, because he was already there by virtue of his status as the “beloved disciple,” who alone was initiated by Christ and thereby experienced mystic death.

Again John’s Gospel gives us, aided by Koenig’s study, the insight to understand what has seemed mysterious. Koenig tells us that, in keeping with the other Gospels, the third appearance was just before the Ascension of Christ, which begins in Jn 21,15, “When they had finished breakfast . . . .” This, according to Koenig, is how John describes the commencement of the Ascension scene in which Christ gives his threefold question and charge to Peter and imparts his heretofore enigmatic statement about the Beloved Disciple. This “dining” scene is a cryptic and succinct expression of the fact that the entirety of the “forty days” was a divine feeding, a spiritual communion with Christ—not unlike the divine feeding, Manna, in the “Wilderness” (1 Cor 10,3; see also “Feedings”). All the experiences in Galilee during this period were out-of-body perceptions by the disciples while they remained, as instructed, in Jerusalem, in the upper room in fact.

Perhaps Lazarus/John could see that only seven of the disciples (Jn 21,2) rose to certain spiritual heights during the third appearance, as described in Jn 21,1-14. On the other hand, one must appreciate here the relative meanings of the numbers “seven” and “Twelve.” Seven is the number of creation, of time, whereas “Twelve” is the number of completion, of space. Lazarus/John brings this out in the development of the Revelation, going first through four cycles of seven before gaining the Holy City in the realm of the “Twelve.” Seven applies to the physical world, twelve to the spiritual. Here he also emphasizes that there is much to be done by the “Twelve” within the sevenfold arena of the world. While the third “appearance” is symbolically brought to a close in Jn 21,14, the stress then immediately laid by the threefold charge to Peter followed by the revelation that Lazarus/John was to work on even after the death of the “Twelve” emphasizes that the spiritual world is to be attained only by the actions of his followers upon the (sevenfold) Earth.

But in spite of Jn 21,2, there were “Twelve” who witnessed the Ascension of Christ, in verse 15, when they had finished the “forty days” of spiritual communion. Clearly John is not in conflict with the synoptics by limiting the number to seven. Koenig shows this additionally by the picture Raphael painted for a tapestry intended for the Vatican which portrays the Ascension scene. Koenig’s explanation will be left to a reading of his work, but here the reader is reminded that the Individuality of Raphael was the same one present in the Baptist and thus within (i.e., descended as far as) the Consciousness Soul of Lazarus/John (see “Novalis” and “Prokofieff” in Vol. 3, Companions Along The Way).

That this aspect of the Ascension has heretofore remained unapprehended undoubtedly helps to explain the paucity of theological commentary upon it, as expressed by 1 ABD 472 under the “Ascension of Christ:”

There is “no incident in the life of Jesus at one and the same time so beset with difficulties and so essential as the Ascension.” . . . It may well be the most neglected doctrine of the church ... even though it is considered one of the most important themes in the NT, and the heavenly intercession and PAROUSIA are inexplicable apart from it ... and the doctrine of God makes no sense without it....