Ministry
The Holy Bible · Ministry · The twelve roles behind the chapter emblems
The twelve ministerial roles
Ministry here is read through twelve roles gathered into four works — preaching, teaching, healing and leading — three roles to each work. Over the four stands a thirteenth office, the Shepherd, which is not a role beside the others but the one that holds all four and ordains into them. Each of the twelve carries a stone, a son of Israel, a tribe and an apostle. The Shepherd carries none of these, and that is deliberate.
The twelve stones are not chosen for their colour. They are the stones of the high priest’s breastpiece, named in Exodus 28:17–20, and the reason the roles can be read against the sons of Israel at all is the verse that follows: the twelve stones were engraved with the names of the sons of Israel, one name to a stone (Exodus 28:21). The breastpiece was worn over the heart, and the whole people were carried on it.
Exodus is not the only place where twelve names are set on twelve stones. Revelation 21:14 says the wall of the city has twelve foundations, and on them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb; 21:19–20 then names the twelve foundation stones. The tribes are carried on the breastpiece, over the heart. The apostles are laid in the foundation. The stone is the hinge in both directions, so the same twelve stones that give the sons give the apostles.
Ten of the twelve stones here stand in both lists. Two do not, and the seam is left visible rather than papered over: the Cleric’s onyx answers to Revelation’s sardonyx, which is onyx banded with sard — a near neighbour — and the Prophet’s turquoise answers to chrysoprase, another green-blue stone but not the same one. Revelation’s sardonyx and chrysoprase are otherwise unclaimed, and Exodus’s turquoise and onyx have no counterpart in the wall.
Scripture names the stones and names the men, but never says which stone belongs to which — not for the sons, and not for the apostles. Those pairings are tradition, and traditions differ. The pairings used here are made by meaning: each role stands beside the son whose blessing in Genesis 49 and Deuteronomy 33 speaks to the same work, and beside the apostle whose recorded life does the same. The reasoning is printed in full for every role, so that it can be weighed rather than taken on trust. Translators also differ over several of the stones themselves; the names here follow the modern rendering of Exodus 28.
One thing has to be said plainly, because it is easy to miss. The twelve sons and the twelve tribes are not the same twelve. Levi is set apart for the sanctuary and takes no camp of his own, and Joseph becomes two tribes in Ephraim and Manasseh (Numbers 1:47–53; Numbers 2). So the table carries both columns, and they do not line up one to one. That is not an error in the scheme — it is the shape of the thing itself.
The apostle list used here is Acts 1:13 together with Matthias (Acts 1:26) — the twelve as the church stood at Pentecost. It is chosen because it settles, within scripture itself, the one thing the other lists leave open: the eleven deliberately restored the number to twelve so that the witness would be whole. Matthew 10 and Mark 3 name Thaddaeus where Luke and Acts name Judas son of James, and these are generally taken to be one man, so nothing is lost by it. Revelation 21:14 names none of the twelve, so the choice of list is ours, and it is declared here rather than assumed. These apostolic pairings are weaker than the pairings to the sons, and unevenly so: every one of Jacob’s twelve has a blessing in Genesis 49 to reason from, while several of the apostles have little or nothing recorded of them at all. Where a pairing leans on tradition rather than on the text, it says so.
