and there will be other quorums of Seventies called, who will make the sacrifice, and those who have not made their sacrifices and their offerings now, will make them hereafter."—JOSEPH SMITH.
NOTES.
1. The Seventy of the Mosaic Dispensation: It is difficult to determine just what the relationship of the Seventy Elders of Exodus xxiv and 1, and Numb. xi: 16, 25, occupied in the Mosaic polity. Commenting on the passage in Exodus, a somewhat celebrated authority (Jamieson-Fausset-Brown's Commentary) says:
"An order of Seventy was to be created, either by a selection from the existing staff of Elders, or by the appointment of new ones, empowered to assist him [Moses] by their collective wisdom and experience in the onerous cares of government. The Jewish writers say that this was the origin of the Sanhedrim, or supreme appellate court of their nation. But there is every reason to believe that it was only a temporary expedient, adopted to meet a trying exigency."
Catholic commentators, however, positively assert that this appointment of the Seventy Elders "was the first institution of the Council or Senate, called the Sanhedrim, consisting of seventy or seventy-two Senators, or Counselors." (Douay Bible, foot-note, Numb. xi: 16–25.)
But Dr. William Smith, in his Old Testament History, says:
"The appointment of the Seventy Elders has often been regarded as the germ of the Sanhedrim. They seem rather to have been a Senate, whose office was confined to assisting Moses in the government, and ceased with the cessation of his leadership. No trace of the Sanhedrim is found till the return from the Babylonish captivity. It is more certain that the manner of their consecration prefigured the order of the Prophets." (Old Testament History, p. 185.)
From all this it will be seen that much confusion exists among the learned with reference to the exact nature of the office of the Seventy. From the revelations of the Lord, however, to the Prophet Joseph Smith, we learn that the Priesthood existed in Israel in the days of Moses, but that "he took Moses out of their midst and the Holy Priesthood also," but that "the lesser Priesthood continued, which Priesthood holdeth the key of the ministering of angels and the preparatory gospel" only. With this as a key, that is, with the knowledge that the "Holy Priesthood," meaning by that the higher, or Melchisedek Priesthood, existed in Israel in the days of Moses, it is fairly safe to conclude that the Seventy Elders of the two passages in question were really a quorum of the Seventy as we know it, and that perhaps the princes at the head of the twelve tribes of Israel may have occupied a position somewhat analogous to, if not identical with, that of the Twelve Apostles in the later Church, though it must be admitted that the latter suggestion, especially is merely conjecture. The conclusion with reference to the Seventy, however, takes on increased probability when the spiritual powers exercised by the Seventy described in Numb. xi: 24, 29, is taken into account; powers that are so nearly akin to those of the Seventy in the Meridian and later dispensations of the gospel.
2. The Seventy of the New Testament: The opinions of ecclesiastical writers with reference to the Seventy mentioned in Luke x, seem to be as hopelessly inconclusive as those held with reference to the Seventy in the Mosaic polity.. Some, for instance, hold that "no power or authority was formally conferred upon the Seventy, their mission being only temporary, and indeed for one divine purpose; its primary object was to prepare for the coming of the Master in the places to which they were sent; and their selection was from a wider circle of disciples, the number being now seventy instead of twelve." So says Edersheim (Jesus the Messiah, Vol. II, p. 136), from which it appears that he does not regard the Seventy as permanent officers in the Church, because, as he assumes, their mission was temporary.
Whereas, on the other hand, Dr. Smith holds that "their office did not cease with the fulfillment of their immediate and temporary mission, but was to continue." (Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, Vol. IV, Article, Seventy Disciples.)
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown's Commentary, on the passage, says:
"The mission [i.e., of the Seventy], unlike that of the Twelve, was evidently quite temporary. All the instructions are in keeping with a brief and hasty pioneering mission, intended to supply what of general preparation for coming events, the Lord's own visit afterwards to the same "cities and places" would not from want of time, now suffice to accomplish; whereas the instructions to the Twelve, besides embracing all those of the Seventy, contemplate world-wide and permanent effects. Accordingly, after their return from this single missionary tour, we never again read of the Seventy."
"We never again read of the Seventy" should be limited, however, to the books of the New Testament, for in the ecclesiastical writers which succeed the New Testament authors, mention is made of individual members of this body of Seventy, and of their labors. For instance, Eusebius has the following passage with reference to them.
"The names of our Savior's Apostles are sufficiently obvious to every one, from his gospels; but of the seventy disciples, no catalogue is given anywhere. Barnabas, indeed, is said to have been one of them, of whom there is distinguished notice in the Acts of the Apostles; and also in St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians. Sosthenes, who sent letters with Paul to the Corinthians, is said to have been one of these. Clement, in the fifth of his Hypotyposes or Institutions, in which he also mentions Cephas, of whom Paul also says, that he came to Antioch, and "that he withstood him to his face;"[3]—says, that one who had the same name with Peter the Apostle, was one of the Seventy; and that Matthias, who was numbered with the Apostles in place of Judas, and he who had been honored to be a candidate with him, are also said to have been deemed worthy of the same calling with the Seventy. They also say that Thaddeus was one of them; concerning whom I shall presently relate a narrative that has come down to us. Moreover, if any one observe with attention, he will find more disciples of our Savior than the Seventy, on the testimony of Paul, who says, that "he appeared after his resurrection, first to Cephas, then to the Twelve, and after these to five hundred brethren at once." Of whom, he says, "some are fallen asleep," but the greater part were living at the time he wrote." (Eccl. Hist. Eusebius, Chap. xii.)
In the chapter following the one from which the foregoing quotation is taken, Eusebius refers to Thaddeus in the most positive manner as being one of the Seventy, and that he was sent by Thomas, the Apostle, to visit King Agbarus. (See Eusebius' Eccl. History, Chap. xiii.)
3. Of Their Being More Than One Quorum of Seventy in the Meridian Dispensation: In all comments upon the Seventy mentioned in St. Luke, chapter x, one thing seems to have been strangely overlooked; namely, that Jesus had appointed other quorums of Seventy before those mentioned by the third Evangelist. Such is the plain implication of the first verse in said chapter, to-wit:
"After these things the Lord appointed other Seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face," etc. Undoubtedly, it is in their collective capacity that they are referred to here, since the term "Seventy" is used in the singular; and before the appointment of this Seventy mentioned in Luke, Jesus had appointed "other Seventy," or quorums of Seventy, how many may not be determined. In I Cor.: xv, where Paul described the appearances of Jesus after the resurrection, it is said "that he was seen of Cephas (Peter), then of the Twelve, after that he was seen of about five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep." Now, taking the close relationship between the Twelve and the Seventy, the similarity of their mission and commission, (compare Luke x with Matthew x), and the fact that in the above quoted passage from Paul the appearances of Jesus is spoken of as being associated with Peter, then with the Twelve, and then of five hundred brethren at once, may it not be that those 500 brethren were those who held similar authority with the Twelve Apostles, namely, the Seventy, which would make, allowing for slight discrepancy and perhaps the attendance of the Twelve
