The Twelve and the empty place: apostles in Acts 1

Acts is the second volume of a work by Luke, the physician and travelling companion of Paul (Colossians 4:14; 2 Timothy 4:11). He addresses both volumes to Theophilus (Luke 1:3; Acts 1:1), a Greek-speaking reader who wanted a sure account of the events. The date of Acts is debated. Some scholars date it to the early 60s, because the book ends with Paul under house arrest in Rome and does not report the outcome (Acts 28:30-31). Others place it in the 80s. The passage does not depend on the answer.

The scene is Jerusalem in the weeks after the resurrection. Jesus has spent forty days with the disciples, has been taken up from the Mount of Olives, and they have returned to the upper room. About 120 believers are gathered (verse 15). Judas, one of the Twelve, has died after betraying Jesus, and the group of twelve has a gap in it. Peter proposes that the gap be filled before the Spirit comes at Pentecost (Acts 2).

The word 'apostle' (apostolos) comes from the Greek verb apostello, 'to send'. It means a person sent with a commission. Many scholars connect it to the Jewish idea of the shaliach, an agent who carries the authority of the one who sends him; rabbinic sources record the principle that a man's agent is as the man himself. Not all scholars accept that this is the main background, but all agree that in the New Testament an apostle is first of all someone sent, and the question is always: sent by whom, and with what message?

Acts is historical narrative, and narrative teaches by what it reports and what it stresses. A standing question is whether a narrated event is merely described or is also meant as a pattern. The method followed here is to treat Acts 1 as a report of what happened once, at a moment that cannot be repeated (the gap left by Judas, before Pentecost), and to ask what Luke stresses and what the rest of the New Testament says about the same people. The lot is therefore not taken as a rule for choosing leaders; Luke does not report it used for that purpose again.

The passage has two main parts. Verses 1-14 set out the commission and the ascension, and verses 15-26 deal with Judas's replacement. The two are joined by the number twelve and by the word 'witness'. Verse 8 says the apostles will be Jesus' witnesses to the ends of the earth, and verse 22 says the replacement must be a witness of the resurrection. Peter's argument from the Psalms in verses 16 and 20 follows the pattern of the apostolic preaching elsewhere in Acts: Scripture foretold it, and Jesus fulfilled it.

The word apostolos can mean a messenger of one congregation (2 Corinthians 8:23; Philippians 2:25) or a person with Christ's own commission. Context sets the meaning, which is why this class gathers the uses before drawing conclusions.

Verses 1–3

Luke calls the Gospel 'my first book' and says it dealt with 'all that Jesus began to do and to teach'. Acts therefore continues what Jesus began, now through those he sent. Jesus gave instructions 'to the apostles He had chosen'. The verb 'chosen' recalls Luke 6:13, where Jesus called his disciples to himself and chose twelve of them, 'whom He also named apostles', and John 15:16, 'You did not choose Me, but I chose you'. The apostles do not appoint themselves. For forty days Jesus showed himself alive by 'many convincing proofs' and spoke of the kingdom of God. These proofs are the reason the witness of the apostles can later be given as a witness of what they saw.

Verses 4–8

The disciples ask whether Jesus will 'at this time restore the kingdom to Israel'. Jesus does not deny that the kingdom will come. He refuses the timetable ('times or seasons that the Father has fixed by His own authority') and redirects them to a task: 'you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.' The Greek word for witness (martys) is a legal word, a person who testifies to what he has seen or heard. The outline of Acts follows verse 8: Jerusalem (chapters 1-7), Judea and Samaria (8-12), and the wider world (13-28).

Verses 9–14

Jesus is taken up, and two men in white tell the watchers that he will return 'in the same way'. The eleven are named. Peter is first, as in each list of the Twelve (Luke 6:14-16; Matthew 10:2-4; Mark 3:16-19). With them are the women, Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers, who had not believed during his ministry (John 7:5).

Verses 15–20

Peter says that Scripture 'had to be fulfilled' about Judas, who 'shared in this ministry'. The word 'ministry' is diakonia, service, and in verse 25 it is joined to 'apostleship' (apostole). That is, the apostolic task is described both as service and as a commission. Luke's note on Judas's death (verses 18-19) differs in detail from Matthew 27:3-10, where Judas hangs himself. Readers have long proposed harmonies, for example that the body hung and later fell. Luke's concern is the fate of the betrayer and the name of the field, Akeldama. Peter quotes two Psalms: 'May his place be deserted' (Psalm 69:25) and 'May another take his position' (Psalm 109:8). The Greek Old Testament word for 'position' in Psalm 109:8 is episkope, 'oversight', which is later also the root of 'overseer' (episkopos). Here it means the office Judas held.

