After the Ascension of Jesus, the eleven apostles returned to the Upper Room to pray along with Mary and a “company of persons”. St. Luke describes the number of people using terminology that is pregnant with theological and Jewish meaning. His readers would have understood the implications, whereas modern readers may miss it.
St. Luke records, “In those days Peter stood up among the brothers (the company of persons was in all about 120)” (Acts 1:15).
The parenthetical statement about the 120 seems to be an added explanation inserted within the main line of thought, though incidental to it. Luke need not add this to advance his narration, but includes the side note to signal us to a deeper meaning embedded in the current storyline.
With piqued interest, I looked more closely at this phase inserted into the account working up to Pentecost. Luke uses the word “about,” which made me wonder if the number 120 was consequential, maybe even symbolic, rounded up to indicate something of a numerical significance. “Sometimes [Luke] uses about to relativize a number in order to introduce a biblical allusion.” I realized something was going on in this nine-word phrase. It was as though Luke were nodding his head to say, “Good, dig deeper and discover the cultural significance.”
