Who Were the Twelve Apostles?

Who Were the Twelve Apostles?

| Illiterate Jesus | Biblical History | The Serpent of Eden | The Bible | The Twelve Apostles | Centre Place CA | Religion for Breakfast | Yale Courses | The Naked Archeaologist | Miscs | Quran |

Why Jesus Had Only 12 Disciples?

It was significant for Jesus to choose 12 apostles instead of another number. The apostles represented God’s new covenant, just as the 12 tribes of Israel represented the old covenant (Luke 22:29–30). The number 12 often signifies a complete divine arrangement or organization. [Owlcation]

Who Were the 12 Disciples?

They were a diverse group of ordinary uneducated men with quick tempers. They argued among themselves. All of them fled when Jesus was crucified on the cross (Matthew 26:56). They were probably not the type of men who would be chosen by religious leaders today. [Owlcation]

Figures on Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper (from left):

1. Bartholomew the Apostle

• Born in 24 BCE Cana, Galilee, Roman Empire
• Died in 69 CE (aged about 93) Albanopolis
• He is said to have been martyred for having converted Polymius, King of Armenia, to Christianity. He has also been identified as Nathanael or Nathaniel, who appears in the Gospel of John when introduced to Jesus by Philip (who also became an apostle; John 1:43–51), although some modern commentators reject the identification of Nathanael with Bartholomew. Source: Wikipedia

2. James the Less

• No date of birth, nor of death
• He is identified by some as James, son of Alphaeus and as James, brother of Jesus, thought of by Jerome and those who followed him as really the cousin of Jesus. Source: Wikipedia

3. Andrew the Apostle

• Born in 9 BCE Bethsaida, Galilee, Roman Empire
• Died in 60/70 CE Patras, Achaea, Roman Empire
• He is the brother of Simon Peter. He is referred to in the Orthodox tradition as the First-Called. According to Orthodox tradition, the apostolic successor to Andrew is the Patriarch of Constantinople.
• The name “Andrew” (Greek: manly, brave, from ἀνδρεία, Andreia, “manhood, valour”), like other Greek names, appears to have been common among the Jews and other Hellenized people of Judea. No Hebrew or Aramaic name is recorded for him. Source: Wikipedia

4. Saint Peter aka Peter the Apostle aka Peter the Rock aka Simon Peter aka Simeon aka Simon aka Cephas

• Born in c. 1 CE Bethsaida, Gaulanitis, Syria, Roman Empire. As Shimon Bar Yonah (Hebrew: שמעון בר יונה) (Simeon, Simon)
• Died between 64–68 CE Vatican Hill, Rome, Italia, Roman Empire
• Also known as Peter the Apostle, Peter the Rock, Simon Peter, Simeon, Simon or Cephas
• He was one of the first leaders of the early Church. He is traditionally counted as the first bishop of Rome‍—‌or pope‍—‌and also as the first bishop of Antioch. Source: Wikipedia

5. Judas Iscariot

• The dark skinned one on the painting
• No date of birth
• Died in 30 or 33 CE Jerusalem, Judea, Roman Empire
• Cause of death varies:
  • Suicide by hanging, Matthew 27:1–10
  • Buy a field, fell headlong and died. In this account, Judas’ death is apparently by accident and he shows no signs of remorse. Acts 1:18
• The name “Judas” (Ὶούδας) is a Greek rendering of the Hebrew name Judah (יהודה, Y^ehûdâh, Hebrew for “God is thanked”), which was an extremely common name for Jewish men during the first century CE, due to the renowned hero Judas Maccabeus.
• Judas betrayed Jesus to the Sanhedrin in the Garden of Gethsemane by kissing him and addressing him as “rabbi” to reveal his identity in the darkness to the crowd who had come to arrest him. His name is often used synonymously with betrayal or treason. In Christianity, Judas is seen as an antagonist. Judas’s epithet “Iscariot” most likely means he came from the village of Kerioth, but many other possibilities have been suggested.
• The Gospel of Mark, the earliest gospel, gives no motive for Judas’s betrayal, but does present Jesus predicting it at the Last Supper, an event also described in all the later gospels. Source: Wikipedia

5b. Matthias the Apostle (not on the painting)

