Jesus and His Twelve

Jesus seems like a pretty out-front guy, not particularly enamored with the status quo or afraid to do something new and shocking. Why didn’t he choose a woman to be among his twelve?

This is a fair question because Jesus related to women as equals and women were certainly among his most devoted disciples and most fervent monetary supporters. Luke 8:1-3 indicates that women did follow him around as he traveled, helping him with his support. They definitely were around enough to “get it,” and often understood what Jesus was saying when the men didn’t. Mary, for example, seemed to understand that Jesus had to die when she took a large amount of very expensive perfume and anointed Jesus’ feet for burial and was complemented by Jesus for it (Matthew 26:6-13 and John 12:3-8). We think of Peter “getting it” that Jesus was the Messiah (Matthew 16:16), but Martha of Bethany is also recorded making a similar Christological Confession (John 11:27). Certainly nowhere in Jesus’ teaching is there anything about women being unable to serve Him in authoritative ways. In Matthew 20:20-28 Jesus is quite clear that appetite for authority and position did not impress him and he warned his disciples about it.

It may be that the twelve disciples were seen as representative of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, and therefore had to be male, but more likely it was a practical decision on Jesus’ part to avoid rumors of sex scandals of having his closest disciples female — persons he was alone with the most. But then Jesus did not have any Gentile disciples in the Twelve either, so if being male is a prerequisite for Christian leadership, according to this argument, most pastors and elders today aren’t qualified either because they’re not Jewish.