The Apostles - Overview

 And when He had called His twelve disciples to Him, He gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease. Now the names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus; Simon the Cananite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed Him. - Matthew 10:2‭-‬4

And He went up on the mountain and called to Him those He Himself wanted. And they came to Him. Then He appointed twelve, that they might be with Him and that He might send them out to preach, and to have power to heal sicknesses and to cast out demons: Simon, to whom He gave the name Peter; James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James, to whom He gave the name Boanerges, that is, “Sons of Thunder”; Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Cananite; and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed Him. And they went into a house. - Mark 3:13‭-‬19 

Now it came to pass in those days that He went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. And when it was day, He called His disciples to Himself; and from them He chose twelve whom He also named apostles: Simon, whom He also named Peter, and Andrew his brother; James and John; Philip and Bartholomew; Matthew and Thomas; James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon called the Zealot; Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot who also became a traitor. - Luke 6:12‭-‬16

The twelve apostles: Simon (Peter), Andrew, James the son of Zebedee, John the son of Zebedee, Philip, Bartholomew (Nathanael?), Thomas, Matthew (Levi), James the son of Alphaeus, Judas the son of James (Lebbaeus Thaddaeus), Simon the Cananite/Zealot, Judas Iscariot.

Out of the multitude of people who followed Jesus, He only invited twelve to intimately disciple. He would later choose these twelve to be His apostles, who would go and preach the good news of the Kingdom throughout the world. The Holy Spirit, along with their faithful efforts, gave birth to the church of which they would be the foundation (Revelation 21:14). 

The Bible doesn't provide much information about the apostles. In fact, it only gives account of when Jesus invited Philip, Peter, Andrew, James, John, and Matthew/Levi to follow Him. We don't know when or how he called the others.

According to the apostle John's gospel, Andrew and probably John, were disciples of John the Baptist. The day after Jesus was baptized, they were with John, baptizing at Bethany. At that time Jesus walked by and John the Baptist said, "Look, the Lamb of God!", and John's two disciples went and spent the day with Jesus. Because Andrew and John were disciples of John the Baptist, they were probably aware that the Messiah was coming soon, and therefore they were being watchful of His arrival. They seemed to have known immediately who John was referring to when he said, "Look, the Lamb of God!", because they immediately followed Him. The apostle John is the only New Testament writer who uses the term, "Lamb" for Jesus. Maybe this is because John the Baptist taught his disciples about the Messiah being the "sacricial lamb" whose blood would atone for the sins of the world. 

They also called Him "Rabbi", which means, "Great teacher", even though He was not an official religious teacher of Judaism. Maybe this was because they knew He was the Messiah, or because they knew He was a prophet. We know that when Jesus was twelve years old, He was found listening to the Jewish teachers and asking questions. The Bible says that Jesus continued to increase in wisdom and stature. Luke says that when Jesus went to Nazareth, where He had been brought up, "as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read." - Luke 4:16. Jesus regularly went to the synagogue, so maybe he taught in some capacity leading up to this time, and John's disciples were aware of it. However the Bible says that He didn't begin His public ministry until after John the Baptist was imprisoned almost a year later, so I'm not sure why they called Him "Rabbi" the first time they saw Him.

Afterwards, Andrew immediately went to his brother Simon (Peter), and said, "We have found the Messiah", and brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at Simon and said, "You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas" (which is translated, A Stone). This was Peter's first encounter with Jesus, but because his brother Andrew was a disciple of John the Baptist, he also was likely aware that the Messiah was coming soon. The only response of Peter in the recorded account, is of allowing Andrew to take him to Jesus. This seems to indicate that Peter believed Andrew's allegation of who Jesus was.

The next day, Jesus went to Galilee and "finding" Philip, he said to him, "Follow me". It sounds to me like Jesus went to Galilee in search of Philip, to invite him to be one of his disciples. Philip was the first disciple to be called by Jesus to follow Him, at least that is recorded in the Bible. 

Philip immediately went and told Nathanael that they had found the one Moses and the prophets wrote about - Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. The Bible doesn't tell us, but Philip may have been a disciple of John the Baptist, and therefore was aware of what Moses and the prophets said about the Messiah. John says that Philip was from the same town as Andrew and Peter, so it's also possible that they all knew each other, and therefore Philip heard from Andrew about the coming of the Messiah. It's also possible that he knew what the Scriptures say about the Messiah, and he was just waiting and watching for Him, maybe because he understood the times.

Many of the Jews did not, and therefore they were not waiting or watching, and they denied that Jesus was the Messiah and the Son of God. But there was a remnant who were eagerly anticipating His arrival, and Philip, as well as all of the apostles, were of this group. We know because they recognized Him when He came and they did not reject His claims of being the Messiah and the Son of God. In fact, they actually said that is who He was.

John records some dialogue between Jesus and Nathanael, but it does not say that Jesus invited Nathanael to follow Him. In Matthew, Mark and Luke, Nathanael is not listed among the Twelve Jesus chose as apostles, however some scholars think that Bartholomew, who is included in all three lists, is the same person as Nathanael. John lists Nathanael as a disciple among six of the other members of the Twelve, when Jesus appears to them before ascending to heaven, by the Sea of Tiberias in John 21, suggesting a strong possibility that he was an apostle. The dialogue between Jesus and Nathanael would suggest that Jesus chose him as an apostle also, but I will explain that later.

Almost an entire year later, after John the Baptist was imprisoned, Jesus invited Peter, Andrew, James and John to follow Him, while they were fishing in the Sea of Galilee. All four of them immediately left their occupations as fisherman to follow Jesus. James and John also left their father in the boat. Because they all had already encountered Jesus and knew that He was the Messiah, there was no hesitation to go when He called them. The Bible tells us that two of them were disciples of John the Baptist, but it's possible that all four of them were. It's interesting that Jesus did not call them to follow Him until after John the Baptist had been imprisoned. Just speculation, but perhaps because they were John's disciples, it was not yet time for Jesus to invite them to become His. But now since John was in prison and would soon be put to death, the time had come.

A few months after inviting "the fishers of men" to follow Him, Jesus was healing and casting out demons throughout various places in Galilee. When He went to Capernaum, He told a tax collector named Matthew to follow Him. Matthew writes in His gospel that he "got up and followed Him". Matthew doesn't say what it was about Jesus that influenced Him to follow Jesus. All we can do is speculate that Matthew was aware of Jesus because He had been performing miracles in Capernaum, and Jesus recognized Matthew as having the qualities of being His disciple. Later, Matthew invited Jesus and the other disciples to dinner at His house. Also present were "sinners", tax collectors, and Pharisees.

Mark and Luke record Jesus calling a tax collector named Levi to follow Him. I think that most Christians believe that Matthew and Levi were the same person, but there are some who believe they were different people. If they were different people, Levi is not among those listed as apostles when Jesus called them to be His apostles in Matthew, Mark or Luke.

One of the arguments given for them being the same person is that "Levi" was the name given to him by his parents, and "Matthew" was the name given to him after he became an apostle. This would kind of make sense given the fact that Matthew would use his apostolic name when writing about himself. 

Furthermore, the accounts are nearly identical with just a few differences. Mark names the tax collector, "Levi son of Alphaeus". The apostle James also had a father named Alphaeus, but most commentators do not believe that James's father Alphaeus and Levi's father Alphaeus are the same man. Luke documents a significant detail regarding Levi after Jesus told him to follow Him, that Matthew or Mark do not: "'Follow me,' Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything and followed him". "Leaving everything" indicates Levi's faithful commitment to follow Jesus. Levi demonstrated Immediate, Radical, Costly, Obedience - IRCO. 

Luke says in his gospel that Jesus called his disciples to him, and chose twelve to be apostles, after spending the entire night praying. We will look at each apostle in other posts.

The Apostles - Philip, Matthew (probably Levi) and James the Son of Alphaeus

 Philip

Philip was from the city of Bethsaida in northern Israel, and was the first disciple that Jesus called to follow Him - the first recorded in the Bible anyway. John 1:43 says that "Jesus wanted to go to Galilee, and He found Philip and said to him, 'Follow Me'. It sounds as if Jesus intentionally went to Galilee that day to look for Philip in order to personally present the invitation to him.

Immediately after receiving Jesus's invitation, Philip went and found Nathaniel, saying to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph" - John 1:45. Philip was aware of what the scriptures say about the Messiah, and he was awaiting, expecting and looking for His arrival, indicating that he was of the remnant of Israel, which is likely one of the reasons Jesus called Philip to follow Him.

Philip is believed to have carried the gospel to the ancient inhabitants of France, called the Gauls. He is also believed to have planted the church in Hierapolis which was in ancient Turkey. It is not known for certain how Philip died, but it is believed he was crucified and stoned in Hierapolis about AD 80. 

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Matthew (and probably Levi) the Tax Collector

Matthew was a tax collector who was invited by Jesus to follow Him. A Jewish teacher inviting a tax collector to be his disciple would have been shocking to religious Jews. Tax collectors during that time in Jerusalem were employed by Rome, who were the oppressor of the Jews. The Jews also believed that paying taxes to Rome was a sin. Tax collectors would often charge more taxes than what were owed in order to provide their own income. This was extortion, and it was typically committed against the poor, who were already struggling. 

Also, the teachers of Judaism typically did not invite students to follow them. Typically, the student would ask the teacher if he would disciple him. So for Jesus to invite men to follow Him as His disciples would have been contrary to the religious system which would have been shocking. In addition, Matthew, nor any of the Twelve for that matter, were students studying to become teachers of Judaism. Furthermore, Matthew was a despised tax collector. All of it would have been shocking and cause for concern to the religious Jews.

Jesus knew something about Matthew that the religious Jews did not. The Bible doesn't provide any evidence of what Matthew believed regarding matters of faith before being called to follow Jesus, but the biography he wrote of Jesus's life while He was on earth, indicates that at some point in his life he came to believe that Jesus was the promised Messiah that the prophets had spoken of.

It is evident throughout the Gospels and the New Testament that many Jews rejected Jesus's claim that He was the Messiah, however belief that Jesus is the Messiah was a common characteristic of each of the twelve disciples whom Jesus called to follow Him. Matthew recognized Jesus as the Messiah and likely wrote the Gospel to a Jewish audience in order to persuade them that Jesus the Messiah had arrived. 

Matthew's apostolic mission was to Ethiopia, Africa, where he was beheaded in in AD 60.

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James, the Son of Alphaeus

Other than his name being listed among the apostles in all three of the synoptic gospels, the Bible says nothing at all about James, the son of Alphaeus.

According to Foxes Voices of the Martyrs, church tradition holds that the apostles assigned themselves certain areas of the world to take the gospel to. Syria was appointed to James the son of Alphaeus, where it is believed he was stoned to death in AD 63 by Jews who rejected his message about Christ.

James's obedience to the Great Commission made Jesus's name known to ancient Iraq and even further east into India.

The Apostles - James the Son of Zebedee

 James the Son of Zebedee

James the son of Zebedee was the brother of John who is believed to have written the Gospel of John, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, and Revelation in the Bible. Both men were called by Jesus to follow Him one day as they cleaned their fishing nets by the Sea of Galilee. James and John immediately dropped their nets and left their father to follow Him.

Though the Bible says very little about James, it's likely that he was aware of Jesus being the Messiah through the preaching of John the Baptist, who had come to prepare the way for Jesus by revealing Him to Israel. John 1:35-42 says that two of John the Baptist's disciples were with him when Jesus walked by and John proclaimed, "Behold the Lamb of God!". The passage identifies one of the disciples as Andrew, but not the other one. My assumption is that the other disciple was John the brother of James, simply because John does not name himself when referring to himself in other passages within the Gospel of John. If this is the case, James would have heard about Jesus from his own brother. It's also possible that the other disciple mentioned was James, or that it was neither James or John, but somebody else. We don't know for sure, but whatever the case, James believed that Jesus was the Messiah spoken of by the prophets. This would explain why both he and his brother John immediately left their father and their fishing careers behind to follow Jesus when He extended the invitation almost a year later. The invitation to be a disciple of the Messiah would have been an extremely special privilege.

When Jesus and His disciples were traveling to Jerusalem where Jesus was going to be crucified, He said to them again that He was going to be betrayed, tortured, and killed, but that He was going to rise from death on the third day. Afterwards, the mother of James and John kneeled down and asked Jesus to allow her sons to sit at either side of Him in His kingdom. Jesus responded with a question to the two sons, asking them if they were able to drink the cup that He was about to drink, and to be baptized with the baptism that He is baptized with. They responded that they were able, probably with excitement thinking they were going to have the great honor and privilege of being seated next to Jesus, and therefore ruling God's kingdom with Him.

"So He said to them, 'You will indeed drink My cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with; but to sit on My right hand and on My left is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it is prepared by My Father.'" - Matthew 20:23

It is likely that neither James, John, or their mother understood what Jesus meant when He said this, but both men did drink the cup of suffering and death that Jesus promised to them, and in a sense they were seated at either side of Jesus in His kingdom, with James being the first apostle killed and John being the last, forming the "book ends" of the deaths of the apostles, as Foxes Voices of the Martyrs puts it.

An ancient church in Spain claims to have some of the remains of James's body, so it is possible that he went to Spain on an apostolic mission sometime between the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and his death in Jerusalem. There is no evidence of this recorded in the book of Acts, but there is also nothing recorded about what James and many of the other apostles were doing during that period of time, so it could be possible, especially given Jesus's command to His disciples that He gave before He ascended to heaven, to go and make disciples of all nations, . 

We know from Acts 12:1 that "King Herod stretched out his hand to harass some from the church". Herod Agrippa ruled a region that included Judea and Galilee. Agrippa seemed to favor Judaism, and with this new ideology going around that Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of God sent as Israel's Messiah, he might have thought that persecuting Christians would be pleasing to the Jews, since most Jews rejected these claims made first by Jesus Himself, and then His apostles. 

It was during this time that James was captured and killed by the sword by King Herod in Jerusalem about AD 44. When Herod saw that the death of James pleased the Jews, he imprisoned the apostle Peter with the intention of putting him to death also. However, God intervened on Peter's behalf and miraculously rescued Peter from Herod's clutch (Acts 12:1-19).

Acts 12:20-24 says that God struck Herod Agrippa dead shortly afterwards for not giving God the glory when they praised him by calling him a god after agreeing to a peace settlement offered by the cities of Tyre and Sidon. Verse 23 says that he was "eaten by worms and died".

Following verse 23, verse 24 says, "But the word of God grew and multiplied". Despite the fact that Herod favored the Jews, he did not deny Tyre and Sidon's praises towards him or worship God as the One True God. Along with the Jews, he also rejected Jesus as the Son of God and the Messiah, and caused harm to the people whom Jesus placed in authority over His church, therefore God's favor was not with them, but with the apostles and the church.

Even though Luke, the writer of Acts does not record the events of James, we know that he was an active participant in spreading the gospel because he was persecuted and killed for Jesus and His kingdom.