The Twelve are
the twelve men whom Jesus personally chose
and appointed as His apostles.
They formed the inner circle of His disciples,
were eyewitnesses of His ministry, death, and resurrection,
and became the foundational leaders of the early church.
The number twelve is significant,
corresponding to the twelve tribes of Israel
and symbolizing the continuity and fulfillment of God’s people in the Messiah.
Jesus selected the Twelve after a night of prayer (Luke 6:12-13). Mark records that He “appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons” (Mark 3:14-15).
The Twelve were:
After Judas’s betrayal and death, Matthias was chosen to take his place (Acts 1:15-26), restoring the number to twelve.
The Twelve held a unique and unrepeatable position in redemptive history:
Their number and role signal that Jesus was forming the nucleus of the renewed people of God.
The Twelve occupy a unique place in the history of God’s people. They were ordinary men — fishermen, a tax collector, a zealot — who were transformed by their time with Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit. Through their witness and ministry, the gospel went out from Jerusalem to the nations. The church today continues to be built on the foundation they laid, with Jesus Christ as the cornerstone.
Entry compiled for the JESUSaves.com Bible Glossary. Optimized for wiki.js Visual Editor.