The twelve at a glance
| Work | Role | Stone | Son of Israel | Tribe and camp | Apostle |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Preaching | Pastor | Emerald | Judah | Judah — east, camp of Judah | Peter |
| Preaching | Vicar | Beryl | Dan | Dan — north, camp of Dan | Matthias |
| Preaching | Minister | Jasper | Gad | Gad — south, camp of Reuben | Philip |
| Teaching | Reverend | Chrysolite | Issachar | Issachar — east, camp of Judah | Bartholomew |
| Teaching | Deacon | Topaz | Simeon | Simeon — south, camp of Reuben | Matthew |
| Teaching | Evangelist | Jacinth | Zebulun | Zebulun — east, camp of Judah | Andrew |
| Healing | Cleric | Onyx | Benjamin | Benjamin — west, camp of Ephraim | Thomas |
| Healing | Chaplain | Agate | Asher | Asher — north, camp of Dan | Judas son of James |
| Healing | Prophet | Turquoise | Naphtali | Naphtali — north, camp of Dan | John |
| Leading | Bishop | Amethyst | Reuben | Reuben — south, camp of Reuben | James son of Alphaeus |
| Leading | Priest | Carnelian | Levi | Set apart — encamped around the tabernacle | Simon the Zealot |
| Leading | Apostle | Lapis lazuli | Joseph | Ephraim and Manasseh — west, camp of Ephraim | James son of Zebedee |
The four works answer in shape to the four camps of Israel: three roles to a work as there are three tribes to a camp, with one set apart at the centre in each case. The tribe column keeps its own arithmetic — three roles fall in the camp of Judah, three in Reuben, three in Dan, and two across Ephraim’s three tribes, since the Apostle answers to Joseph and Joseph is two. The shapes rhyme; they are not yet the same mapping, and this page does not pretend otherwise.
One note on the emblems. Some roles fall to far more chapters than others — the Bishop to several hundred, the Deacon to a hundred. How often a role appears carries no weight. Each chapter was given the role that suited it, not a share of a quota, and no claim about the standing of an office should be read out of the count.
Preaching
The word spoken to a gathered people. These three carry the proclamation itself: one who feeds a settled congregation, one who can stand in his place, and one who grounds what is preached in doctrine and in history.
Pastor · Emerald · Judah · Peter
Deep forest green. Nurturing the congregation and cultivating faithful growth.
Formation. Formed in pastoral theology and the practice of preaching — the care of a settled congregation, and the word spoken to it week by week.
Jacob calls Judah a lion’s whelp and says the sceptre will not depart from him (Genesis 49:9–10). From Judah came David, taken from following the sheep to shepherd Israel, and after him the Good Shepherd. The pastor’s work is the shepherd’s work, and Judah camps first, on the east, at the entrance of the tabernacle.
Apostle: Peter. Three times beside the lake he is told to feed the lambs and tend the sheep (John 21:15–17), and he hands the same charge on in the same words — shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight willingly (1 Peter 5:2).
Vicar · Beryl · Dan · Matthias
Soft sea green. Continuity, dependable support, and shared responsibility.
Formation. Formed in Scripture and in the practical life of the church, so that the pastor’s place can be held without the office faltering.
Dan is a son of a handmaid, and Jacob says he shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel (Genesis 49:16) — holding a full place that was not his by birthright. That is what the word means: vicarius, one who acts in another’s stead — in this scheme the place of the pastor, never the place of Christ. Continuity rests on someone being able to stand in without the office faltering. Dan is also absent from the tribes sealed in Revelation 7, which is a sober reminder that standing in another’s place is a trust, and trusts can be forfeited.
Apostle: Matthias. Chosen by the eleven to take the place left empty, so that the twelve should be twelve again (Acts 1:20–26). He holds a full apostolic place that was not his by original calling — the vicar’s office exactly, and Dan’s as one of the tribes over again.
Minister · Jasper · Gad · Philip
Earthy brick red. Practical service grounded in everyday human needs.
Formation. Formed in systematic theology and the history of the church, so that what is preached is grounded in doctrine and in what the faith has already lived through.
Gad took his inheritance east of the Jordan and then went over armed ahead of his brothers, refusing to return home until every tribe held its own land (Numbers 32:16–32). Moses says Gad executed the justice of the Lord (Deuteronomy 33:21). Practical service grounded in everyday need is exactly that: the work done on the ground, first, and for somebody else’s sake.