• Matthias was not among apostles on the painting
• Born in 1st century CE Judaea, Roman Empire
• Died in c. 80 CE Jerusalem, Judaea or in Colchis (modern-day Georgia)
• He was, according to the Acts of the Apostles (written c. 63 CE), chosen by the apostles to replace Judas Iscariot following the latter’s betrayal of Jesus and his subsequent death. His calling as an apostle is unique, in that his appointment was not made personally by Jesus, and it was also made before the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the early Church. There is no mention of a Matthias among the lists of disciples or followers of Jesus in the three synoptic gospels, but according to Acts, he had been with Jesus from his baptism by John until his Ascension. In the days following, Peter proposed that the assembled disciples, who numbered about 120, nominate two men to replace Judas. They chose Joseph called Barsabas (whose surname was Justus) and Matthias. Then they cast lots (random, such as the rolling of dice, but that are sometimes believed to reveal the will of God, or other universal forces and entities), and the lot fell to Matthias; so he was numbered with the eleven apostles
• No further information about Matthias is to be found
• Surviving fragments of the lost Gospels of Matthias attribute it to Matthias, but Early Church Fathers attributed it to heretical writings in the 2nd century
• Acta Andreae et Matthiae apud Anthropophagos (“The Acts of Andrew and Matthias among the Anthropophagi”) which exists in several Latin manuscript traditions, is the dramatic romance featuring the Apostles Andrew and Matthias among the cannibals, a thriller featuring gory details that was written for a Christian audience in the 2nd century CE. Constantin von Tischendorf published an edited text following Johann Karl Thilo, 1846. Source: Wikipedia

6. John the Apostle aka Saint John the Beloved

• On the left side of Jesus on the painting
• Born in c. 6 CE Bethsaida, Galilee, Roman Empire
• Died in c. 100 CE (aged 93–94) place unknown, probably Ephesus, Roman Empire (modern-day Selçuk, Izmir, Turkey)
• Also known as John the Apostle or Saint John the Beloved
• Generally listed as the youngest apostle, he was the son of Zebedee and Salome. His brother was James [the Great], who was another of the Twelve Apostles. The Church Fathers identify him as John the Evangelist, John of Patmos, John the Elder, and the Beloved Disciple, and testify that he outlived the remaining apostles and was the only one to die of natural causes, although modern scholars are divided on the veracity of these claims. Source: Wikipedia

7. Jesus Christ (in the middle)

8. Thomas the Apostle aka Doubting Thomas aka Didymus

• On the right side of Jesus on the painting on
• Born in 1st century CE Pansada, Galilee, Province of Judea, Roman Empire
• Died in Dec. 21, 72 CE St. Thomas Mount, Chola Kingdom (present-day Mylapore, Tamil Nadu, India. Tomb possibly under Santhome Church)
• Thomas the Apostle (Aramaic: 𐡀𐡌𐡅𐡕𐡌, Biblical Hebrew: תוֹמָאס הקדוש, Classical Syriac: ܬܐܘܡܐ, Tʾōmā, meaning “twin”; Koinē Greek: Θωμᾶς), also known as Didymus (“twin”)
• Thomas is commonly known as “Doubting Thomas” because he initially doubted the resurrection of Jesus Christ when he was told of it (as is related in the Gospel of John alone); he later confessed his faith (“My Lord and my God”) on seeing the wounds left over from the crucifixion.
• According to traditional accounts of the Saint Thomas Christians of modern-day Kerala in India, Thomas travelled outside the Roman Empire to preach the Gospel, travelling as far as the Tamilakam which is in South India, and reached Muziris of Tamilakam (modern-day North Paravur and Kodungalloor in Kerala State, India) in 52 CE. The name Thomas remains quite popular among the Saint Thomas Christians of the Indian subcontinent. Source: Wikipedia

9. James the Great aka James, son of Zebedee aka Saint James the Great aka Saint James the Greater aka Saint Jacob

• Born Bethsaida, Galilee, Roman Empire (no date of birth)
• Died in 44 CE Jerusalem, Judea, Roman Empire
• Cause of death: “Herod the king” (usually identified with Herod Agrippa I) had James executed by the sword, Acts 12:2
• Also known as James the Great, James, son of Zebedee, Saint James the Great, Saint James the Greater, or Saint Jacob
• The son of Zebedee and Salome, James is styled “the Greater” to distinguish him from the Apostle James “the Less”, with “greater” meaning older or taller, rather than more important. James the Great was the brother of John the Apostle. James is described as one of the first disciples to join Jesus. Source: Wikipedia

