I was listening to Pastor John Piper speak on this issue, and it is something that I have often thought about. Consider this: There were thousands of people that followed Jesus. When He performed the miracles of multiplying the bread and fish, there were 5,000 men on one occasion, and 4,000 on another. And that count only mentions the men. We should assume that there were probably as many women ( if not more ), and women and children. So we could reasonably assume that there were 15,000-25,000 people following Jesus. And yes, while many of them were not true followers , but were only there to see the miracles, we must assume that many of them WERE true followers. So I think it’s safe to say, there were thousands of believers following Jesus. Within those thousands , Jesus had a group of 70 disciples that He must have held closer. For in Luke 10 , we see that He specifically commissions these 70 to preach and perform miracl...