1. Etymology

The Synaxis of the Twelve Apostles. Russian, 14th century, Moscow Museum.

The term apostle comes from the Greek apóstolos (ἀπόστολος)—formed from the prefix apó- (ἀπό-, 'from') and root stéllō (στέλλω, 'I send, I depart')—originally meaning 'messenger, envoy'. It has, however, a stronger sense than the word messenger, and is closer to a 'delegate'.^[1]

Bauer's Lexicon argues that its Christian usage translated a Jewish position known in Hebrew as the sheliach (שליח). This ecclesiastical meaning of the word was later translated into Latin as missio, the source of the English 'missionary'.

2. Biblical Narratives

Later in the Gospel narratives the twelve apostles are described as having been commissioned to preach the Gospel to "all the nations,"^[2] regardless of whether Jew or Gentile.^[3] Paul emphasized the important role of the apostles in the church of God when he said that the household of God is "built upon the foundation of apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone."

2.1. Calling by Jesus

Vocation of the Apostles, a fresco in the Sistine Chapel by Domenico Ghirlandaio, 1481-82

James Tissot, The Exhortation to the Apostles.

The three Synoptic Gospels record the circumstances in which some of the disciples were recruited, Matthew only describing the recruitment of Simon, Andrew, James, and John. All three Synoptic Gospels state that these four were recruited fairly soon after Jesus returned from being tempted by the devil.^[4]

Despite Jesus only briefly requesting that they join him, they are all described as immediately consenting, and abandoning their nets to do so. The immediacy of their consent has been viewed as an example of divine power, although this is not stated in the text. The more ordinary explanation is that Jesus was friends with them beforehand, as implied by the Gospel of John, which states that Peter (Simon) and Andrew were disciples of John the Baptist, and started following Jesus as soon as Jesus had been baptized.^[5]

Albright and Mann extrapolate from Simon's and Andrew's abandonment of their nets that Matthew is emphasizing the importance of renunciation by converting to Christianity, since fishing was profitable, although required large start-up costs, and abandoning everything would have been an important sacrifice. Regardless, Simon and Andrew's abandonment of what were effectively their most important worldly possessions has been taken as a model by later Christian ascetics.

Adriaen van de Venne's Fishers of Men. Oil on panel, 1614

Matthew describes Jesus meeting James and John, also fishermen and brothers, very shortly after recruiting Simon and Andrew. Matthew and Mark identify James and John as sons of Zebedee. Luke adds to Matthew and Mark that James and John worked as a team with Simon and Andrew. Matthew states that at the time of the encounter, James and John were repairing their nets, but readily joined Jesus without hesitation.^[6]

This parallels the accounts of Mark and Luke, but Matthew implies that the men have also abandoned their father (since he is present in the boat they abandon behind them), and Carter feels this should be interpreted to mean that Matthew's view of Jesus is one of a figure rejecting the traditional patriarchal structure of society, where the father had command over his children; most scholars, however, just interpret it to mean that Matthew intended these two to be seen as even more devoted than the other pair, or that Jesus expected the imminent coming of the kingdom.^[7]

The Synoptic Gospels go on to describe that later in Jesus' ministry he noticed a tax collector in his booth. The tax collector, called Matthew in Matthew 9:9, Levi in Mark 2:14 and Luke 5:27, is asked by Jesus to become one of his disciples. Matthew/Levi is stated to have accepted and then invited Jesus for a meal with his friends. Tax collectors were seen as villains in Jewish society, and the Pharisees are described as asking Jesus why he is having a meal with such disreputable people. The reply Jesus gave is now well known: "it is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."^[8]

2.2. Commissioning of the Twelve Apostles

The commissioning of the Twelve Apostles is an episode in the ministry of Jesus that appears in all three Synoptic Gospels: Matthew 10:1–4, Mark 3:13–19 and Luke 6:12–16. It relates the initial selection of the Twelve Apostles among the disciples of Jesus.^[9][10]

According to Luke:

One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles: Simon (whom he named Peter), his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called the Zealot, Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.^[11]

In the Gospel of Matthew, this episode takes place shortly before the miracle of the man with a withered hand. In the gospels of Mark and of Luke it appears shortly after that miracle.^[12]

