12 APOSTLE
(DOES THIS MATTER OR NOT?)
It will take more than I expected to answer Ohio. So let's consider another footnote.
Mat. 10:1, RcV “And He called His twelve disciples to Him and gave them authority over unclean spirits, so that they would cast them out and heal every disease and every sickness.”
The footnote on Mat. 10:1.1 says, “11*See note 122*in Rev. 21. So also in v. 2.”
Our first reaction is, Why? Why go to the end of the Bible and not to the beginning. 12 sons of Jacob (Israel), 12 tribes of Israel, 12 apostles of the Lord Jesus. But, let's read the footnote on Rev. 12:2.2
“The gates are for communication, for coming in and going out. Twelve is the number of absolute perfection and eternal completion in God's administration. Hence, twelve gates indicates that the communication in the New Jerusalem is absolutely perfect and eternally complete for God's administration.”
The verse talks about gates. So let's consider only the part related to the significance of the number 12.
“Twelve is the number of absolute perfection and eternal completion in God's administration.” I have not much so say here.
Mat. 12:5-6 says, “These twelve Jesus asent forth, charging them, saying, Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter into any city of the 1cSamaritans. But go rather to the lost asheep of the house of bIsrael.”
Footnote 12:5.1 says,
“The Samaritans were a mixture of Gentile and Jewish blood (2 Kings 17:24; Ezra 4:10; John 4:9). The twelve apostles were sent to the house of Israel (v. 6) and were charged not to go to the Gentiles or to the Samaritans.”
Basically, the footnote says nothing about these two verses. We were expecting much more from a Bible that in its Preface contains these bombastic words,
"The consummation of this understanding forms the basis of this translation and its footnotes. Hence, this translation and the accompanying footnotes could be called the 'crystallization' of the understanding of the divine revelation which the saints everywhere have attained to in the past two thousand years."
We have some questions. Why the Lord Jesus chose 12 apostles, why not 11 or 13 or 25, etc.? Why did he send them only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel? Why did He charge them not to go to the Gentiles or to the Samaritans? Why the RcV avoids commenting on these verses? We have a simple explanation.
These verses stand clearly against all the baseless claims in the footnotes, already analyzed in the previous posts, about the Lord Jesus leaving the Jews to turn to the Gentile.