Two by Two: The Animals and the Twelve

Editor’s Note: This is a CBE 2025 Writing Contest Grand Prize Winner in the Unique Theological Reflections on Women in Scripture category. Enjoy!

In 2023, Saddleback Church’s bold move to ordain three women as pastors and its subsequent fallout made both Christian and secular headlines. A survey of issues debated by American Protestant churches places the discussions about women’s roles at the forefront, and they are spicy (a nice way of saying antagonistic and divisive!). In the 1970s and 1980s, self-proclaimed defenders of orthodoxy labeled women’s equality advocates as “liberal,” accusing them of promoting a secular agenda and dismissing the Bible’s authority.[1] While some still hurl such allegations, others have awakened to a scriptural defense for mutuality—a God-ordained, non-hierarchical partnership between men and women to bear God’s image in the world (Gen. 1:26–28). Since Jesus enacts and embodies the climax of the Bible’s story, his words and deeds establish the norm for Christian behavior. They are, therefore, of primary interest in a scriptural defense of mutuality.

To explore Jesus, the Gospels take center stage. Through story and structure, each Gospel writer tells how Jesus inaugurates the new creation, rescuing and redeeming God’s broken world. [2] New creation includes restoring mutuality, a partnership fractured in Genesis 3. As evidence of his restorative work, the Gospels report that Jesus invites women to exercise the same authority and to hold the same roles as men.[3] A comparison of the four Gospels reveals that Mark gives women less narrative prominence than the other Gospel writers.[4] However, could Mark have hidden a significant piece of evidence for mutuality in his account of Jesus sending the Twelve? Examining Mark 6:7–13, particularly verse 7, I will explore that question.

Setting the Backdrop

Before diving into Mark 6:7–13, two things need to be acknowledged about the scene and its characters. First, the narrative serves not merely as a snapshot of a historic event but as a model and mandate repeated by Jesus’s disciples. For example, Luke relays the sending of seventy or seventy-two disciples (10:1–23) with the same basic instructions and reports similar outcomes. Jesus gathered his disciples, sending them out. He instructed them, “Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you’…The seventy-two returned with joy and said, ‘Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name’” (Luke 10:9, 17). Likewise, after Jesus’s ascension, the book of Acts narrates numerous stories that follow this consistent pattern and yield the same results. [5]

Second, as the fulfillment of God’s covenant promises to rescue his creation through Israel—a people descended from Jacob’s twelve sons —Jesus sets aside twelve named disciples. These twelve represent a new Israel. As such, “The twelve had to be free Jewish males, and not slaves, women, or Gentiles in order to fulfill the symbolic function of their typological role.”[6] Considering the Twelve’s representative role and its qualifications, the fact that the Twelve were exclusively male cannot be used to argue against women’s full participation in the roles and responsibilities of following Jesus. Such an argument would necessitate excluding Gentiles and slaves—male and female—from full participation as well. With the backdrop set, we can explore the scene as Mark reports it.

The Sending of the Twelve: “Two by Two”

Mark opens the scene: “Calling the Twelve to him, he began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over impure spirits,” (6:7, emphasis mine). Matthew (10:1–42) and Luke (9:1–6) also narrate sending the Twelve, but neither mentions pairs of disciples. However, when Luke records the sending of seventy or seventy-two disciples, he does.[7] Comparing Mark’s and Luke’s language to describe these pairings, Luke chooses the customary Greek combination, δυο (two) with a preposition, while Mark chooses δυο δυο (two two). Robert Guelich highlights Mark’s unusual choice to denote the pairings with δυο δυο, which literally means “two by two,” and is “generally viewed as a translation of a Semitic idiom.”[8] Is there a reason for Mark’s unusual word choice? I think so, and therein lies the key to seeing evidence for mutuality.

