Group
The Twelve
Matthew 10 · Mark 3 · Luke 6 · Acts 1
Domenico Ghirlandaio, Calling of the Apostles, 1481. Public domain.
Summary
The New Testament writes out the names of the Twelve four times, and the four lists do not run in the same order. Three seats hold in every list, two of the men carry two labels each, and the record of what became of them runs out where the church's own writers take over.
- Three positions never move. Peter opens every list, Philip stands fifth, and James son of Alphaeus stands ninth.
- Between those fixed points the same names change places, so the Twelve read as three groups of four.
- Two books name the tenth man Thaddaeus and two name him Judas son of James, and Scripture does not join the names for us.
- After the betrayer died the eleven cast lots, and the number was whole again before Pentecost.Acts 1:26and the lot fell to Matthias
The four texts that name them
Matthew, Mark and Luke each write the Twelve out at the moment Jesus appointed them. Acts writes the same men out again in the upper room after the ascension, one short. Read the columns straight down.
| Position | Matthew10:2-4 | Mark3:16-19 | Luke6:14-16 | Acts1:13 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1same in all four | Simon, called Peter | Simon, named Peter | Simon, named Peter | Peter |
| 2 | Andrew | James son of Zebedee | Andrew | John |
| 3 | James son of Zebedee | John | James | James |
| 4 | John | Andrew | John | Andrew |
| 5same in all four | Philip | Philip | Philip | Philip |
| 6 | Bartholomew | Bartholomew | Bartholomew | Thomas |
| 7 | Thomas | Matthew | Matthew | Bartholomew |
| 8 | Matthew the tax collector | Thomas | Thomas | Matthew |
| 9same in all four | James son of Alphaeus | James son of Alphaeus | James son of Alphaeus | James son of Alphaeus |
| 10Luke and Acts put Simon here | Thaddaeus | Thaddaeus | Simon called the Zealot | Simon the Zealot |
| 11Thaddaeus, or Judas son of James | Simon the Zealot | Simon the Zealot | Judas son of James | Judas son of James |
| 12 | Judas Iscariot | Judas Iscariot | Judas Iscariot | not in this list |
Between the marked rows, positions 2 to 4 and 6 to 8 carry the same names in a changed order, so each block keeps its members and its head.
Positions 10 and 11 hold the same two men in either order, and one is named differently: Thaddaeus in Matthew and Mark, Judas son of James in Luke and Acts.
Simon's epithet reads alike in all four columns because the Berean Standard Bible translates it in all four. The Greek behind Matthew and Mark is Kananaios, the Aramaic word carried over; behind Luke and Acts it is zelotes, the same sense in a Greek word.
Acts writes eleven names because the betrayer was dead by then. The twelfth place is filled later in the same chapter.
The four passages in full, in the Berean Standard Bible
Matthew 10:2These are the names of the twelve apostles: first Simon, called Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John;
Matthew 10:3Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus;
Matthew 10:4Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus.
Mark 3:16These are the twelve He appointed: Simon (whom He named Peter),
Mark 3:17James son of Zebedee and his brother John (whom He named Boanerges, meaning “Sons of Thunder”),
Mark 3:18Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot,
Mark 3:19and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus.
Luke 6:13When daylight came, He called His disciples to Him and chose twelve of them, whom He also designated as apostles:
Luke 6:14Simon, whom He named Peter, and his brother Andrew; James and John; Philip and Bartholomew;
Luke 6:15Matthew and Thomas; James son of Alphaeus and Simon called the Zealot;
Luke 6:16Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
Acts 1:13When they arrived, they went to the upper room where they were staying: Peter and John, James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James.
Eusebius of Caesarea reads one change of order as a courtesy. Matthew alone puts himself after Thomas, and alone keeps the trade beside his name.
If you listen to Luke, you will not hear him calling Matthew a publican nor subordinating him to Thomas, for he knows him to be the greater, and puts him first and Thomas second. Mark has done the same.… So Luke honored Matthew, according to what they delivered, who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the Word.
Eusebius of Caesarea· PROOF OF THE GOSPEL 3.5.120, fourth century
Where one man carries two labels
Three of the Twelve are named one way in some books and another way in others. Scripture joins none of the three for us, so each reading stands here with the people who hold it and the ground it rests on.
Bartholomew, and Nathanael
Bartholomew stands in all four lists and never in John. Nathanael stands in John and never in a list. Philip brings Nathanael to Jesus, and Bartholomew follows Philip at position six in all three Gospel lists. Bar-Tolmai is a father's name, so one man could carry it beside another.
Neither text makes the claim. The pairing supports it; Scripture does not state it.
John 1:45Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the One Moses wrote about in the Law, the One the prophets foretold—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
Albert Barnes reads Bartholomew as the son of Tolmai, in his Notes on the Old and New Testaments (1832 to 1869). John Gill reports the identification with Nathanael from John Lightfoot, in his Exposition of the New Testament (1746 to 1748).
