Fr. George Parsenios (HCHC ’96)
Why are there seventy apostles mentioned in today’s Gospel reading? The number 70 is not random, and we do well to reflect on its significance for a moment. Numbers, after all, are important in Christian theology and liturgy, but not like they are in the philosophy of Pythagoras. Pythagoras believed that numbers had mystical qualities, and that numbers were not just abstract concepts but the physical building blocks of reality. For Christians, by contrast, certain numbers are important because they are associated with principal moments of divine revelation. The number three, for example, can signify our belief in the Holy Trinity. For this reason, in our liturgical life we very often say, “Lord, have mercy” three times, and we perform a host of other ceremonial actions three times as well. The number twelve is equally important, because there were twelve tribes of Israel, and there were twelve original disciples of Christ. This is why we say, “Lord, have mercy” twelve times in services like Orthros, Great Compline, and many others. Given the importance of these other numbers, what is the significance of the number 70? Two key issues are foremost. First, Moses had a council of seventy elders around him when he led the people of Israel (Numbers 11:16-17). God promised that he would raise up for his people a prophet like Moses, and Jesus is that prophet. He is the “New Moses.” If Moses had seventy advisors, Jesus has seventy as well. With a different emphasis, Genesis 10 lists seventy descendants of Noah which means that the world is divided into seventy different nations of people. When Jesus sent out seventy apostles, he symbolized that he was sending his emissaries to every nation of the earth. The seventy of today’s Gospel, therefore, is a very important and noteworthy number.
Fr. George Parsenios is Professor of New Testament at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology. www.hchc.edu
