What Was the Mission of the Seventy Disciples?

The Context of seventy translators

While the Gospels recount Jesus sending seventy disciples as messengers (Luke 10:1), the term 'seventy translators' refers to an earlier group of Jewish scholars who translated the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek.

Tradition holds that seventy-two scholars were invited to Alexandria under Ptolemy II to translate the Torah, later expanding to the entire Hebrew Bible. This translation, known as the Septuagint, catered to Greek-speaking Jews, ensuring scriptural accessibility amid cultural shifts. The project’s precision and theological nuances underscored its role as a bridge between Jewish tradition and Hellenistic thought.

The Septuagint became a foundational text for early Christian communities, shaping interpretations cited in the New Testament. Understanding this context illuminates the linguistic and cultural dynamics that influenced biblical transmission and reception.

The Mission of the Seventy Translators and Luke 10:1

The parallel between the seventy translators and Jesus’ sending of seventy disciples in Luke 10:1 reveals a shared divine purpose of expanding access to God’s word through human collaboration.

In Luke 10:1, Jesus sends seventy disciples ahead of Him to proclaim the coming kingdom and heal the sick, a mission emphasizing outreach and preparation for His ministry. Similarly, the seventy translators were commissioned to render the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek, ensuring their accessibility to Hellenistic Jews and, later, early Christians. Both groups operated as agents of divine communication, bridging cultural and linguistic divides. The number seventy, symbolizing completeness and divine authority in biblical numerology, underscores the intentional scale of these missions.

The significance of the number seventy is rooted in biblical tradition, reflecting God’s structured yet expansive work - such as the seventy nations in Genesis 10 or the seventy elders in Numbers 11. In both the Septuagint and Luke’s account, seventy signifies a divinely appointed effort to extend God’s message beyond existing boundaries.

These events highlight how God employs ordinary individuals as instruments of His will, whether through translation or proclamation. The Septuagint’s role in making Scripture accessible and the disciples’ mission to spread the gospel both exemplify a recurring theme: the divine mission thrives through human participation. This connection invites reflection on how God continues to use communities to carry forward His purposes.

The Theological Impact of the Septuagint

The Septuagint significantly shaped early Christian theology. It provided a Greek biblical foundation that influenced scriptural interpretation and doctrinal development.

Its use in the New Testament is evident in passages like Hebrews 1:5-6, where the author quotes the Septuagint’s version of Psalm 2:7 and Deuteronomy 32:43 to affirm Christ’s divinity and the angels’ worship of Him. This reliance on the Septuagint highlights its authority in early Christian communities, as New Testament writers engaged its text to connect Jesus’ identity to Old Testament promises. The translation’s widespread use among Hellenistic Jews and Gentile converts also facilitated the Gospel’s spread by removing linguistic barriers to Scripture.

By making the Hebrew Scriptures accessible in Greek, the Septuagint enabled early Christians to contextualize their message for diverse audiences, including Greek-speaking Jews in the Diaspora and Gentiles encountering Christianity for the first time. Its theological nuances - such as rendering ‘the Word of God’ (λόγος) in John 1:1 - resonated with Hellenistic philosophical concepts, bridging Jewish tradition and Greco-Roman thought. Additionally, the Septuagint’s inclusion of apocryphal books expanded the scriptural corpus available to early Christians, influencing their understanding of divine providence and eschatology. This translation thus became a cornerstone for both theological articulation and evangelistic outreach in the nascent Church.

How seventy translators Still Matters Today

The Septuagint’s legacy endures in modern biblical scholarship, translation practices, and cross-cultural evangelism, bridging ancient Jewish tradition with contemporary Christian witness.

Scholars today study the Septuagint to trace the evolution of scriptural interpretation, as seen in New Testament citations like Hebrews 1:5-6, which relies on its Greek rendering of Psalm 2:7 to affirm Christ’s divinity. Its role in shaping early Christian theology - such as John 1:1’s use of *logos* (λόγος) to describe Jesus - demonstrates how translation choices influence doctrinal clarity. Missionaries also draw from its example, recognizing that linguistic accessibility (as the Septuagint provided for Hellenistic Jews) remains critical for sharing the Gospel across cultures. By prioritizing contextualized translation, modern efforts echo the Septuagint’s mission to make Scripture both faithful and comprehensible to diverse audiences.

Going Deeper

For readers interested in exploring the significance of the seventy translators and their connection to Luke 10:1, several resources offer valuable insights.

Consider consulting commentaries on Luke 10:1, such as those by Gordon Fee or N.T. Wright, and scholarly works on the Septuagint like 'The Making of the Septuagint' by James Charlesworth. Related biblical passages, including Acts 7:22, which references the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, also provide context for understanding the cultural and theological implications of these events.