ACC ~ Acts 1 v16

THE FORMER NUMBER OF APOSTLES REGAINED. ARATOR: Twelve constellations of the [stellar] choir shine and cast the brilliance of Olympus on the earth. Note what realization this light reveals: The world is divided by the regions of its four sides; a triune faith calls this [world to belief], in whose name [the world] is washed in the font. Therefore, four taken together three times makes up the whole figure which the twelvefold order possesses, and to the devout disciples, to whom this baptism is commanded, a mystic reason gave cause for making up again the former number. ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 1.

ELEVEN APOSTLES WOULD HAVE BEEN ABSURD. BEDE: The apostle Peter was apprehensive about continuing with the number eleven [of apostles], “for every sin is an eleven, because when one does wicked things he goes beyond the commandments of the decalog.” Hence, because no righteousness of ours is innocent of itself, the tabernacle which contained the Lord’s ark was covered from above by eleven veils of goats’ hair. Peter restored the number of apostles to twelve, so that through two parts of six each (for three times four is twelve) they might preserve by an eternal number the grace which they were preaching by word, and so that those who were to preach the faith of the holy Trinity to the four parts of the world (in line with the Lord’s saying, “Go, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”)might already certify the perfection of the work by the sacramental sign of [their] number as well. According to a deeper sense, however, the evil that the church suffers in false brothers remains grossly uncorrected for the most part. As the fiftieth day drew near the full number of apostles was restored, prefiguring the end of the world when it is believed that the Jews who crucified the Lord are to be reconciled to the church. COMMENTARY ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 1.16.

Acts