Apostle: Philip. When the crowd needed feeding it is Philip who does the arithmetic and finds it wanting (John 6:5–7), and Philip who is approached when the Greeks ask to see Jesus (John 12:20–22). The practical man, handed the practical problems.
Teaching
Understanding handed on. These three make the faith intelligible: the scholar who reads the times, the instructor who makes it reachable, and the one who carries it to people who are not yet listening.
Reverend · Chrysolite · Issachar · Bartholomew
Muted olive gold. Patient scholarship, discernment, and understanding.
Formation. Formed in the theology of the church and in philosophy — the settled study that reads the times and tells the rest what hour it is.
Moses sets Zebulun’s going out against Issachar’s tents in a single breath (Deuteronomy 33:18): one tribe travels, the other stays and studies. The men of Issachar are those who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do (1 Chronicles 12:32). That is the settled work — the scholarship that tells everyone else what hour it is.
Apostle: Bartholomew. Traditionally the Nathanael of John 1:45–51 — an Israelite in whom is no deceit, seen under the fig tree, who moves from can anything good come out of Nazareth to confession. Discernment willing to correct itself is the scholar’s virtue. The identification of Bartholomew with Nathanael is tradition, not text.
Deacon · Topaz · Simeon · Matthew
Honey gold. Making understanding accessible through instruction and service.
Formation. Formed in a trade or discipline outside theology, and in teaching. The deacon’s expertise is brought in from outside and put to the church’s use — which is close to the seven of Acts 6, appointed so that others could stay at prayer and the word.
This is the hardest pairing on the page, and it is kept deliberately. Jacob’s word over Simeon is judgement: he will be divided in Jacob and scattered in Israel (Genesis 49:5–7), and Simeon receives no blessing at all in Deuteronomy 33. His inheritance fell inside Judah’s portion (Joshua 19:1–9) — a tribe living among another people’s ground rather than holding its own. Making understanding accessible is work done dispersed, in someone else’s house; and it is worth remembering that what began as a scattering became the means by which teaching reached every part.
Apostle: Matthew. Called from the tax booth (Matthew 9:9), a keeper of records who left the ledger; the Gospel that carries his name gathers the teaching into five great blocks, the most teachable ordering of it. The booth is text; the authorship is tradition.
Evangelist · Jacinth · Zebulun · Andrew
Ember orange. The warmth and urgency of sharing the good news.
Formation. Formed in Scripture, in the telling of the good news, and in giving a reason for the hope that is held.
Zebulun dwells at the haven of the sea and is a haven for ships (Genesis 49:13), and Moses tells him to rejoice in his going out (Deuteronomy 33:18) — the tribe of harbours, where news arrives and departs. In the land of Zebulun and Naphtali the people who sat in darkness saw a great light, and it was there that the preaching began (Isaiah 9:1–2; Matthew 4:13–17). The good news has a place on the map, and this is it.
Apostle: Andrew. Every time he appears he is bringing somebody — his brother Simon (John 1:40–42), the boy with the loaves (John 6:8–9), the Greeks who asked to see Jesus (John 12:20–22).
Healing
The work done beside people rather than in front of them, and it divides three ways — body, mind and spirit. One role to each, and none of them the same work as the others.
Cleric · Onyx · Benjamin · Thomas
Near-black with a warm highlight. Steadfast presence beside people in suffering.
Formation. Formed in a discipline outside theology and in the care of the body. The work is physical — practical counsel for the whole person, given in service.
Moses blesses Benjamin as the beloved of the Lord, who dwells in safety beside him and is covered all the day long (Deuteronomy 33:12). The blessing is about being dwelt beside, not about being lifted out. Steadfast presence in suffering has the same posture. Jacob’s word over Benjamin is harder — a wolf that tears (Genesis 49:27) — and the two held together are honest about what it costs to stay near real affliction.
Apostle: Thomas. He would not be told about the wounds; he had to put his hand in them (John 20:24–29). Earlier he is the one who says, let us also go, that we may die with him (John 11:16). Presence in suffering, with nothing hidden.
