Who Were the Twelve Disciples of Jesus?
The twelve disciples of Jesus are usually pictured as a solemn row of haloed figures, which does them no favors. In the Gospels they are considerably more human: they argue about rank, misunderstand plain statements, fall asleep at the worst moment, and run away when things turn dangerous. That honesty is one of the more striking features of the texts.
Disciple or Apostle?
The two words are often used interchangeably, but they mean different things. A disciple is a learner or follower, and Jesus had many, including women who supported and traveled with the group. An apostle is one who is sent, a messenger with a commission. Discussions of the difference between apostles and disciples note that in the Gospels the term apostle usually refers to the twelve men Jesus chose, though Paul and others use it more broadly.
The number twelve was not arbitrary. Israel had twelve tribes, and by appointing twelve, Jesus was making a claim about the renewal of God’s people. Scholarly treatments of the group known as the Twelve point to Mark 3:13, where Jesus goes up a mountain, calls those he wants, and appoints them to be with him and to be sent out to preach.
Who They Were
The Gospels give four lists, which agree on the core names with small variations, often because individuals went by more than one name.
- Simon Peter, a Galilean fisherman who becomes the group’s spokesman.
- Andrew, Peter’s brother, previously a follower of John the Baptist.
- James and John, sons of Zebedee, nicknamed the Sons of Thunder.
- Philip and Bartholomew, often identified with Nathanael.
- Thomas, remembered for wanting evidence before he would believe.
- Matthew, a tax collector, an occupation regarded as collaboration with Rome.
- James son of Alphaeus and Thaddaeus, also called Judas son of James.
- Simon the Zealot, associated with fierce Jewish nationalism.
- Judas Iscariot, who handed Jesus over and was later replaced by Matthias.
Notice the combination. A tax collector who worked for the occupying power and a zealot who despised it were in the same small band, walking the same roads for years. Whatever else Jesus did, he put people together who had every reason to avoid each other.
How He Called Them
The calls are abrupt. Jesus walks past a lakeshore, tells fishermen to follow him, and they leave the nets. He sees Matthew at a tax booth and says two words. In the ancient world students normally chose a teacher; here the teacher chooses the students, and not the ones anyone would have picked. None of them were scholars, and none appear to have held any status.
What follows is an apprenticeship rather than a course. They travel with him, watch how he treats people, ask questions, get things wrong, and are eventually sent out in pairs to do what they have seen him do.
What Became of Them
After the resurrection and Pentecost, the group becomes the nucleus of the early church. Peter preaches the first public sermon in Acts and later leads the mission to Gentiles; accounts of Peter’s role in the earliest church trace both his prominence and his failures. John is associated with a Gospel and letters. James son of Zebedee is executed by Herod Agrippa in Acts 12, the only apostolic death the New Testament records.
For the rest, later traditions place Thomas in India, Andrew in Greece, and others across the Mediterranean world. These traditions are early but not verifiable in the way historians would prefer, and they should be held with appropriate caution.
Lessons from Their Example
Three things stand out. First, calling does not require credentials; none of them had any. Second, failure is not final, since Peter denied Jesus three times and was restored by a charcoal fire in John 21. Third, community is not the same as agreement, as a zealot and a tax collector both discovered. For anyone who feels unqualified or has already failed, the twelve are unusually encouraging company.