Jesus went up on a mountain and called those he wanted, and they came to him. He appointed twelve and called them apostles. He appointed them to be with him, to be sent out to preach, and to have authority to throw out demons. He appointed twelve: Peter, a name he gave Simon; James and John, Zebedee’s sons, whom he nicknamed Boanerges, which means “sons of Thunder”; and Andrew; Philip; Bartholomew; Matthew; Thomas; James, Alphaeus’ son; Thaddaeus; Simon the Cananaean; and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus. (Mark 3:13-19a, CEB)
Who are the 12 disciples? According to the above passage they are: Peter, James, John, Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James, Thaddaeus, Simon, and Judas. But as you can see from the below chart from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostles_in_the_New_Testament it is not as easy as saying these 12.
Did some of them have 2 names, like a niche name, or where there different groups of people? This is the problem sometimes with multiple accounts of the same story. Who has the correct list of the 12?
My thought is, it doesn’t really change the story. There were 12 men chosen by Jesus to follow him and learn from him, which was not the way teacher-student relationships worked then. Students had to prove to the teacher they would be good students, teachers didn’t select their students. And they were chosen by God to be a part of the family.
In a sense all of us are disciples. We are all apostles. In the sense that disciple means learner and apostle means one sent. We are all supposed to learn from Jesus and go into the world to share the good news.
So don’t worry about the details of the story and get the point.
God loves you.
God wants you to love God’s creation.
Go and show love in everything you do.
| Gospel of Matthew | Gospel of Mark | Gospel of Luke | Gospel of John | Acts of the Apostles |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simon (“also known as Peter”) | Simon (“to whom he gave the name Peter”) | Simon (“whom he named Peter”) | Simon Peter/ Cephas “which is translated Peter” | Peter |
| Andrew (“his [Peter’s] brother”) | Andrew | Andrew (“his [Peter’s] brother”) | Andrew (“Simon Peter’s brother”) | Andrew |
| James (“son of Zebedee”) | James (“son of Zebedee”) / one of the “Boanerges” | James | one of the “sons of Zebedee” | James |
| John (“his [James’s] brother”) | John (“brother of James”) / one of the “Boanerges” | John | one of the “sons of Zebedee” / the “disciple whom Jesus loved” | John |
| Philip | Philip | Philip | Philip | Philip |
| Bartholomew | Bartholomew | Bartholomew | Nathanael | Bartholomew |
| Thomas | Thomas | Thomas | Thomas (“also called Didymus”) | Thomas |
| Matthew (“the publican”) | Matthew / Levi | Matthew / Levi | not mentioned | Matthew |
| James (“son of Alphaeus”) | James (“son of Alphaeus”) | James (“son of Alphaeus”) | not mentioned | James (“son of Alphaeus”) |
| Thaddaeus (or “Lebbaeus”); called “Judas the Zealot” in some translations | Thaddaeus | Judas (“son of James,” referred to as brother in some translations) | Judas (“not Iscariot”) | Judas (“son of James,” referred to as brother in some translations) |
| Simon (“the Canaanite”) | Simon (“the Cananaean”) | Simon (“who was called the Zealot”) | not mentioned | Simon (“the Zealot”) |
| Judas Iscariot | Judas Iscariot | Judas Iscariot | Judas (“son of Simon Iscariot”) | (Judas replaced by Matthias) |
Loving People. Loving God.
aSacredRebel 