Chaplain · Agate · Asher · Judas son of James
Gentle cream-and-brown bands. Patient listening and accompanying the layers of a person’s life.
Formation. Formed in spiritual and therapeutic counselling. The work is mental — patient, careful accompaniment, given in care.
Asher’s bread is rich and he yields royal dainties (Genesis 49:20); Moses asks that he be acceptable to his brothers, that he dip his foot in oil, and that as his days are, so shall his strength be (Deuteronomy 33:24–25). Oil is the substance of anointing and of comfort both. Patient accompaniment is a strength measured in days rather than in moments — and the agate’s own beauty is its layers, laid down slowly, one over another.
Apostle: Judas son of James, called Thaddaeus in Matthew and Mark. In the middle of the farewell discourse he asks the quiet question — how is it that you will show yourself to us, and not to the world? (John 14:22). Later tradition makes him the one turned to in desperate cases, which is chaplain’s ground.
Prophet · Turquoise · Naphtali · John
Weathered blue-green. Speaking clearly toward restoration and renewed faithfulness.
Formation. Formed in Scripture and in the mystical tradition of the church. The work is spiritual — inspired witness, given in sharing. The prophet is the one office here that formation can prepare for but never confer.
Naphtali is a hind let loose, who gives goodly words (Genesis 49:21) — a tribe named for what it says, and for saying it unconstrained. Moses calls him satisfied with favour and full of blessing (Deuteronomy 33:23). Naphtali shares with Zebulun the country where the great light was seen (Isaiah 9:1–2), so prophecy and proclamation stand side by side on the northern and eastern edges of the same land.
Apostle: John. A son of thunder (Mark 3:17) who ends as the one writing to seven churches, calling each back by name, and closing with a river and a tree whose leaves are for the healing of the nations. Speech let loose, toward restoration.
Leading
Leading is not a fourth kind of work so much as responsibility for the other three. A bishop still preaches, a priest still heals, and an apostle still teaches; what distinguishes these three roles is that they answer for the work of others as well as their own. Two of them are managerial and one executive.
Bishop · Amethyst · Reuben · James son of Alphaeus
Deep violet. Measured oversight, spiritual care, and responsibility.
Formation. Formed in the whole of the church’s theology and practice. Answers for a region: oversight of its churches, ordaining into the roles, and serving a parish of his own.
Reuben is the firstborn — Jacob’s might, the beginning of his strength, the excellency of dignity and the excellency of power — and in the same breath, unstable as water, and shall not excel (Genesis 49:3–4). Oversight is given its full weight and its full warning in one sentence. Moses’ entire prayer for Reuben is that he live and not die, and that his men not be few (Deuteronomy 33:6). Responsibility is measured because it can be lost.
Apostle: James son of Alphaeus. This pairing rests on a contested identification: Western tradition following Jerome joins him to James the Just, who gave the deciding judgement at the council in Jerusalem (Acts 15:13–21). Eastern tradition and most modern scholarship keep the two apart. With the identification it is the clearest picture of measured oversight among the twelve; without it, almost nothing is recorded of him — which is its own fair warning about how much weight an office should be asked to carry.
Priest · Carnelian · Levi · Simon the Zealot
Warm blood red. Sacrificial service, prayer, and reconciliation.
Formation. Formed in covenant theology and the whole practice of the church. Answers for a church: its worship and its people, and standing in for the minister.
Moses blesses Levi with the Thummim and the Urim, with teaching Jacob God’s judgments, and with incense and whole burnt offering upon the altar (Deuteronomy 33:8–10) — discernment, instruction and sacrifice named in order. Levi alone is not numbered with the armies and receives no camp, but pitches around the tabernacle itself (Numbers 1:47–53; 2:17). The priest does not stand on one side. He stands in the middle.
