Who were the apostles?
Short answer
The apostles were the twelve disciples Jesus chose and sent out to announce the Kingdom: Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, James of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon and Judas Iscariot. The Greek word means one who is sent. After the betrayal by Judas, Matthias took his place, and Paul also came to be called an apostle.
- Written by
- Maria Luisa Navarro Schmitt
- Reviewed by
- Raphael Navarro Schmitt
- Published on
- Reading time
- 3 min read
The word explains the office before any list does. Apostle comes from the Greek apostolos, one sent out with a commission in the name of the sender. Jesus had many disciples — that word means learner, and it covers anyone who followed him. From inside that larger group he chose twelve and gave them a specific mission. The difference between disciple and apostle is exactly there: one learns, the other is sent.
The names appear in more than one list, and the lists carry small variations that tend to alarm anyone who notices them for the first time. Where Matthew writes Thaddaeus, Luke writes Jude of James. Where one calls Simon the Canaanite, the other calls him the Zealot. This is variation of nickname and of translation, in a time when the same person moved through life with a Hebrew name, a Greek name and a byname — Simon, for instance, received from Jesus the nickname the whole world knows him by.
After the betrayal and the death of Judas, the group gathers to fill the vacancy, and the criterion it sets says a great deal about what an apostle was: it had to be someone who accompanied Jesus from John’s baptism through to the end, because the function was to bear witness. Matthias is chosen, and the number twelve closes again. That number was not incidental: it mirrored the twelve tribes of Israel.
Paul is the case that keeps the arithmetic from being simple. He was never among the twelve, met Jesus after everything, and still presents himself as an apostle and is received as one. The New Testament itself uses the word with two reaches — the closed group of twelve and a wider set of people sent out. That is why an honest answer to this question has two layers, rather than a single list.
What the passages say
13And when daylight had arrived, he called his disciples. And he chose twelve out of them (whom he also named Apostles):
The exact moment the group is formed and given its name. The verb matters: the twelve are chosen out of a larger body of disciples, which confirms that apostle is a subset and not a synonym for follower.
1And having called together his twelve disciples, he gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out and to cure every sickness and every infirmity.
2Now the names of the twelve Apostles are these: the First, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother,
3James of Zebedee, and John his brother, Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew the tax collector, and James of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus,
4Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him.
The full list, and it comes glued to the mission: first the authority granted, then the names. Notice that the twelve are presented in pairs, and that two of those pairs are brothers — the group takes in two whole families.
21Therefore, it is necessary that, out of these men who have been assembling with us throughout the entire time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us,
22beginning from the baptism of John, until the day when he was taken up from us, one of these be made a witness with us of his Resurrection.”
23And they appointed two: Joseph, who was called Barsabbas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias.
24And praying, they said: “May you, O Lord, who knows the heart of everyone, reveal which one of these two you have chosen,
25to take a place in this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas prevaricated, so that he might go to his own place.”
26And they cast lots concerning them, and the lot fell upon Matthias. And he was numbered with the eleven Apostles.
How the vacancy left by Judas was filled, and under what requirement: having accompanied Jesus from John’s baptism right through to the day he was taken up. The criterion defines the office — an apostle, there, is someone who can testify because he saw. The method is striking too: two names put forward, prayer, and the choice settled by lot.
5and that he was seen by Cephas, and after that by the eleven.
6Next he was seen by more than five hundred brothers at one time, many of whom remain, even to the present time, although some have fallen asleep.
7Next, he was seen by James, then by all the Apostles.
8And last of all, he was seen also by me, as if I were someone born at the wrong time.
The passage that shows the two reaches of the word inside a single list: the eleven appear in one verse and all the apostles in another, as groups that do not coincide. Paul places himself at the end of the sequence, and does not disguise how irregular his own position is.
1Paul, an Apostle, not from men and not through man, but through Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead,
Paul opens the letter defending the title before saying anything else, a sign that it was contested. His argument is not that he was present: it is that he was sent — which is, after all, what the word apostle means.