The Greek term for “disciple,” mathētēs,
means “student.” Like other rabbis and religious figures
of the time, Jesus taught a group of such students (Matt. 9:14;
22:16; Mark 2:16; John 1:35; 4:1). The forms of address that Jesus’
disciples used for him reflect the nature of the relationship:
“rabbi” (Mark 9:5), “teacher” (Mark 9:38),
and “master” (Luke 5:5). In addition to receiving
instruction from Jesus, his disciples took care of his physical needs
(Matt. 21:1; John 4:8), ate with him (Matt. 9:10; 26:18), performed
exorcisms and healings (Matt. 10:1; Luke 10:17), baptized (John 4:2),
controlled access to Jesus (Matt. 19:13; John 12:21), and traveled
with him (Luke 8:1; John 2:12). On one occasion Jesus visited the
house of Peter and healed Peter’s mother-in-law (Matt. 8:14),
which suggests that although the Gospels do not generally depict the
private lives of Jesus or his disciples apart from their public
ministry, the relationship among these men did not prevent the
disciples from maintaining their own homes, families, and, probably,
occupations.
In
the Gospels Jesus is depicted with variously sized groups of
disciples and followers. A prominent tradition in the Gospels
indicates that there was an inner group of twelve (Matt. 10:1; 26:20;
Mark 3:14; 4:10; 6:7; John 6:70), each of whom is known by name. This
is the group most traditionally understood as “the disciples”
of Jesus. As an authority, the group of twelve persisted beyond the
ascension of Jesus (Acts 6:2). Following the death of Judas Iscariot,
Matthias was chosen to take his place among the Twelve (Acts 1:26).
Other passages specify a group of seventy or seventy-two (Luke 10:1,
16), and often the number of disciples is indeterminate. Several
passages name disciples beyond the Twelve (Matt. 27:57; Luke 24:18;
Acts 9:10; 9:36; 16:1; 21:16), and some later authors attempted to
list the names of the seventy by drawing names from the book of Acts,
the Epistles, and other early Christian traditions (e.g., the
thirteenth-century Syriac compilation The Book of the Bee). The book
of Acts often refers to any follower of Christ as “disciple,”
including those in cities throughout the Roman Empire.
The
Gospels tend to present Jesus as a charismatic teacher who could
attract adherents with little overt persuasion. The calling of
several disciples is narrated, including that of the brothers Simon
Peter and Andrew, the brothers James and John the sons of Zebedee
(Mark 1:16–20; John 1:40–41), Philip and Nathanael (John
1:44–45), and Matthew/Levi (Mark 2:13–17 pars.). The
Gospel of John presents Andrew as a former disciple of John the
Baptist.
The
Twelve
Each
of the Synoptic Gospels has a list of the Twelve (Matt. 10:1–4;
Mark 3:13–19; Luke 6:12–16; cf. the list of eleven in
Acts 1:13), and the Gospel of John mentions “the Twelve”
several times without providing a list. With some slight
harmonizations, it is possible to come up with a single list of
twelve disciples based on the three Synoptic lists.
(1) All
three Synoptic Gospels agree in placing Simon Peter first in the
list. (2) His brother Andrew is second, though Mark has placed
Andrew farther down the list and does not identify him as Peter’s
brother. (3) James the son of Zebedee and (4) John the
brother of James are next. Mark adds that the two were also named
“Boanerges,” meaning “sons of thunder.” The
placement of Peter, James, and John at the head of the list
corresponds with the prominence of these three disciples in the story
of Jesus’ arrest at Gethsemane, where these three were present
(Matt. 26:37 // Mark 14:33). Perhaps the order of Mark’s
list reflects the prestige of these three disciples, with Matthew and
Luke bringing Andrew to the head of the list not because of any
particular importance but so that he is listed with his brother
Peter.
The
lists continue with (5) Philip, (6) Bartholomew, and
(7) Matthew, further identified in Matt. 10:3 as a “tax
collector.” The calling of Matthew is narrated in Matt. 9:9–13
and also in Mark 2:13–17; Luke 5:27–32, where Matthew is
called “Levi.” (8) Thomas is next (Matt. 10:3 lists
Thomas before Matthew; in John 20:24 he is also called “Didymus”),
followed by (9) James the son of Alphaeus (Mark 2:14 also calls
Levi “son of Alphaeus”), so named to avoid confusion with
James the son of Zebedee. (10) Simon the Cananaean (Matt. 10:4;
Mark 3:18 NRSV) or Zealot (Luke 6:15; Acts 1:13) is so designated to
avoid confusion with Simon Peter. The precise meaning of the term
“Cananaean” is uncertain (see Cananaean). (11) Thaddaeus
(who precedes Simon the Cananaean in Matthew and Mark) probably
should be identified with the eleventh disciple in Luke’s list,
Judas the son of James. The names of Thaddaeus and Judas son of James
represent the greatest single discrepancy among the three lists, but
it may be mitigated somewhat by the fact that some manuscripts
identify “Thaddaeus” as a surname (though they give this
disciple’s other name as “Lebbaeus,” not “Judas”).
All three lists agree in listing (12) Judas Iscariot as the last
disciple in the list, and all note that he betrayed Jesus or became a
traitor. The fact that Judas Iscariot bears a second name
(“Iscariot”) may suggest that there was another Judas
among the Twelve from whom it was necessary to distinguish him, as in
the case of the two Simons and the two Jameses. This observation
lends some weight to the notion that Thaddaeus was also named
“Judas.”
The
Disciples as Apostles
At
various points in his ministry Jesus sent out his disciples to preach
and perform miracles, hence they are also referred to as “apostles”
(i.e., emissaries). The connection between these two terms is made
clear in Luke 6:13: “When morning came, he called his disciples
to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles.”
In the NT Epistles the title “apostle” is applied to
several individuals who were not among Jesus’ twelve disciples,
most notably Paul. In sum, both “disciple” and “apostle”
have narrow and broad meanings in the NT, though there is substantial
continuity between “the Twelve” disciples or apostles of
Jesus and the narrow definition of “apostle” in the early
chapters of Acts.
The
Later Careers of the Disciples
After
his resurrection, Jesus told his disciples (“the apostles he
had chosen” [Acts 1:2]) that they would be his witnesses “in
Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the
earth” (Acts 1:8). Stories about the subsequent careers of the
Twelve exist in both the NT and other early Christian sources. The
first half of Acts largely focuses on the career of Simon Peter,
before attention shifts to the career of Paul in the eastern Roman
Empire. Extracanonical books and local legends trace the later
careers of Jesus’ twelve disciples, placing them in Rome
(Peter), Scythia (Andrew), Spain (James), Ephesus (John), Phrygia
(Philip), Armenia (Bartholomew and Thaddaeus), India (Thomas),
Ethiopia (Matthew), and North Africa (Simon the Cananaean). Pious
local traditions attribute martyrdom to a number of the Twelve,
though in the NT we know only of the deaths of Judas Iscariot (Matt.
27:3–10; Acts 1:16–20) and James the son of Zebedee (Acts
12:1–2).