Verses 21–22

Peter gives the qualification. The man must have 'accompanied us the whole time the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from John's baptism until the day Jesus was taken up'. The purpose is stated: 'one of these must become a witness with us of His resurrection.' The apostle is not just a believer or a teacher. He is an eyewitness of the whole public ministry who can testify that the crucified Jesus is alive.

Verses 23–26

The group puts forward two men, Joseph called Barsabbas (also named Justus) and Matthias. They pray, addressing the Lord who 'knows everyone's heart' and asking him to show 'which of these two You have chosen'. Then they cast lots. The Old Testament knew the lot as a way to find God's decision (Proverbs 16:33; Leviticus 16:8; Joshua 18:6). 'The lot fell to Matthias; so he was added to the eleven apostles.' Matthias is not mentioned again by name in the New Testament, but the Twelve appear as a body in Acts 2:14 and 6:2, and Paul speaks of 'the Twelve' in 1 Corinthians 15:5.

The first point is that the apostolate is an appointment from Christ, not a promotion from below. Jesus 'chose' the Twelve (Luke 6:13; Acts 1:2), and Paul insists that his own apostleship came 'not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father' (Galatians 1:1). Even in Acts 1 the church puts forward two men and then asks the Lord to show his choice.

The second point is the number. The Twelve stand for the twelve tribes of Israel. Jesus promised that they would sit on twelve thrones, judging the tribes (Luke 22:30; Matthew 19:28), and the names of the twelve apostles are on the foundations of the new Jerusalem (Revelation 21:12-14). That explains why Judas must be replaced before Pentecost: the restored Israel is being constituted, and the symbolic number must be complete. When James the son of Zebedee was later killed (Acts 12:2), no replacement is recorded, which suggests the number was needed at the founding and not as a permanent count.

The third point is the range of the word. The New Testament uses 'apostle' in a narrow sense, for the Twelve and Paul, and in a wider sense. Barnabas is called an apostle together with Paul (Acts 14:4, 14). Paul names James the Lord's brother (Galatians 1:19) and distinguishes a later appearance to 'all the apostles' from the one to the Twelve (1 Corinthians 15:5-7). He calls Epaphroditus the 'messenger' (apostolos) of the Philippians (Philippians 2:25) and speaks of 'apostles of the churches' (2 Corinthians 8:23). Romans 16:7 greets Andronicus and Junia as either outstanding among the apostles or well known to the apostles. The Greek can bear both meanings. The Greek name could be the woman Junia or a man Junias; the earliest church commentators who discuss the name, such as Chrysostom, took it as a woman, and most recent scholars follow that, while some still hold to the 'well known to' reading. The wide use shows that Scripture does not reserve the word to the Twelve. What it reserves to the Twelve and Paul is the foundation role.

The marks of the foundation role are stated in three places. Acts 1:21-22 requires companionship from John's baptism to the ascension and witness of the resurrection. Paul's claim in 1 Corinthians 9:1 is 'Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?' and in 15:8 he places himself as the last to see the risen Christ. In 2 Corinthians 12:12 he writes that 'The true marks of an apostle—signs, wonders, and miracles—were performed among you'. Ephesians 2:20 says the church is 'built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the cornerstone', and Ephesians 3:5 says the mystery of Christ was revealed by the Spirit to his holy apostles and prophets. A foundation is laid once.

The word 'apostle' is applied to Christ himself in Hebrews 3:1, 'the Apostle and High Priest of our confession'. Jesus is the one sent by the Father (John 20:21: 'As the Father has sent Me, I am sending you'), so the apostles' sending is derived from his. In John 17:18 he says the same: 'As You sent Me into the world, I have sent them into the world'. Every other apostle is a sent one because the first Sent One commissioned them. The apostles' authority is therefore the authority of Christ's word, not of their own personalities, which is why Paul can treat a rival gospel as a rival to Christ (Galatians 1:8).

The fulfilment of Scripture in Peter's speech is plain. Psalm 69:25 and Psalm 109:8 are David's psalms of a righteous sufferer wronged by enemies. In the New Testament, Psalm 69 is applied to Jesus elsewhere (John 2:17; 15:25; Romans 15:3), and Peter reads Judas as the betrayer in the pattern of those enemies. The promise of verse 5, that the disciples would be baptized with the Spirit, fulfils the words of John the Baptist about the coming One (Luke 3:16). The promise of the angels in verse 11 that 'this same Jesus' will return answers the vision of the Son of Man coming with the clouds in Daniel 7:13, which Jesus had applied to himself (Mark 14:62); that link is an echo, since Acts does not quote Daniel here.

The Twelve also point to Christ as the one who gathers Israel. They are foundation stones laid on him, the cornerstone (Ephesians 2:20; compare Psalm 118:22 as used in Acts 4:11). The question of verse 6 is answered in outline in the rest of Acts: the kingdom is restored in the risen Christ, and its first citizens are Jews and then Gentiles who believe.