2.3. Replacement of Judas Iscariot

After he betrayed Christ (and then in guilt committed suicide before Christ's resurrection one Gospel recounts), the apostles numbered eleven. When Jesus had been taken up from them, in preparation for the coming of the Holy Spirit that he had promised them, Peter advised the brethren:

Judas, who was guide to those who took Jesus... For he was numbered with us, and received his portion in this ministry... For it is written in the book of Psalms, "Let his habitation be made desolate, Let no one dwell therein", and, "Let another take his office"... So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day he was taken up from us, must become with us a witness to his resurrection

—Acts 1:15–26

So, between the ascension of Christ and the day of Pentecost, the remaining apostles elected a twelfth apostle by casting lots, a traditional Israelite way to determine the will of God (see Proverbs 16:33). The lot fell upon Matthias.^[13]

Paul the Apostle in his First Epistle to the Corinthians, appears to give the first historical reference to the Twelve Apostles: "For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve" (1 Cor 3-5).

2.4. Paul, Apostle of the Gentiles

Although not one of the apostles commissioned during the life of Jesus, Paul, a Jew named Saul of Tarsus, claimed a special commission from the post-ascension Jesus as "the apostle of the Gentiles", to spread the gospel message after his conversion. In his writings, the epistles to Christian churches throughout the Levant, Paul did not restrict the term "apostle" to the twelve, and often refers to his mentor Barnabas as an apostle.^[14]

In his writings, Paul, although not one of the original twelve, described himself as an apostle.^[15] He was called by the resurrected Jesus himself during his Road to Damascus event. With Barnabas, he was allotted the role of apostle in the church.

Since Paul claimed to have received a gospel not from teachings of the Twelve Apostles but solely and directly through personal revelations from the post-ascension Jesus,^[16] after the Jesus's death and resurrection (rather than before like the twelve), Paul was often obliged to defend his apostolic authority (1 Cor. 9:1 "Am I not an apostle?") and proclaim that he had seen and was anointed by Jesus while on the road to Damascus.

Paul considered himself perhaps inferior to the other apostles because he had originally persecuted Christ's followers while thinking he was not in the least inferior to those "super-apostles" and not lacking in "knowledge".

Paul referred to himself as the apostle of the Gentiles.^{[Rom 11:13]} According to Paul's account in his Epistle to the Galatians, James, Peter and John in Jerusalem accepted the "grace" given to Paul and agreed that Paul and Barnabas should go to the Gentiles (specifically those not circumcised) and the three Apostles who "seemed to be pillars" to the circumcised.^{[Gal 2:7–9]} Despite the Little Commission of Matthew 10, the Twelve Apostles did not limit their mission to solely Jews as Cornelius the Centurion is widely considered the first Gentile convert and he was converted by Peter, and the Great Commission of the Resurrected Jesus is specifically to "all nations".

As the Catholic Encyclopedia states, "It is at once evident that in a Christian sense, everyone who had received a mission from God, or Christ, to man could be called 'Apostle'"; thus extending the original sense beyond the twelve.^[1]

3. Islam

The Qur’anic account of the disciples (Arabic: الحواريون al-ḥawāriyyūn) 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 and Simon the Zealot.^[17] Scholars generally draw a parallel with the disciples of Jesus and the companions of Muhammad, who followed Muhammad during his lifetime.^[18]

4. Legacy

By the 2nd century AD, association with the apostles was esteemed as an evidence of authority. Churches which are believed to have been founded by one of the apostles are known as apostolic sees. Paul's epistles were accepted as scripture, and two of the four canonical gospels were associated with apostles, as were other New Testament works. Various Christian texts, such as the Didache and the Apostolic Constitutions, were attributed to the apostles. Bishops traced their lines of succession back to individual apostles, who were said to have dispersed from Jerusalem and established churches across great territories. Christian bishops have traditionally claimed authority deriving, by apostolic succession, from the Twelve.^[14] Early Church Fathers who came to be associated with apostles, such as Pope Clement I with St. Peter, are referred to as the Apostolic Fathers. The Apostles' Creed, popular in the West, was said to have been composed by the apostles themselves.

