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The Ancient World Behind the Text: Ideas

The customs, offices and ideas a first reader knew without being told, what each meant then, and the nearest thing you already know.

Babel and the seventy nations

Genesis 10 lists the nations of the world, seventy in the Hebrew text and seventy-two in the Greek. Jewish tradition counted the nations that way, and Deuteronomy 32 tells how God divided them and kept Israel as his own. Luke's list of nations at Pentecost recalls them.

Older Near Eastern rootsWhat people were waiting for

First, in plain English

The map in the old book had exactly seventy countries on it, and everyone knew the number. Genesis 10 lists the families of Noah's sons as the nations of the earth. Jewish tradition counted them as seventy, or seventy-two in the Greek version of the Old Testament. Deuteronomy 32 adds that when God divided the nations, he kept Israel as his own portion. Some readers, Heiser among them, see the other nations placed under lesser heavenly powers at Babel. A number like seventy could call all of that to mind.

What it meant then

Jews reckoned seventy, or sometimes seventy-two, nations. If the twelve stood for Israel's tribes, Keener suggests, the larger group of Luke 10:1 may stand for the nations and point ahead to the Gentile mission. Heiser explains the split. The Greek Old Testament has seventy-two nations in Genesis 10 and the traditional Hebrew text seventy, so either number points back to the nations divided at Babel. He prefers seventy, which matches the number of El's sons in the Ugaritic council. Heiser reads Deuteronomy 32:8-9 as God dispersing the nations at Babel and fixing their borders by the number of the sons of God. God took Jacob as his own portion, so the nations were in effect disinherited and left under lesser gods. On Luke 10 he writes, "Seventy is the number of nations listed in Genesis 10," the nations dispossessed at Babel. Keener also names a second background: the seventy elders of Moses who prophesied, plus Eldad and Medad, who made seventy-two (Numbers 11:24-26). Keener suggests that the list of nations at Pentecost updates the names of Genesis 10. In his reading God there reverses Babel's judgment. Wright writes that "with the day of Pentecost this curse is itself overturned." Heiser notes that the words for the divided tongues and the crowd's confusion in Acts 2 are the words the Greek Old Testament uses at Deuteronomy 32:8 and Genesis 11:7. He writes that "Babel’s disinheritance was going to be rectified by the message of Jesus." Heiser carries the picture to Paul's plan to reach Spain, where Tarshish, the most westerly nation of the list, had been.

The bridge to today

An analogy: an old empire's map of its provinces, each under a governor. When a new king sends envoys to every province on the map, everyone who knows the map understands what he is claiming.

What it changes in the reading

Seventy or seventy-two messengers sent ahead of Jesus, as in Luke 10:1, can echo the nations of the world, a first hint of a mission beyond Israel. Pilgrims from every nation hearing the apostles in their own languages, in Acts 2:5-11, reads as Babel's scattering undone. Paul tells the Athenians in Acts 17:26 that God made every nation and fixed the boundaries of where they live.

Where the analogy breaks

Not a map every hearer carried. The analogy assumes everyone knew the provinces and their governors. Luke never says why he gives the number, and the sources offer more than one background for it. The link to Genesis 10 and the gods of the nations is a reading of the text, not a statement in it.

Where scholars disagree

What the number in Luke 10:1 recalls. Keener's two works give both the nations of Jewish reckoning and Moses' seventy elders with Eldad and Medad. The ESV Study Bible and Heiser point to the nations of Genesis 10, and Heiser sees in the mission the start of the defeat of Satan and the nations' gods. On seventy against seventy-two, the ESV Study Bible says the manuscripts are hard to decide between and most modern translations choose seventy-two, while Heiser judges seventy best on external grounds. What Pentecost reverses. Heiser reads the nations of Acts 2 as peoples once handed over to other gods and now being reclaimed. Keener and Wright speak of Babel's judgment on language reversed and Abraham's blessing reaching the nations, without the divine council frame. Strauss, in the Zondervan backgrounds commentary, explains the variant: the Hebrew text of Genesis 10 lists seventy nations and the Greek seventy-two, so Luke may have written seventy-two and later scribes matched the Hebrew.

