Lesson
The Apostles
Who the twelve were, what the New Testament actually says about them, how they died when we know, and which books carry their names. Not their teaching.
September 25, 2026
An is a sent one. Jesus named twelve, and later the risen Christ sent Paul. This lesson stays with the men: the names, the places puts them, the books that carry their names, and the deaths we can actually speak about. It does not teach their doctrine. Open a name when you want that man. The roads are a different sitting: Journeys of the Apostles.
The lists do not quite match, and that is old
Four lists: , , , . The same twelve, with two habits of naming. Matthew is also Levi. Thaddaeus is also Judas son of James, and John is careful to say he is not Iscariot (). Simon is called the Zealot, and in Matthew and Mark the Cananaean, which is the Aramaic behind that word, not a man from Canaan.
If someone is using the lists as a contradiction, see What Were the Names of the Apostles?
What Scripture will not do
James the son of Zebedee is the only one of the twelve whose death is told in the New Testament. Herod kills him with the sword. For the others, Acts goes quiet. Later churches remember martyrdoms. Some of those memories are early. Some are late, and they disagree with each other. This lesson marks the difference. A later story is not promoted into a verse.
Most of them also have no private itinerary. They were sent out two by two in Galilee (). After Pentecost they are in Jerusalem. When a persecution scatters , Acts says the apostles stayed (). Peter and John go to Samaria. Peter goes to the coast. Then the book follows Paul. If you want a map of a private road for Andrew or Thomas, the Bible does not draw one.
The twelve, then Paul
- : Jesus foretold his death, and Scripture does not narrate it. Two letters carry his name.
- : Peter's brother, who told him, "We have found the Messiah." His death is not in the Bible.
- : John's brother, and the only one of the twelve whose death Acts records.
- : what Acts gives him, which books carry the name John, and what is later memory about his death.
- : from Bethsaida, and a different man from Philip the evangelist in Acts.
- : a name in the lists, often read as Nathanael. The later stories of his death do not agree.
- : the tax collector also called Levi. The first Gospel bears his name.
- : called the Twin. He doubted, then confessed, "My Lord and my God!" India comes from later writings.
- : not John's brother, and not the Lord's brother who led in Jerusalem.
- : one man under more than one name, "Judas (not Iscariot)."
- : in every list, with no story told about him.
- : the betrayer. Matthew and Acts each describe his death, and both accounts stand.
- : chosen by lot to take Judas's place, and never mentioned again.
Paul is not one of the twelve. He is an apostle because the risen Christ sent him (, ). The New Testament tells more about his road than about all the others together.
The James people mix in
There is a third James. He is the Lord's brother (, ). He is not James the son of Zebedee, and he should not be quietly folded into James the son of Alphaeus. The letter of James does not say which James wrote it. The church has usually read it as the brother, who led in Jerusalem and was not one of the twelve.
Books, without the teaching
Tied to a name in the New Testament itself, or by a letter that names its writer:
- Matthew: the first Gospel, under his name in the church. The book does not say "I, Matthew, wrote this."
- John: , and the three letters, with more argument about the short letters. Revelation names a John.
- Peter: 1 Peter names him. 2 Peter names him. Readers argue about the second letter.
- Paul: thirteen letters name him. Hebrews does not.
- James and Jude name a James and a Jude, and the usual reading is the Lord's brothers, not two of the twelve.
Mark and Luke were not members of the twelve. Acts and the third Gospel do not name Luke in the text. The "we" passages in Acts are why the church has read a companion of Paul there.
Open the man if you want the caution on his book, not a summary of what he taught.
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