Now after these things, the Lord also appointed seventy others, and sent them two by two ahead of him into every city and place where he was about to come.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 1. Other seventy-two. Most Greek copies, and the Syriac version, have seventy, as in the Prot. translation. Yet there seems no doubt but the true number was seventy-two. For seventy-two may be called seventy; but had they been only seventy, they could never have been called seventy-two. This was also the exact number of the judges chosen to assist Moses; (Exod. 24:1) though called seventy, (Numb. 11:16) as it is evident, because there were six chosen out of every one of the twelve tribes. In like manner the exact number of the interpreters called the Septuagint must have been seventy-two; and also the just number of the Sanhedrim.—Two and two, that one might be a help and comfort to the other; as also a witness of the carriage and behaviour of his companion. Witham.
literally, “before his face”