Who were the seventy disciples Jesus sent out?

The short answer

Besides the twelve apostles, Jesus chose seventy more followers and sent them out in pairs to prepare the towns he planned to visit. Only Luke tells this story, and he does not give their names.

What the record says

Luke writes:

Now after these things, the Lord also appointed seventy others, and sent them two by two ahead of him into every city and place where he was about to come.

Luke 10:1

Before they left, he told them why:

Then he said to them, “The harvest is indeed plentiful, but the laborers are few. Pray therefore to the Lord of the harvest, that he may send out laborers into his harvest.

Luke 10:2

Some old copies of Luke say seventy-two instead of seventy. Either way, Luke says “The seventy returned with joy” (Luke 10:17), telling him that even demons had obeyed them. Jesus answered:

“Nevertheless, don’t rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

Luke 10:20

That is all the Gospels say about them. Later Christian lists tried to name them, but they were written long after the Gospels.

How Third Day tells it

Third Day is a novel. In the novel he goes by Yeshua, the name his family would have called him. In chapter one, “The River,” the seventy come back to the camp by the Jordan on the last Friday of the year. They arrive by twos, their sandals split at the seams and six weeks of dust in their hems. One of them has written the name of every house that fed him on the inside of his belt. When one man boasts that even the spirits obeyed them, Yeshua raises a hand.

“Do not rejoice because power answered you. Rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

Then he laughs, and the seventy laugh with him. A few days later the seventy go out again along the east road, two by two, with no set day to come back.