The passage from Luke 10 in the Gospel of Luke, the only gospel in which they are mentioned, includes specific instructions for the mission, beginning with (in Douay–Rheims Bible):[1] And after these things the Lord appointed also other seventy-two: and he sent them two and two before his face into every city and place whither he himself was to come.In Western Christianity, they are usually referred to as disciples,[2] whereas in Eastern Christianity they are usually referred to as apostles.

The first occasion (Luke 9:1–6) is closely based on the "limited commission" mission in Mark 6:6–13, which, however, recounts the sending out of the twelve apostles, rather than seventy, though with similar details.

Each of the seventy disciples also has individual commemorations scattered throughout the liturgical year (see Eastern Orthodox Church calendar).

A Greek text titled On the Seventy Apostles of Christ is known from several manuscripts, the oldest in Codex Baroccianus 206, a ninth-century palimpsest lectionary.

[11] Some accounts of the legendary Saint Mantius of Évora regard him as one of the disciples, having witnessed the Last Supper and Pentecost.