In their teaching, Jesus and other Jewish teachers often “hinted at the Scriptures,” that is, they strategically peppered their teachings with phrases or words from the Hebrew Bible.[9] Connecting the past, hinted at by those words or phrases, with the present teaching revealed the key to the rabbi’s message. For example, when Peter asks Jesus the number of times a person must forgive his brother, Jesus responds with the phrase seventy-seven times (or seventy times seven, Matt. 18:21–22). In the Hebrew Bible, that phrase appears only once, in Cain’s genealogy. There, Lamech boasts revenge seventy-seven times (Gen. 4:24). Once the hearer realizes the connection, Jesus’s message becomes clear: the extent to which Lamech sought revenge—adding to the violence and chaos on the earth—Jesus’s followers seek to forgive, thereby bringing God’s restorative kingdom and its values to earth as in heaven.[10] Therefore, it is not surprising that Mark might hint from the Jewish Scriptures to make a point.

By this point in Jewish history, the Hebrew Bible had been translated into Greek; that translation is called the Septuagint (LXX). So, where does δυο δυο (two by two), this Semitic idiom, appear in the Septuagint? Only in the flood story and, specifically, in God’s instructions about gathering the animals into the ark δυο δυο (two by two), in male and female pairs (Gen. 6:19–20; 7:9, 15).

Within the Bible’s metanarrative, the flood story conveys God’s initial attempt to restore his creation following the description of its derailed state (Gen. 3:1–6:7).[11] In Genesis 6, God chooses a “seed” from his original creation to carry into his anticipated renewed creation. That “seed” consists of four human male-female pairs: Noah (the new Adam figure), his wife, and their three sons (Shem, Ham, and Japheth) with their wives. These pairs are necessary because the image-bearing mandate requires two types of humans, male and female, to image God fully and to fill and subdue the earth (Gen. 1:26–28). Along with the human pairs, living creatures δυο δυο, male and female, enter the safety of the seed-carrying ark. Then, the de-creation (Gen. 7:10–24) and re-creation (Gen. 8) come to pass, and when the land reappears, the original-creation-seeds disembark. Sadly, this renewed creation derails in much the same way as the original creation derailed. (Gen. 9:18–28 has it all: a garden, misappropriated fruit, nakedness, covering, shame, and cursing). Yet God does not abandon his creation. He initiates another plan by covenanting with another male-female pair, Abraham and Sarah, and making himself the sole guarantor (Gen. 15).

From the Twelve to the New Creation

Fast-forward to Jesus—God incarnate, Abraham’s faithful descendant, the ultimate Adam, who fulfills the covenant promises and inaugurates new creation. If Noah brought male-female seeds into the new creation capable of accomplishing humanity’s divine vocation, it stands to reason that Jesus will as well. Twelve exclusively male apostles (and in the larger picture, a contingent of only male disciples) cannot accomplish the mission. In fact, the first “not good” mentioned in the story was the absence of the male-female pair (Gen. 2:18–24). Thus, that Jesus would follow the pattern δυο δυο fits the Bible’s narrative pattern and the trajectory of the new creation.

The Gospel writers portray Jesus as walking onto history’s stage as the climax of God’s covenant plan to bring forth the new creation through a particular people: Israel. When Jesus sends his disciples out (whether it be the Twelve as representatives of the new Israel or others), they act as ambassadors of the new creation. These ambassadors embrace humanity’s divine vocation outlined in Genesis 1, a mission that can only be fully realized in a male-female partnership, a relationship fractured in Genesis 3 but restored by Jesus. In a stroke of brilliance, by using the semitic idiom δυο δυο, is Mark hinting back to the first re-creation attempt? Just as God commissioned male-female pairs—first Adam and Eve, then the ark-inhabiting pairs (humans and animals), and finally Abraham and Sarah—does Jesus commission the Twelve, with each disciple paired with a woman?

While church leaders debate and the media outlets capitalize on the controversy over women’s roles, women and girls who nurture Holy Spirit-inspired dreams are caught in the crossfire, and the world is deprived of their gifts. But for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, Mark joins the other New Testament writers in providing evidence of the new creation, including the restoration of mutuality, where Jesus sends men and women out δυο δυο to bear God’s image in the world. The issue isn’t a woman’s issue; it’s a divine image-bearing issue. Although it’s not a salvation issue, it is a gospel issue.

Notes

[1] William G. Witt, Icons of Christ: A Biblical and Systematic Theology for Women’s Ordination (Waco: Baylor University Press, 2020), chapter 2.

