disciples

Committed followers of a teacher [[➝ teaching]]. Some of the OT prophets had disciples (Isa. 8:16) who were pupils or learners, and this was later maintained as a rabbinic custom. John the Baptist had disciples (Mark 2:18) and the word is applied to those who accompanied Jesus (Mark 6:45), among whom were the Seventy [[➝ seventy]] (Luke 10:1, 23) and the more closely associated Twelve [[➝ Twelve, the]] (Matt. 10:1). These, in Matt., not only learn from Jesus (16:21) but are also to teach (28:20) and even to forgive sins (18:18).