Apostle: Simon the Zealot. His name is his party: zeal for the law and the temple. Levi’s own priesthood was secured by zeal — that of Phinehas, which turned back wrath and won a covenant of perpetual priesthood (Numbers 25:11–13). Simon’s zeal, redirected, stands in that line.
Apostle · Lapis lazuli · Joseph · James son of Zebedee
Deep blue with gold flecks. A mission carried outward with steadfast conviction.
Formation. Formed in missional theology and the whole practice of the church. Answers for the sending: leading in preaching and teaching, and planting churches.
Joseph is the son sent ahead into a foreign land, who tells his brothers that God sent him before them to preserve life (Genesis 45:5–7). Moses blesses his horns to push the nations to the ends of the earth — the myriads of Ephraim and the thousands of Manasseh (Deuteronomy 33:17). Joseph is also the one son who becomes two tribes, which is how twelve sons and twelve encamping tribes both stay twelve: the sending doubles what was sent.
Apostle: James son of Zebedee. Asked whether he could drink the cup, he said he could (Mark 10:38–39), and he was the first of the twelve to be killed for it, by Herod’s sword (Acts 12:2). Mission carried outward, and paid for.
The Shepherd
Over the four works stands the Shepherd. Formed in the whole of the church’s theology and practice, and answering for the whole: the Shepherd ordains bishops and presides over every parish.
The Shepherd is not a thirteenth role standing alongside the twelve. It is the office that holds all four works and ordains into them, which is why it carries no stone, no son and no apostle. There are twelve stones on the breastpiece and twelve foundations in the wall, and the number is not ours to extend. Nor does the office stand in Christ’s place. Peter tells the elders to shepherd the flock of God among them, and adds that when the chief Shepherd appears they will receive the unfading crown of glory (1 Peter 5:2–4). The Shepherd here is an under-shepherd like the rest, marked out by what it answers for, not by whom it replaces.
There is an echo worth naming rather than leaving to be noticed. Levi — who is the Priest’s son here — is likewise set apart, taking no camp and pitching around the tabernacle instead of on one side of it. The two set-apart positions rhyme, but they are not the same: Levi stands inside the twelve as a son and outside them as a camp, while the Shepherd stands outside the twelve altogether. One is a tribe without ground; the other is an office without a stone.
Stewards and hirelings
None of the twelve is the Shepherd, and the flock is not theirs. Peter, writing to elders, tells them to shepherd the flock of God that is among them, exercising oversight willingly and not lording it over those in their charge — and he signs himself a fellow elder rather than a lord over them (1 Peter 5:1–3). The sheep belong to God. The twelve are men entrusted with what is not their own.
John 10 sets two figures against each other. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hireling — whose own the sheep are not — sees the wolf coming, abandons the flock and runs, and the wolf scatters them; and he runs, the passage says, because he is a hired man and cares nothing for the sheep (John 10:11–13). The difference is not ownership. The sheep are not the under-shepherd’s either. What separates the two is whether he is still standing there when the wolf comes.
The warning is older than the parable. Ezekiel 34 is addressed to shepherds who fed themselves and not the flock, who did not strengthen the weak or bind up the broken or go after the lost — and the Lord says that he is against the shepherds, and will require his flock at their hand. John 10 is spoken against that background, and these twelve roles stand under it.
So the office is no shelter. Those who teach will be judged more strictly (James 3:1). Those who keep watch over souls do so as men who must give an account (Hebrews 13:17). From everyone to whom much is given, much will be required (Luke 12:48). And the twelve are sheep as well as stewards. The same chapter of Ezekiel that condemns the shepherds turns and judges between sheep and sheep (Ezekiel 34:17); nothing on this page puts a man outside the flock, or outside the judgement that falls on it.
The emblems mark an office, not a merit. A man may hold any of the twelve and be a hireling in it.
These twelve emblems appear above the heading of every chapter of the Saints Translation, one to a chapter, so that the reading and the ministry are never far apart.