EVANS The Baptism of John in a Typological Context 69
his understanding of his own mission. He was engaged in a task which
would include the restoration of Israel.'^41
The symbolism of 'twelve' is deeply entrenched in the Hebrew Scrip-
tures and in intertestamental literature.^42 Early on we hear of the twelve
spies sent to reconnoiter the land of Canaan, the 'Promised Land': 'These
were the names of the men whom Moses sent (J]btil dTreaxeiXev) to spy
out the land. And Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun Joshua. Moses sent
them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said to them, "Go up into the
Negeb yonder, and go up into the hill country...'" (Num. 13.16-17; cf.
Deut. 1.23: 'I took twelve men of you, one man for each tribe'). Appoint-
ing a number of men, sending them out, and naming them are features
echoed in Jesus' appointment of his twelve (cf. Mk 3.14-17; 6.7; esp. Mt.
10.1-2).
It is probable that the designation 'apostle', meaning 'one sent', derivesfrom the story of Moses sending the twelve spies (cf. also Isa. 61.1-2: 'He
has sent me to preach'). Sending forth twelve apostles, representing the
twelve tribes of Israel, across the Jordan River into the Promised Land
constitutes the very typology that forms the backdrop to the ministries of
John and Jesus when viewed together.
The Old Testament's symbolism of twelve at many points augments this
typology and in some places probably contributes to the twelve stones/
twelve tribes/twelve apostles symbolism of John and Jesus. According to
Exod. 28.21, 'There shall be twelve stones with their names according to
the names of the sons of Israel; they shall be like signets, each engraved
with its name, for the twelve tribes' (see also Exod. 39.14). We are told
that 'Solomon had twelve officers over all Israel, who provided food for
the king and his household' (1 Kgs 4.7). According to 1 Kgs 18.31, 'Elijah
took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of
Jacob, to whom the word of the LORD came, saying, "Israel shall be your
name"'. With restoration in view, the prophet Ezekiel says: 'Thus says the
the tradition of the Twelve is a post-Easter construct, Gnilka incisively asks: 'How is it
to be explained that a body created after Easter was projected back into Jesus' life and
that Judas, who handed Jesus over, is consistently called "one of the twelve"?' {Jesus of
Nazareth, p. 182). Objections to the historicity of the Twelve invariably stumble over the
consistent inclusion of Judas.
- Sanders, Jesus and Judaism, p. 106.
- The question of the Old Testament background of the idea of 'twelve' apostles
is simply not explored in G. Klein, Die zwolfApostel: Ursprung und Gehalt einerldee
(Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1961). This is an astonishing omission.