12 Apostles

| | Comments (4)

Not a novel observation, but one that occurred to me as I was listening to the homily at Mass.

12 is a number of completeness. So why didn't Jesus pick 11 apostles? Why 12?

12 is the number of completeness, the completeness of the body of Christ and as its head, Christ leads the body but is more than just another part of it. When He ascended to His Father, tweleve were still left--completeness, headed by Completeness.

Not astounding, but well worth considering.

Bookmark and Share

4 Comments

But why is 12 a number of completeness? Why is a dozen so complete and closed? Is it an overabundance of 10? More than we need by two?

I know you had a meditative moment at Mass, and I'm not asking that you leap to the lectern and explain it all, but you're making ME think.

Why 12? Why 7? Why 9? It's as though they are part of our programming.

Dear Steven and Therese,

St Augustine address this in his commentary on Psalm 87, in paragraph 4 here: http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1801087.htm though it, like most of his numerological explanations, seems a bit underdone to me. Something about the 4 directions or winds multiplied by the 3 persons of the Trinity.

I'd always connected the 12 apostles with the 12 children of Jacob, founders of the 12 tribes of Israel; Israel was founded on them, the Church is founded on these. But that just pushes the question of "why 12" back a bit into the past.

Hmm...

Cheers -

bw

By the way, this google search may reveal some patristic understanding of "why 12 apostles", if you have time to sort through them all:

http://www.google.com/search?q=%22twelve+apostles%22+site:newadvent.org/fathers&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&client=opera&rls=en&start=10&sa=N

Cheers -

bw

"12 is the number of completeness, the completeness of the body of Christ and as its head, Christ leads the body but is more than just another part of it. When He ascended to His Father, tweleve were still left--completeness, headed by Completeness."

Short ... very profound. You have given me much to mediate on today. Thank you.

Categories

Pages

About this Entry

This page contains a single entry by Steven Riddle published on January 22, 2006 8:24 PM.

Exhortation and Encouragement was the previous entry in this blog.

I Love Sobering Thoughts is the next entry in this blog.

Find recent content on the main index or look in the archives to find all content.

My Blogroll