"Jesus called twelve men to be his disciples. The symbolical nature of their number was not accidental. Jesus' audience could not have helped but notice the number. "Twelve" conjured up in the mind of any Jew the twelve tribes of Israel. At the time of Jesus the common conception was that only two and a half tribes remained--the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and half the tribe of Levi. The other nine and a half tribes were lost in 722 B.C. when Samaria fell, and those tribes were scattered in exile among the Gentiles. The time would come, however, when God would visit his people and restore the twelves tribes of Israel. In that day, the day of Israel's salvation, the lost tribes would be reunited and God would establish his kingdom upon the earth (compare Isaiah 11:10-16; 49:6; 56:8, Micah 2:12; Sirach 48:10, and so on).
Jesus' calling of the twelve disciples was a symbolic act that demonstrated visually what he proclaimed verbally: 'The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near' (Mark 1:15). God was visiting the people of Israel. The restoration of the twelve tribes was taking place. For Jesus, however, this restoration did not involve a political revival of the nation of Israel. It involved, rather, the experience of the divine presence and the arrival of the kingdom of God in a unique way among his people."
Robert H. Stein, Jesus the Messiah: A Survey of the Life of Christ
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