Passages where it appears

{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/luke-10-1-24\/","n":"Luke 10:1-24, Seventy sent out, and Satan falling","s":"Jesus sends seventy others, or seventy-two, ahead of him in pairs, with no purse, bag or sandals, to towns that will welcome or refuse them. They come back rejoicing that even the demons obey, and Jesus says he saw Satan fall like lightning.","r":"Luke 10:1-24"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/acts-1-1-11\/","n":"Acts 1:1-11, The kingdom question and the cloud","s":"Luke's second volume opens with the risen Jesus speaking about God's kingdom for forty days. Asked whether he will now restore the kingdom to Israel, he promises the Spirit, sends the apostles as witnesses to the end of the earth, and is taken up in a cloud.","r":"Acts 1:1-11"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/acts-2-1-13\/","n":"Acts 2:1-13, Pentecost and the nations","s":"On the day of Pentecost wind and fire come on the gathered believers, and Jewish pilgrims from every nation hear them speaking in their own languages.","r":"Acts 2:1-13"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/acts-8-26-40\/","n":"Acts 8:26-40, The Ethiopian official","s":"On the desert road to Gaza, Philip meets a eunuch who serves the queen of the Ethiopians, reading Isaiah in his chariot on the way home from worship in Jerusalem, and baptizes him.","r":"Acts 8:26-40"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/acts-17-22-34\/","n":"Acts 17:22-34, Paul before the Areopagus","s":"Before the Areopagus, Paul starts from an altar to an unknown god and from the Athenians' own poets, speaks of the one Creator who made every nation from one man, and ends with a coming judgment and a man raised from the dead. Some mock; a few believe.","r":"Acts 17:22-34"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/romans-11-25-36\/","n":"Romans 11:25-36, The full number of the nations","s":"Paul reveals a mystery: a partial hardening has come on Israel until the full number of the Gentiles comes in, and so all Israel will be saved. He ends in praise of God's wisdom.","r":"Romans 11:25-36"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/romans-15-14-24\/","n":"Romans 15:14-24, To Spain by way of Rome","s":"Paul describes his priestly work of offering the Gentiles to God, from Jerusalem round to Illyricum, and his plan to visit Rome on his way to Spain and be helped on his journey there.","r":"Romans 15:14-24"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/revelation-18-1-8\/","n":"Revelation 18:1-8, come out of her, my people","s":"A shining angel announces that Babylon the great has fallen and become a haunt of demons and unclean birds, because the nations drank her wine and the merchants grew rich on her luxury. A voice calls God's people to come out of her, and to pay her back double, since she boasts that she sits as a queen and will never be a widow.","r":"Revelation 18:1-8"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/revelation-22-1-5\/","n":"Revelation 22:1-5, river and tree of life","s":"The angel shows John a clear, life-giving river running from God's throne through the middle of the city, with the tree of life on both banks, fruiting every month and healing the nations with its leaves. Nothing cursed remains; God's servants will see him face to face, carry his name and reign for ever in his light.","r":"Revelation 22:1-5"}

Beings in the Gods of the Bible

{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/gods-of-the-bible\/bene-elohim\/","n":"Bene elohim","s":"Sons of God: a group of lesser divine beings who show up at God's throne.","r":"Genesis 6:2"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/gods-of-the-bible\/the-elohim-of-psalm-82\/","n":"The elohim of Psalm 82","s":"A psalm where God stands up in a room full of gods and sentences them to death.","r":"Psalm 82:1"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/gods-of-the-bible\/the-princes-of-persia-and-greece\/","n":"The princes of Persia and Greece","s":"Spirit figures in Daniel who rule nations and can hold up a messenger from God for weeks.","r":"Daniel 10:13"}

In the Divine Council Index

{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/divine-council-index\/luke-10-1-20\/","n":"Luke 10:1-20","s":"Seventy sent out, and Satan falling like lightning when they return.","r":"Luke 10:1-20"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/divine-council-index\/deuteronomy-32-8-9\/","n":"Deuteronomy 32:8-9","s":"The Most High divided the nations, and the number He divided them by is where the whole argument turns.","r":"Deuteronomy 32:8-9"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/divine-council-index\/genesis-11-1-9\/","n":"Genesis 11:1-9","s":"Babel, the scattering, and the moment the nations are set aside.","r":"Genesis 11:1-9"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/divine-council-index\/psalm-82\/","n":"Psalm 82","s":"God stands in the divine assembly and passes sentence on the elohim He put in charge.","r":"Psalm 82"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/divine-council-index\/acts-17-26-27\/","n":"Acts 17:26-27","s":"Paul tells the Areopagus that God fixed the times and the boundaries of the nations.","r":"Acts 17:26-27"}

Sources

NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Luke 10:1
Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Luke 10:1
ESV Study Bible, study note on Luke 10:1
Michael S. Heiser, The Unseen Realm, ch. 14, Divine Allotment, and ch. 32, Preeminent Domain, with its endnote on seventy and seventy-two
Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Acts 2:9-11
NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Acts 2:7-8 and 2:9-11
N. T. Wright, Acts for Everyone, Part One, comment on Acts 2:5-13
Michael S. Heiser, The Unseen Realm, ch. 34, Infiltration
Mark L. Strauss, Luke, in Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, ed. Clinton E. Arnold, on Luke 10:1

All ideas