Twelve Of This; A Dozen Of That Quiz

Answer: Matthias, Luke, John Mark, Nicodemus

According to Mark 3:13-19 Jesus called a total of twelve disciples to follow him:
"And he goeth up into a mountain, and calleth unto him whom he would: and they came unto him. He ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach, And to have power to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devils: And Simon he surnamed Peter; And James the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James; and he surnamed them Boanerges, which is, The sons of thunder: And Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Canaanite, And Judas Iscariot, which also betrayed him: and they went into an house."

Matthew 10:2-4 has a similar listing, with a bit of a different description for the names:
"Now the names of the twelve apostles are these; The first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip, and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the publican; James the son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus; Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him."

Matthias was the man chosen by the remaining eleven disciples after the death of Judas from Kerioth (translated as Ish Kerioth or Iscariot).
Both Luke and John Mark wrote gospel accounts of Jesus' life, but neither of them was a disciple (student) of Christ.
Nicodemus was a believer in Jesus, but as a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin, dared not to show his support, but he and another man, Joseph of Arimethea, prepared Christ's body for burial. Joseph was also a believer, and provided the tomb for Jesus burial, but like Nicodemus, he was afraid of the Jewish religious leadership of the day.

Answer: Judah

Jesus is often referred to in scripture as "the lion of the tribe of Judah". Judah was the fourth-born son of Israel/Jacob. Generally, the first-born son of a family received a double portion of blessing, but in the case of Israel's children, this did NOT hold true. Joseph's sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, received the double blessing from their grandfather, Israel. Manasseh was the youngest, but he was blessed doubly above his older brother, just as Israel himself, as the youngest twin of Isaac had been doubly blessed, over HIS older brother, Esau.

I believe that the reason that Judah, as the fourth-born son of Israel, became the forebear of Christ was because the oldest son, Reuben had committed the sin of having a sexual relationship with his father's wife; the next two eldest sons, Levi and Simeon had both murdered several men, so it fell on Judah to more properly serve as the root of the blood line of Christ.

Answer: Revelation - the names of the 12 tribes of Israel - New Jerusalem

In Revelation 21:10-12 we see that the gates are in God's Holy city, New Jerusalem, which is DESCENDED OUT OF HEAVEN.

"And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal; And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel:"

Answer: the twelve apostles

Revelation 21:14 says this, in the King James Version of the Bible:
"And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb."

Answer: Solomon of Israel

Solomon had a spectacular (for that time) kingdom palace. By today's standards it might be considered rather small, but nothing was too expensive and nothing was too good to grace his palace nor his temple to God. In 1 Kings 10:17-21 we read the following account regarding the glories of his kingdom:

"Moreover the king made a great throne of ivory, and overlaid it with pure gold. And there were six steps to the throne, with a footstool of gold, which were fastened to the throne, and stays on each side of the sitting place, and TWO LIONS standing by the stays: And TWELVE LIONS stood there on the one side and on the other upon the six steps. There was not the like made in any kingdom. And all the drinking vessels of king Solomon were of gold, and all the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon were of pure gold: none were of silver; it was not any thing accounted of in the days of Solomon. For the king's ships went to Tarshish with the servants of Huram: every three years once came the ships of Tarshish bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks."

Answer: Each tribe had a specific day to present its offering

In the 7th chapter of Numbers the King James Version says,
"And the LORD said unto Moses, They shall offer their offering, each prince on his day, for the dedicating of the altar."

Later in the chapter we find the end result of the total sum of the offerings;

"This was the dedication of the altar, in the day when it was anointed, by the princes of Israel: TWELVE chargers of silver, TWELVE silver bowls, TWELVE spoons of gold: Each charger of silver weighing an hundred and thirty shekels, each bowl seventy: all the silver vessels weighed two thousand and four hundred shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary: The golden spoons were TWELVE, full of incense, weighing ten shekels apiece, after the shekel of the sanctuary: all the gold of the spoons was an hundred and twenty shekels. All the oxen for the burnt offering were TWELVE bullocks, the rams TWELVE, the lambs of the first year TWELVE, with their meat offering: and the kids of the goats for sin offering TWELVE. And all the oxen for the sacrifice of the peace offerings were twenty and four bullocks, the rams sixty, the he goats sixty, the lambs of the first year sixty. This was the dedication of the altar, after that it was anointed. And when Moses was gone into the tabernacle of the congregation to speak with him, then he heard the voice of one speaking unto him from off the mercy seat that was upon the ark of testimony, from between the two cherubims: and he spake unto him."

(In case you didn't notice, even some of the other numbers mentioned, such as 24,60, and 120 are multiples of the number 12.)

Answer: John

Both accounts may be found in the three gospels of Luke, Matthew, and Mark.
(Luke 8:40-48 Matthew 9:18-26; Mark 5:21-43), but the gospel of John does not contain either of these.

Answer: Revelation

Found in Revelation 12:1-2, this may be understood as being a reference to the either the 12 tribes of Israel, the apostles of the early church or to both. Even among Christian Biblical commentators there is no general agreement of a consensus concerning what these "stars" are seen to be representative of; some see the interpretation in one manner, some in the other, while several of them believe that both the Jewish people and the gentile church is being represented.

Answer: a rebellion

Genesis 14:1-4 says that:

"And it came to pass in the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of nations; That these made war with Bera king of Sodom, and with Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, and Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela, which is Zoar. All these were joined together in the vale of Siddim, which is the salt sea. Twelve years they served Chedorlaomer, and in the thirteenth year they rebelled."

(In studying out Biblical numbers, 12 is often seen as the number of "government", while 13 is sometimes interpreted as a number representing "rebellion".)

Answer: silver, coal and quartz

The emerald,the sapphire, and the diamond which comprised the second row were excluded from the listing of choices mentioned.

"And thou shalt make the breastplate of judgment with cunning work; after the work of the ephod thou shalt make it; of gold, of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, and of fine twined linen, shalt thou make it. Foursquare it shall be being doubled; a span shall be the length thereof, and a span shall be the breadth thereof. And thou shalt set in it settings of stones, even four rows of stones: the first row shall be a sardius, a topaz, and a carbuncle: this shall be the first row. And the second row shall be an emerald, a sapphire, and a diamond. And the third row a ligure, an agate, and an amethyst. And the fourth row a beryl, and an onyx, and a jasper: they shall be set in gold in their inclosings. And the stones shall be with the names of the children of Israel, twelve, according to their names, like the engravings of a signet; every one with his name shall they be according to the twelve tribes."

Some people also reference a scripture that is found in Ezekiel 28:13-15 as being representative of Lucifer or satan, who was the original recipient of those same twelve stones, prior to being cast out of heaven:

"Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.
Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.
Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee."