Quest for the Historical Apostles

Tracing Their Lives and Legacies

Shelton, W. Brian

• Publisher: Baker Academic
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781493413195
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: History of Christianity

The stories and contributions of the apostles provide an important entrée into church history. This comprehensive historical and literary introduction uncovers their lives and legacies, underscoring the apostles' impact on the growth of the early church. The author collects and distills the histories, legends, symbols, and iconography of the original twelve and locates figures such as Paul, Peter, and John in the broader context of the history of the apostles. He also explores the continuing story of the gospel mission and the twelve disciples beyond the New Testament.

1
The Path

But be on your guard; for they will deliver you to the courts, and you will be flogged in the synagogues, and you will stand before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them.

Mark 13:9

For this purpose we have collected the materials that have been scattered by our predecessors and culled, as from some intellectual meadows, the appropriate extracts from ancient authors. In the execution of this work, we shall be happy to rescue from oblivion the successions . . . of the most noted apostles of our Lord.

Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History,1 mid-fourth century, Palestine

The metaphor of a “path” partners nicely with the metaphor of a “quest.” While the quest for the apostles naturally reaches for the lives of these men, the path to that legacy encompasses several factors of which the student of the apostles must be aware. This chapter examines the lists of apostles, the confusion of identity that has occurred with certain apostles, and the character of the office of apostle and its mission. Additionally, attention is given to the biggest challenge of the apostles during this early era: the relationship between Judaism and the influx of gentile believers. The path requires a basic consideration and understanding of the sources that will be encountered as the basis of this quest, mainly how extrabiblical sources of apocryphal literature should be evaluated and how patristic figures provide historical details. Part of the historian’s task is to comprehend the material found in these primary source texts. Finally, the path explains the eventual conception of saint that developed after each apostle, with their symbols and cultic perceptions.

The Identity of the Apostles

Studies of the apostles always begin with the list of the apostles. The New Testament and extrabiblical surveys of these figures naturally record their names in catalog fashion, but there are minor inconsistences in the lists. Different names apply to the same disciple, leading to the conflation and divergences of disciples in the historical records. A lesser obstacle is the theories of the familial relationships between them, which sometimes lead to making almost half of the apostles related to another apostle.

Disciple Lists in the New Testament

Lists of the names of the apostles appear in all three Synoptic Gospels and in Acts. Only John lacks such a list, although several descriptions of the apostles’ activities and behavior are found exclusively in John. The lists are provided here for introduction and later reference.

Matthew 10:2–4	Now the names of the twelve apostles are these: The first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; and James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed Him.
Mark 3:16–19	And He appointed the twelve: Simon (to whom He gave the name Peter), and James, the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James (to them He gave the name Boanerges, which means, “Sons of Thunder”); and Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Zealot; and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed Him.
Luke 6:14–16	Simon, whom He also named Peter, and Andrew his brother; and James and John; and Philip and Bartholomew; and Matthew and Thomas; James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot; Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
Acts 1:13	When they had entered the city, they went up to the upper room where they were staying; that is, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James.

These catalogs provide a basic identification of the disciples by name as well as theories of some of their familial relationships. In the Gospels, Peter is recognized as Simon, renamed at the great event at Caesarea Philippi in which Jesus declares that he will be the rock on which the church is built. Andrew is recognized as the brother of Peter in Matthew and Luke. James and John are recognized as brothers in Matthew and Mark, twice called “sons of Zebedee” and once given by Jesus the name “Boanerges, which means, ‘sons of Thunder.’” It is significant that James is named before his brother John in all three Synoptics, suggesting that he is an older brother, which is important in the evaluation of John’s legacy. The youngest disciple would have had the potential for the longest ministry. The lists sometimes vary the order of less notable disciples, which is of little consequence. Judas Iscariot is always listed last and always with the disclaimer “the one who betrayed him” in Matthew and Mark and “who became a traitor” in Luke. The disciples list in Acts omits Judas Iscariot because his departure has already led to his death.

As a general rule, the significance or activity level of a disciple in the historical record places him higher or lower in the list. Since the lists create their own groups corresponding to the New Testament activities of those disciples, the term “tier” can be applied to reflect their relative importance. The catalogs reflect three different tiers. This should not suggest inferiority or a lesser kingdom contribution for the third tier but is only a grouping based on the extent of their recorded activity. In the top tier, James, John, Peter, and Andrew are always named first. In the second tier, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, and Matthew are listed. For each of these men the Gospels provide at least one significant encounter with Jesus. Finally, in a third tier of the most obscure of the disciples, another James, another Simon, and a Jude or Thaddaeus are named. The mention of Judas Iscariot as last likely places him in a position of dishonor, reinforced by his betrayal. The disciples in the third tier offer the most difficult historical paths to follow.

Converging Identities

While the identity of nine of the disciples is rarely confused, deduction is required to identify three of the disciples. For one, a common experience of calling can link us to the same figure. For two, an element of conjecture is required to connect two names for one figure. Each is briefly presented here, but their identities will be further elaborated in the chapters devoted to them.

MATTHEW

The disciple named Matthew in each list has an encounter with Jesus depicted in all three Synoptic Gospels. In Matthew 9:9 Jesus sees “Matthew, sitting in the tax collector’s booth” and says “Follow Me!” Mark 2:14 and Luke 5:27 record the same event and employ exactly the same language but use the name Levi instead. A simple understanding of the transitive property reveals that the two names represent the same person. As Levi is a Hebrew name and Matthew a Greek one, it seems that the tax collector bore two names, a common occurrence because of the cultural assimilation and diversity of the ancient world.

BARTHOLOMEW

The disciple named Bartholomew in each list is believed by scholars to be the same one who has an encounter with Jesus in John 1:45–51, where he is called Nathanael. The Gospel of John, which records the largest number of events for second- and third-tier disciples by name, fails to reference Bartholomew. This alone does not make Bartholomew converge with Nathanael. There is an abbreviated disciple list in John 21:2: “Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two others of His disciples.” Since the singular term “disciple” is used only for the Twelve in the Gospels, it is clear that both Bartholomew and Nathanael are among the twelve disciples. Given that surnames and polynomics are used for most other second- and third-tier disciples, the immediate conclusion is that Nathanael is a Hebrew name and Bartholomew is a Greek form of another Aramaic name. Such polynomics are biblically or extrabiblically evident for the disciples Levi Matthew, Simon Peter, and Judas Thomas.

JUDE

This leaves only one disciple whose names diverge among the lists without clear deduction through other New Testament historical accounts. A third-tier member is named “Thaddaeus” in Matthew and Mark, while a third-tier member is called “Judas the son of James” in Luke and Acts, often shortened to “Jude” to distinguish him from Judas Iscariot. Scholars deduce that this is also likely a dual name of one disciple. The manuscript tradition behind the King James Version provides for the translation “Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus” (Matt. 10:3). Furthermore, Ronald Brownrigg suggests that Thaddaeus was a miscopying or variation of the name Theudas, the equivalent of Judas.2 Sometimes early church historians support the theory of one identity when they converge these two list entries. For example, Hippolytus writes of “Jude, who is also called Lebbaeus.”3 Deductively, the only other candidate from the Gospel narratives would be Bartholomew, but his name appears alongside Thaddaeus in the lists of Matthew and Mark. It is highly unlikely that a disciple would have two Jewish names, such as Judas Nathanael. The only remaining question is why the evangelists would refer to one person by two different names. The same question applies to John’s calling Bartholomew by the name Nathanael, and it is best answered by the way some persons in first-century Palestine bore both a Jewish and a Greek name.

Although this treatment is a traditional approach to harmonizing the lists along the lines of only twelve disciples, it is worth mentioning that this harmonization is not the only way to treat the list of apostles. According to Daniel Pfeifer, a minority of scholars suggest that the discrepancies are due to a member leaving either for sickness or by dismissal, leading to a group of fourteen different members.4 Concerning the variation between the members known as Thaddaeus and Jude, John Meier takes this possibility even further:

The variation may simply reflect the fact that the Twelve as a group quickly lost importance in the early church, and so the church’s collective memory of them was not perfectly preserved. Another possible reason for the variation might lie in the fact that Jesus’ ministry...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• 1. The Path
• 2. Peter
• 3. Andrew
• 4. James
• 5. John
• 6. Philip
• 7. Bartholomew
• 8. Thomas
• 9. Matthew
• 10. James
• 11. Jude
• 12. Simon
• 13. Matthias
• 14. Paul
• 15. The Discovery
• Works Cited
• Index of Modern Authors
• Index of Scripture and Other Ancient and Medieval Sources
• Index of Subjects
• Back Cover