1 Cor 15:5

[japscarousel]

Vulgate: et quia visus est Cephæ, et post hoc undecim:
DR/Confraternity: And that he was seen by Cephas; and after that by the eleven.
NAB:that he appeared to Kephas, then to the Twelve.
KJV:And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve

Can someone clarify why there are different translations for that verse? Is it really ‘Eleven’ or ‘Twelve’? Personally, I find ‘eleven’ to be more correct, since the resurrection happened before the election of Matthias (am I right?) and Judas Iscariot has died then.

 

[John7]

From Nova Vulgata at Vatican:
et quia visus est Cephae et post haec Duodecim (12)

From Greek NT (NA27)
καὶ ὅτι ὤφθη Κηφᾷ, εἶτα τοῖς δώδεκα• (12)

I don’t know why DR & Vulgate (Clementine) have eleven

Took this from Matthew Henry commentary (protestant):
“He was seen of Cephas, or Peter, then of the twelve,
called so, though Judas was no longer among them, because this was their usual number.”

their usual number? sounds a bit vague. Wonder who would have been the 12th

Checked Haydock commentary (Catholic) but nothing on that verse.

 

[John7]

Took this from tektonics.org/uz/whotwelve.html

"1 Corinthians 15:5 And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve…

Hold on a minute, the critic bellows – how can Paul refer to the “Twelve” seeing Jesus when there were only eleven apostles? Judas was dead! May we suggest that:

“The Twelve” was a traditional colloquialism that referred to the apostles, originally used by Jesus, that continued to be used (even with, when appropriate, “the eleven”) even when there weren’t 12 of them - just as we still refer to a particular college football conference as “The Big Ten,” even though it has more than 10 teams now! (Otherwise, what would happen as the Apostles died off one at a time? Would Peter be introduced, “This is Peter, one of the Seven [formerly Twelve]?”)
-JPH"

 

[Fidelis]

The footnote to this on the Conf, translation notes that “Twelve” appears in most Greek manuscripts and is probably the correct one. I suspect it renders it as “eleven” because it used the Vulgate as a source.

The commentaries I have seen speculate that “the Twelve” do include Matthias, since he was picked to replace Judas. Remember that Christ did not just appear to the apostles on Easter Day/Evening; he stayed with them for forty days (Acts 1:3). Acts also says one of the reasons that Matthias was considered as a replacement for Matthias was because he was “one of the men who [had accompanied them] during all the time the Lord Jesus went in and out among [them], beginning from the baptism of John until the day he was taken up from [them]” (Acts 1:21-22). So this implies that Matthias was with the rest during the time Jesus appeared during the 40 days.

So, actually, both “eleven” and “twelve” are correct-- eleven, if you just count the original apostles, and twelve if you include Matthias.