Jesus had twelve disciples, right? Well, not exactly. Joe Kovacs points out that Jesus had more than just twelve disciples. In fact, he had at least seventy-two other disciples (Luke 10:1). I don’t think that there are a lot of Christians who would be surprised by this “revelation” Joe Kovacs made. It is clear in many places in the gospels that Jesus had disciples other than the Twelve (John 6:66-67, Matthew 8:21, Mark 2:15, Luke 6:13, etc.).

Kovacs closed this chapter with the statement, “But the point is that up to six dozen other disciples—that is to say students or followers of Jesus—were specifically assigned by Him to preach the gospel of the kingdom while Jesus was still on Earth. The famous twelve apostles were only the beginning.” The Twelve were not “only the beginning.” In fact, it is clear that Jesus chose them from among a large group of disciple he already had (Luke 6:13). The Twelve, however, were the ones he would spend the most time investing his time and teaching. They were the ones he would charge with carrying forth the message he had given them.