[2] In their book, The New Testament in Its World: An Introduction to the History, Literature, and Theology of the First Century Christians (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Academics, 2019), N.T. Wright and Michael Bird describe the Bible’s story as a “heaven-and-earth story, the story of God and the world, of creation and covenant, of creation spoiled and covenant broken and then of covenant renewed and creation restored” (39). The story begins in Genesis 1 when God creates the heavens and the earth. When creation derails, God promises to restore it (e.g., Isaiah 65:17). Jesus’ resurrection begins that restoration, a new creation. This is why the tombs are opened, and the dead roam Jerusalem on resurrection Sunday (Matthew 27:52–53). The epistle writers describe this new creation and its implications throughout their letters (e.g., 1 Corinthians 15:12–58, 2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:11–18; Ephesians 1:3–14, especially verse 10, and 2:14–16). New Creation will come in full when Jesus returns (e.g., 2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 21–22).

[3] During his ministry, Jesus designates two roles: disciples and apostles. In a countercultural move, Jesus invites (even expects) women to faithfully follow him, thereby becoming a disciple. Examples: In Matthew 12:48–50, Jesus points to his disciples, indicating a mixed crowd of men and women. When Mary “sits at the feet of Jesus,” she is taking the position of a disciple, and Jesus applauds and defends her right to be there (Luke 10:38–42). Among those traveling with Jesus as disciples (and financing his venture!) Luke mentions women, some by name—Mary Magdalene, Joanna, wife of the manager of Herod’s household, and Susanna (8:1–3). Finally, in his book, Jesus through Middle Eastern Eyes (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2008), Kenneth Bailey points out that Jesus “selected images and created parables with a deliberate concern to communicate his message to his women listeners on as deep a level as to his male followers” (194). Jesus also appoints his followers to be apostles. The word apostle means sent one. Mary Magdalene has been called “the apostle to the apostles,” because she is the one Jesus sent to tell the other apostles the news that changed the world, “Jesus is alive!” (John 20:11–18). For more on Mary Magdalene, “the apostle to the apostles,” see, e.g., Schrader Polczer, Elizabeth, ‘Mary Magdalene in Patristic Literature’ (21 Aug. 2024), in Diane Apostolos-Cappadona (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Mary Magdalene (online edn, Oxford Academic, 22 May 2024), https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197669907.013.5.

[4]Consider Matthew’s opening genealogy in which Matthew, in a countercultural move, names of five women, who narrate critical junctures in Israel’s history. John places the Samaritan woman at the well as the first evangelist. Luke repeatedly centers women in key episodes. In his book, Jesus through Middle Eastern Eyes, Kenneth Bailey identifies twenty-seven pairs of men and women (194).

[5] Before Jesus ascends, he commissions his disciples to continue the kingdom work. (See Matthew 28:18–20 and Acts 1:8.) After the Holy Spirit empowers the disciples, they move out, often in pairs, preaching the kingdom and doing the works of the kingdom. (See Peter and John on the way to prayer at the temple, healing the lame man (Acts 3-4); Paul and Barnabas sent out (Acts 13); and Paul names partners doing kingdom work in Romans 16—Priscilla/Acquilla and Andronicus/Junia.)

[6] Witt, Icons of Christ, 265.

[7] In Tell her Story, Nijay Gupta asserts that when Luke “recognizes the commissioning of seventy-two disciples who are sent out in gospel mission by Jesus (Luke 10:1, 17). It is very possible, even likely, that when Jesus sent them out in pairs, this refers to male-female couples” (66).

[8] Robert A. Guelich, Mark 1-8:26 (Volume 34) Word Biblical Commentary (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Academics, 2015), 319 (quoting from BDF, 258, 1).

[9] The Hebrew Bible is what Christians refer to as the Old Testament, and they are the “Scriptures” of the Jews.

[10] Ann Spangler and Lois Tverberg, Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus: How the Jewishness of Jesus Can Transform Your Faith (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009), Kindle Edition, location 666.

[11] A good reference for this view of the flood story, Genesis 6–9, is John H. Walton’s The Lost World of the Flood: Mythology, Theology, and the Deluge Debate (Volume 5, The Lost World Series). Lisle: IVP Academic, 2018.

Photo by Benoit Gauzere on Unsplash.