10. Philip the Apostle

• Born in 22 BCE Bethsaida, Galilee, Roman Empire (modern-day Israel)
• Died in 65 CE Hierapolis, Asia, Roman Empire (modern-day Pamukkale, Denizli, Turkey)
• Philip bore a Greek name, may have spoken Greek
• Later Christian traditions describe Philip as the apostle who preached in Greece, Syria, and Phrygia. Source: Wikipedia

11. Matthew the Apostle aka Levi

• Born in 1st century CE Capernaum
• Died in 1st century CE near Hierapolis (modern-day Pamukkale, Denizli, Turkey), or Ethiopia
• Also known as Matthew the Apostle, Saint Matthew and possibly as Levi
• Later Church fathers such as Irenaeus and Clement of Alexandria claim that Matthew preached the Gospel to the Jewish community in Judea, before going to other countries. Ancient writers are not in agreement as to which other countries these are.
• In passages parallel to Matthew 9:9, both Mark 2:14 and Luke 5:27 describe Jesus’s calling of the tax collector Levi, the son of Alphaeus, but Mark and Luke never explicitly equate this Levi with the Matthew named as one of the twelve apostles
• As a tax collector, he would probably have been literate and could write highly educated Greek
• The Gospel of Matthew is anonymous: the author is not named within the text, and the superscription “according to Matthew” was added some time in the second century. The tradition that the author was the disciple Matthew begins with the early Christian bishop Papias of Hierapolis (c. 60–163 CE). On the surface, this has been taken to imply that Matthew’s Gospel itself was written in Hebrew or Aramaic by the apostle Matthew and later translated into Greek, but nowhere does the author claim to have been an eyewitness to events, and Matthew’s Greek “reveals none of the telltale marks of a translation”. The consensus is that Papias does not describe the Gospel of Matthew as we know it, and it is generally accepted that Matthew was written in Greek, not in Aramaic or Hebrew. Therefore, while the traditional authorship still has its defenders, some scholars reject the Matthean authorship of the gospel. Source: Wikipedia

12. Jude the Apostle aka Judas/Jude Thaddaeus aka Jude of James aka Lebbaeus

• Born in 1st century CE Galilee, Roman Empire
• Died in 1st century CE Armenia
• Also known as Jude. He is generally identified with Thaddeus, and is also variously called Judas Thaddaeus, Jude Thaddaeus, Jude of James, or Lebbaeus
• He is sometimes identified with Jude, the brother of Jesus, but is clearly distinguished from Judas Iscariot
• Aside from Judas Iscariot, the New Testament mentions Jude or Judas six times, in four different contexts:

1. “Jude of James”, one of the twelve apostles (Luke 6:16 and Acts 1:13);
2. “Judas, (not Judas Iscariot)”, apparently an apostle (John 14:22);
3. the brother of Jesus (Matthew 13:55, Mark 6:3);
4. the writer of the Epistle of Jude, who identifies himself as “the brother of James” (Jude 1). Source: Wikipedia

13. Simon the Zealot aka Simon the Canaanite aka Simon the Canaanean

• Born in 1st century CE Cana, Galilee, Judaea, Roman Empire
• Died in c. 60 or 107 CE (place of death disputed)
• Also known as Simon the Zealot (Acts 1:13, Luke 6:15) or Simon the Canaanite or Simon the Canaanean (Matthew 10:4, Mark 3:18)
• A few pseudepigraphical writings were connected to him, but Saint Jerome does not include him in De viris illustribus written between 392 and 393 CE
• The name Simon occurs in all of the Synoptic Gospels and the Book of Acts each time there is a list of apostles, without further details. Source: Wikipedia

In Islam

• The Quranic account of the disciples of Jesus does not include their names, numbers, or any detailed accounts of their lives. Muslim exegesis, however, more-or-less agrees with the New Testament list and says that the disciples included Peter, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, Andrew, James, Jude, John, James, son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot. Source: Wikipedia

Brothers of Jesus

• According to Dr. James Tabor the three lesser known Disciples may be brothers of Jesus.
  • James, son of Alfeaus (here Disciple #2)
  • Judas/Thaddeaus (here Disciple #12)
  • Simon the Zealotes (here Disciple #13)

Which Disciples were Mentioned in the Bible and the non-canonical texts?

Copyright © 2022 Heart-Attack-Series, Ink!
Created: July 26, 2022. Last updated: April 19, 2023 at 18:52 pm