5. Deaths

Relics of the Apostles in 2017, while they were in Utah during the Relic Tour.^[19]

Of the Twelve Apostles to hold the title after Matthias' selection, Christian tradition has generally passed down that all but one were martyred, with John surviving into old age. Only the death of James, son of Zebedee is described in the New Testament. (Acts 12:1–2)^[20]

Matthew 27:5 says that Judas Iscariot threw the silver he received for betraying Jesus down in the Temple, then went and hanged himself. Acts 1:18 says that he purchased a field, then "falling headlong he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out".

According to the 18th-century historian Edward Gibbon, early Christians (second half of the second century and first half of the third century) believed that only Peter, Paul, and James, son of Zebedee, were martyred.^[21] The remainder or even all of the claims of martyred apostles do not rely upon historical or biblical evidence.^[22][23]

5.1. Tombs of the Apostles

Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran (Rome)^[24]

The relics of the apostles are claimed by various Churches, many in Italy.^[25]

• Peter: buried in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, Rome, Italy
• Andrew: buried in St. Andrew's Cathedral, Patras, Greece
• James the Great: buried in Santiago de Compostela Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain
• John: buried in the Basilica of St. John in Ephesus, Turkey
• Philip: buried in the Church of the Holy Apostles in Rome or possibly Hierapolis, near Denizli, Turkey^[26]
• Bartholomew: buried in the Basilica of Benevento, Italy, or Basilica of St. Bartholomew on the Island, Rome, Italy
• Matthew: buried in the Salerno Cathedral, Salerno, Italy
• James, son of Alpheus: buried in the Cathedral of St. James in Jerusalem or the Church of the Holy Apostles in Rome
• Thomas: buried in the San Thome Basilica in Chennai, India or in the Basilica of St. Thomas the Apostle in Ortona, Abruzzo, Italy
• Simon: buried in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome under the St. Joseph altar with St. Jude
• Jude Thaddeus: buried in St. Peter's Basilica under the St. Joseph altar with St. Simon; two bones (relics) located at National Shrine of St Jude in Chicago , Illinois
• Matthias: buried in the St. Matthias' Abbey in Trier, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany
• Paul: relics located in the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls in Rome
• Judas Iscariot: remains located in Akeldama, near the Valley of Hinnom, in Jerusalem

6. List of the Twelve Apostles as Identified by the Bible

Jesus and the Twelve Apostles in Domus Galilaeae, Israel.

Each of the four listings of apostles in the New Testament (Mark 3:13–19, Matthew 10:1–4, Luke 6:12–16, and Acts 1:13) indicate that all the apostles were men. The canonical gospels and the book of Acts give varying names of the Twelve Apostles. The list in the Gospel of Luke differs from Matthew and Mark on one point. It lists "Judas the son of James" instead of "Thaddeus".

Unlike the Synoptic Gospels, the Gospel of John does not offer a formal list of apostles. Although it refers to "the Twelve" (John 6:67–71), the gospel does not present any elaboration of who these twelve actually were, and the author of the Gospel of John does not mention them all by name. There is also no separation of the terms "apostles" and "disciples" in John.

6.1. Other Apostles Mentioned in the New Testament

6.2. The Seventy Disciples

The "seventy disciples" or "seventy-two disciples" (known in the Eastern Christian traditions as the "Seventy Apostles") were early emissaries of Jesus mentioned in the Gospel of Luke 10:1–24. According to Luke, the only gospel in which they appear, Jesus appointed them and sent them out in pairs on a specific mission which is detailed in the text.

In Western Christianity, they are usually referred to as disciples,^[41] whereas in Eastern Christianity they are usually referred to as Apostles.^[42] Using the original Greek words, both titles are descriptive, as an apostle is one sent on a mission (the Greek uses the verb form: apesteilen) whereas a disciple is a student, but the two traditions differ on the scope of the words apostle and disciple.

According to Church tradition, Luke the Evangelist, the companion of Paul, is believed to have authored the Gospel of Luke, though anonymously written and lacking an author's name; but while this view is still occasionally put forward, the scholarly consensus emphasizes the many contradictions between Acts and the authentic Pauline letters.^[43][44] The most probable date for its composition is around 80–110 AD, and there is evidence that it was still being revised well into the 2nd century.^[45]