Sending of the Seventy

Text and Content

This event appears only in Luke 10:1-24. After Jesus resolved to go to Jerusalem (Luke 9:51), he appointed seventy others, distinct from the Twelve Disciples he had sent out earlier (Luke 9:1-6). He then sent them two by two ahead of him into every town and place where he himself was about to go.

• The commissioning charge: Jesus says that the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few, so they should pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers (10:2). He says that sending them out is like sending lambs among wolves (10:3). He instructs them to carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes, and to salute no one along the way (10:4).
• How to lodge: Whatever house they enter, they are first to pronounce peace upon it. They are to remain in one house and eat what is given them there, for "the labourer is worthy of his hire" (10:5-7).
• Their task: They are to heal the sick and proclaim that the kingdom of God has come near. In any town that does not receive them, they are to wipe its dust off their feet (10:9-11). Pronouncements of woe against Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum follow (10:13-15).
• The return: Those who were sent return rejoicing that even the devils are subject to them through Jesus' name. Jesus replies, "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven." He then tells them to rejoice rather that their names are written in heaven (10:17-20). He goes on to rejoice in the Holy Spirit and offer a prayer of thanksgiving to the Father (10:21-24).

Background

Some manuscripts give the number not as "seventy" but as "seventy-two." Accordingly, some translations render it as seventy-two or note the variant in a footnote. The text does not explain why this number was chosen. Two interpretations are commonly proposed.

• Connection with the Table of Nations: The list of nations in Genesis 10 can be counted as seventy nations in the Hebrew text and seventy-two in the Septuagint. On this basis, some see the sending of the seventy as foreshadowing mission to all the nations of the world.
• Connection with the seventy elders: Others read the account in light of the seventy elders who assisted Moses (Numbers 11:16-25).

The sending out "two by two" is sometimes explained in connection with the law's requirement of testimony from two witnesses (Deuteronomy 19:15). In 10:6, the phrase "the son of peace," which some translations render as one who receives peace, is a Hebraic idiom in the original language.

Significance in the Whole of Scripture

The commissioning charge overlaps substantially with the accounts of the sending of the Twelve (Matthew 10; Mark 6:7-13). The saying about the harvest and the laborers also appears in Matthew 9:37-38. Luke records that a wider group beyond the Twelve was sent out. Some interpreters read this as anticipating the expansion of witness that unfolds in the Acts of the Apostles. The saying "the labourer is worthy of his hire" is quoted in 1 Timothy 5:18.

Interpretations and Points of Debate

• Authority to heal and cast out demons: Some Reformed traditions that hold to cessationism regard this authority as a special endowment given for that particular period. Pentecostal and charismatic churches read it as a model that also applies to ministry today.
• Authority to tread on serpents and scorpions (10:19): Some read this literally, while others take it as a symbol of evil powers.
• The fall of Satan (10:18): One interpretation holds that it refers to Satan's fall at the beginning of creation. Another holds that it describes the collapse of Satan's power through the disciples' ministry.
• The names of the seventy: The text does not name a single one of them. The fourth-century church historian Eusebius wrote that no list of the seventy had been handed down. He did, however, report traditions that Barnabas, Sosthenes, Matthias, and others were among them. Lists compiled in later periods are matters of tradition, not the content of the biblical text. The Eastern Orthodox Church commemorates them as the "Seventy Apostles."

In the Korean Church

"The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few" (10:2) is frequently quoted in sermons on missions and evangelism, in services commissioning missionaries, and in mission dedication services. It is also cited as a biblical basis for evangelism in pairs and for organizing short-term mission teams. Luke 10:7 is also quoted in discussions of pastoral compensation.