Why did the risen Jesus choose to display himself for 40 days to his apostles (Ac 1:3)? So that he, the firstfruits of a new creation, might lend himself to a fitting 40-day exploration by a band of eleven apostles.
I will be arguing in this article that the 40-day encounter at the outset of Acts is patterned after Numbers 13. If that is the case, then Numbers 13 sets the tone of the entire New Testament: we are dealing with yet another solemn charge to enter the promised land by faith.
But let’s begin with Numbers. Chapters 13 and 14 belong together, for both deal with the failure of Israel to enter the promised land. Still, occasionally commentators would pitch one chapter against the other, alleging that different sources are responsible for the two somewhat different accounts side by side. For instance, Joshua does not feature in chapter 13 as one of the “quieters” of the people. But in chapter 14, he features alongside Caleb. Why should chapter 13 say nothing of it up front?
It might be because Joshua waited a little while before siding with Caleb, and this would account for the omission of Joshua in chapter 13. Michael Morales notes that Joshua joined with Caleb only at the point where the ten spies took their bad report out of Moses’ tent and delivered it to the people.1 So perhaps it is only then that Joshua made up his mind and stepped forward.
Or it might be that the Holy Spirit has obscured the presence of Joshua from the first of these two twin chapters, so that the reader is first confronted with a greatly imbalanced contest in verse 13:31. There is seemingly one man, Caleb, against all the others一eleven of them. Initially, the reader must engage the events at Kadesh as an apparent eleven-versus-one contest. To what end?
Notice how often the text of Numbers 13 states that the twelve are “sent”: twice in verse 2, then in verses 3, 16, 17 and 27. At these places the Septuagint uses the verb ἀποστέλλω, from which we get the word “apostle” in English. These twelve scouts are in fact twelve apostles! At Kadesh eleven apostles face off against one apostle. This breakdown sounds familiar (except, of course, that in Jesus’ time there is a reversal of these numbers). In Numbers it was eleven bad eggs versus one good egg. In the gospels, there would only be one bad egg at the end. Such a reversal is meaningful for salvation history: the failure of Israel’s past apostles will not repeat itself.
By this point, the author of Numbers introduces Caleb’s profile. Who is he? He represents Judah (13:6), and he is the son of Jephunneh. This is no small detail, for Jephunneh is a Kenizzite (Josh 14:6). In other words, his father is an Edomite (Gen 36:10–11)! Out of the twelve apostles sent by Moses, Caleb the Judeo-Edomite is the one we least expect to come out brilliantly. Yet he does! And for his posture of faith, Caleb will be given land in Hebron (Josh 14:13–14; 15:13).
The one-versus-eleven parallel leads us to connect the one with the one: Caleb with Judas, though in their faith they would be polar opposites. But connect them we must! Judas is not called by the evangelists Ish-Kerioth for nothing: the “man of Kerioth” is from a village in the region of Hebron—the same region connected with Caleb. And there is more: of the twelve apostles of Jesus, Judas is the only Judean proper, standing for what is left to Judah. Yet at the time of Jesus, the Hebron region sat under Idumean control. So, it turns out that Judas too is Judeo-Edomite. Caleb and Judas are from the very same stock, yet turn out completely different.
On this reading, one might consider that even the lingering of Joshua at first (will he join the one, or the ten?) foreshadows what will happen in Jesus’ band of twelve apostles. If Caleb corresponds to Judas Iscariot (Ish-Kerioth), though his character is diametrically opposed, then Joshua corresponds to the apostle Peter. Just like Joshua, Peter’s resolve is at first questionable (he denies Jesus thrice), but then he truly becomes the apostolic rock. Joshua is also, like Peter, given a new name. Moses renames him from Hoshea to Joshua (Num 13:16).
These scriptural connections are certainly fascinating. But more than that, insofar as they force the reader to match the two scouting trips by two bands of twelve apostles, hundreds of years apart, they not only open up our understanding of Numbers 13, but they also color our reading of the entire New Testament.
Consider this: why does Numbers 13:20 tell us it was the season of the first ripe grapes? Why does Numbers 13:23–24 tell us that the twelve apostles of Moses are bringing back a grape cluster so huge that it needs to be carried on a pole? And that the grapes were found in the Valley of Eshcol? The scouts reported the land “flowed with milk and honey,” so why does Numbers talk about grapes?
“But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Cor 15:23). It is because the risen Christ is the new Eshcol. No surprise then, that like their forebears hundreds of years before, Jesus’ apostles would have exactly their 40-day viewing of the risen Christ, him who is the firstfruits of the promised land. In and through him, the apostles received a 40-day opportunity to touch, smell, and explore the new creation.
How does that affect our reading of the New Testament?
Notice the twelve apostles sent by Moses were unanimous on one point—just one point—which makes it stand out all the more: the promised land was good. The unanimity in Numbers 13:27 is a contrast to the disunity that would follow. It also is a contrast to hints of disunity at the outset: nowhere else in Scripture do we find the tribes ordered as they are ordered in Numbers 13:4–16. The order of the tribes here differs from the marching order of Numbers 10:11–28. Nor is it in any known or logical order such as the birth order of the patriarchs, or by grouping according to the four mothers of the patriarchs (as in Numbers 1 and 26). The peculiar listing of the twelve tribal representatives might already suggest disorder. The most concerning aspect of this is that tribes that are always named together in Scripture, namely Zebulon and Issachar, and Ephraim and Manasseh, are separated in the list. This does not bode well for group dynamics. Against this backdrop, the team’s unity of mind will only be found around one statement: “We came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.”
Caleb, the one faithful apostle, will go further and contend that the people are able to enter it. Fast forward hundreds of years: the apostles of Jesus will solemnly testify that the promised land is good and that the people of God are able to enter it. Perhaps one may not feel that every New Testament discourse and epistle conveys this, but the point of the pattern is to force our reading on the apostolic discourses and epistles again through new eyes. For what else would the apostles be doing but testifying to the realities of the new creation?
What do they know? They have had a 40-day exploration of it in and through the risen Jesus. He could have gone straight from the grave to heaven, but in God’s providence and to fulfill the pattern laid down in Numbers 13—since Scripture cannot be broken—our God gave to eleven apostles the opportunity they needed to then bring conviction to all his people.
So then, as we read the New Testament, do we realize we are being solemnly addressed and invited to believe that the new creation is good, and that we are able to enter it? Do we hear the new creation music that underpins the entire apostolic mission? And as we share the Lord’s supper where Jesus gives himself to us again and again, do we realize that we feast on Eshcol, the good fruit of the vine in the land, the firstfruits of the world to come?
Benoît Engel is a pastor in the Reformed Evangelical Churches of France, presently leading a church plant in Paris’ 16th arrondissement.
NOTES
- L. Michael Morales, Numbers 1–19, eds. David W. Baker and Beth M. Stovell (Apollos, 2024), 342. ↩︎