The next affair in which Peter is mentioned, by either evangelist, is
the final enrolling of the twelve peculiar disciples, to whom Jesus
gave the name of apostles. In their proper place have already been
mentioned, both the meaning of this title and the rank of Peter on the
list; and it need here only be remarked, that Peter went forth with
the rest, on this their first and experimental mission. All the first
three gospels contain this account; but Matthew enters most fully into
the charge of Jesus, in giving them their first commission. In his
tenth chapter, this charge is given with such particularity, that a
mere reference of the reader to that place will be sufficient, without
any need of explanation here. After these minute directions for their
behavior, they departed, as Mark and Luke record, and went through the
towns, preaching the gospel, that men should repent. And they cast out
many devils, and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them.
How far their journey extended, cannot be positively determined, but
there is no probability that they went beyond the limits of Galilee.
Divided as they were into couples, and each pair taking a different
route, a large space must have been gone over in this mission, however
brief the time can be supposed to have been. As to the exact time
occupied, we are, indeed, as uncertain as in respect to the distance
to which they traveled; but from the few incidents placed by Mark and
Luke between their departure and return, it could hardly have been more
than a few weeks, probably only a few days. The only affair mentioned
by either evangelist, between their departure and return, is, the
notice taken by Herod of the actions of Jesus, to whom his attention
was drawn by his resemblance to John the Baptist. They then say, that
the apostles, when they were returned, gathered themselves together
to Jesus, and told him all things,――both what they had done and what
they had taught. As this report was received by Jesus, without any
comment that is recorded, it is fair to conclude, that their manner
of preaching, and the success of their labors, had been such as to
deserve his approbation. In this mission, there is nothing particularly
commemorated with respect to Peter’s conduct; but no doubt the same
fiery zeal which distinguished him afterwards, on so many occasions,
made him foremost in this his earliest apostolic labor. His rank,
as chief apostle, too, probably gave him some prominent part in the
mission, and his field of operations must have been more important
and extensive than that of the inferior apostles, and his success
proportionably greater.
It is deserving of notice, that on this first mission,
Jesus seems to have arranged the twelve in _pairs_, in which
order he probably sent them forth, as he certainly did the
seventy disciples, described in Luke x. 1. The object of this
arrangement, was no doubt to secure them that mutual support
which was so desirable for men, so unaccustomed to the high
duties on which they were now dispatched.
Their _destination_, also, deserves attention. The direction
of Jesus was, that they should avoid the way of the heathen,
and the cities of the Samaritans, who were but little better,
and should go to the _lost sheep_ of the house of Israel. This
expression was quoted, probably, from those numerous passages in
the prophets, where this term is applied to the Israelites, as
in Jeremiah l. 6, Isaiah liii. 6, Ezekiel xxxiv. 6, &c., and
was used with peculiar force, in reference to the condition of
those to whom Jesus sent his apostles. It seems to me, as if
he, by this peculiar term, meant to limit them to the provinces
of Galilee, where the state and character of the Jews was
such as eminently to justify this melancholy appellative. The
particulars of their condition will be elsewhere shown. They
were expressly bounded on one side, from passing into the
heathen territory, and on the other from entering the cities
of the Samaritans, who dwelt between Galilee and Judea proper,
so that a literal obedience of these instructions, would
have confined them entirely to Galilee, their native land.
Macknight also takes this view. The reasons of this limitation,
are abundant and obvious. The peculiarly abandoned moral
condition of that outcast section of Palestine,――the perfect
familiarity which the apostles must have felt with the people
of their own region, whose peculiarities of language and habits
they themselves shared so perfectly as to be unfitted for a
successful outset among the Jews of the south, without more
experience out of Galilee,――the shortness of the time, which
seems to have been taken up in this mission,――the circumstance
that Jesus sent them to proclaim that “the kingdom of heaven was
at hand,” that is, that the Messiah was approaching, which he
did in order to arouse the attention of the people to himself,
when he should go to them, (compare Luke x. 1,) thus making
them his forerunners; and the fact, that the places to which
he actually did go with them, on their return, were all in
Galilee, (Matthew xi., xix. 1, Mark vi. 7, x. 1, Luke ix. 1‒51,)
all serve to show that this first mission of the apostles,
was limited entirely to the Jewish population of Galilee. His
promise to them also in Matthew x. 2, 3, “you shall not _finish
the cities of Israel_, before the son of man come,” seems to
me to mean simply, that there would be no occasion for them to
extend their labors to the Gentile cities of Galilee, or to the
Samaritans; because, before they could finish their specially
allotted field of survey, he himself would be ready to follow
them, and confirm their labors. This was mentioned to them in
connection with the prediction of persecutions which they would
meet, as an encouragement. For various other explanations of
this last passage, see Poole’s Synopsis, Rosenmueller, Wetstein,
Macknight, Le Sainte Bible avec notes, &c. in loc. But Kuinoel,
who quotes on his side Beza, Bolten, and others, supports the
view, which an unassisted consideration induced me to suggest.
“_Anointed with oil._” Mark vi. 13. The same expression occurs
in James v. 14, and needs explanation from its connection
with a peculiar rite of the Romish church,――extreme unction,
from which it differs, however, inasmuch as it was always a
hopeful operation, intended to aid the patient, and secure
his recovery, while the Romish ceremony is always performed in
case of complete despair of life, only with a view to prepare
the patient, by this mummery, for certain death. The operation
mentioned as so successfully performed by the apostles, for the
cure of diseases, was undoubtedly a simple remedial process,
previously in long-established use among the Hebrews, as
clearly appears by the numerous authorities quoted by Lightfoot,
Wetstein, and Paulus, from Rabbinical Greek and Arabic sources;
yet Beza and others, quoted in Poole’s Synopsis, as well as
Rosenmueller, suggest some symbolical force in the ceremony, for
which see those works in loc. See also Kuinoel, and Bloomfield
who gives numerous references. See also Marlorat’s Bibliotheca
expositionum, Stackhouse’s History of the Bible, Whitby, &c.