Thaddaeus, and Judas son of James
John gives no list, but records a question at the last supper from the man he calls Judas, not Iscariot. That reads as a distinction only if a second Judas sat in the room. Some manuscripts of Matthew's list read Lebbaeus, or Lebbaeus surnamed Thaddaeus.
The number is fixed and no other man fills the slot. That is the whole of the argument.
Bede reads Thaddaeus as the Jude of James whom Luke names, in the comments Aquinas later gathered (eighth century). Jerome says the same in his Commentary on Matthew (early fifth century).
Simon the Cananaean, and Simon the Zealot
One word, handled two ways. Matthew and Mark carry the Aramaic word for zeal over into Greek letters; Luke and Acts translate it. Both name the man's fervour or his party. Neither names the land of Canaan, which is spelled and derived differently in Greek.
Charles Spurgeon put the two surnames together in a sermon on this man.
SIMON called the Zealot has apparently two surnames in Scripture but they mean the same thing. He is called Simon the Canaanite in Hebrew—not because he was an inhabitant of Cana or a Canaanite, but that word, when interpreted, means precisely the same as the Greek word, Zelotes.
Charles Spurgeon· The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 639: “Zealots” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition), 1865
What Spurgeon made of the name
He was called Simon the Zealot. I suppose that he had this name before his conversion.
Who the Twelve were
Scripture gives most of these men one scene apiece, and several of them nothing but a name. Each carries the verse he stands in.
Peter
Simon son of John
A fisherman of Bethsaida, and the one who speaks for the rest at Caesarea Philippi.
Matthew 16:16Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Andrew
Peter's brother
A disciple of John the Baptist first. He is the one who brought his own brother to Jesus.
John 1:42You will be called Cephas” (which is translated as Peter)
James son of Zebedee
a son of thunder
Named with Peter and John at the scenes Jesus kept to three, and the first of the Twelve to be killed.
Acts 12:2He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword.
John son of Zebedee
the disciple Jesus loved
James's brother, and the one at Jesus's side at the last supper.
John 13:23One of His disciples, the one whom Jesus loved, was reclining at His side.
Philip
of Bethsaida
Jesus called him directly, and he went straight off to find Nathanael.
John 1:43The next day Jesus decided to set out for Galilee. Finding Philip, He told him, “Follow Me.”
Bartholomew
read as Nathanael
Jesus greeted him as a man with no deceit in him, and he answered with a confession.
John 1:49“Rabbi,” Nathanael answered, “You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”
Matthew
the tax collector
Called out of the tax booth. His own Gospel is the only list that keeps the trade beside his name.
Matthew 9:9He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax booth
Thomas
called the twin
He would not take the report of the resurrection second hand, and then confessed more than the rest had said.
John 20:28Thomas replied, “My Lord and my God!”
James son of Alphaeus
ninth in every list
Scripture records his name and his father's name, and nothing else about him at all.
Matthew 10:3James son of Alphaeus
Thaddaeus
Luke's Judas son of James
The one question of his that Scripture keeps was asked at the table on the last night.
John 14:22Judas (not Iscariot) asked Him, “Lord, why are You going to reveal Yourself to us and not to the world?”
Simon the Zealot
the Cananaean in Matthew and Mark
The epithet tells a reader his zeal or his party, and it is all the record gives.
Luke 6:15James son of Alphaeus and Simon called the Zealot
Judas
Iscariot, the betrayer
He held the money bag for the Twelve, and sold Jesus for thirty pieces of silver.
John 12:6As keeper of the money bag
Scripture follows only three of these men past the resurrection. What became of the rest is reported by the church's own writers. The table gives each report with the writer who makes it and the century he wrote in, so no later account is read as the text's own claim.
What the church said became of them, and who said it
| Who | What is said | Who says it, and when |
|---|---|---|
| Peter | Crucified at Rome under Nero, head downward at his own asking. | Tertullian, Scorpiace 15 (early third century) for the death at Rome; Origen, quoted by Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 3.1 (fourth century), for head downward. |
| Andrew | Preached in Scythia, and was crucified at Patras in Achaia. | Origen, quoted by Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 3.1 (fourth century), for Scythia; the Acts of Andrew (second to third century) for Patras. The X-shaped cross is a medieval addition to the story and appears in none of them. |
| James son of Zebedee | Killed with the sword by Herod Agrippa. | Acts 12:2. This one is Scripture and not tradition. |
| John son of Zebedee | Lived at Ephesus into the reign of Trajan. | Irenaeus, Against Heresies 2.22.5 and 3.1.1 (about AD 180). |
| Philip | Died at Hierapolis in Phrygia. | Polycrates of Ephesus, in a letter of about AD 190, quoted by Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 3.31 (fourth century). |
| Bartholomew | Preached in India, where a copy of Matthew was later found. | Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 5.10 (fourth century). The flaying in Armenia comes from medieval passion accounts, centuries after that. |
| Matthew | Preached to the Hebrews before going to others. | Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 3.24 (fourth century). No account of his death is agreed. |
| Thomas | Given Parthia, and by a later account India, where he died near Mylapore. | Origen, quoted by Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 3.1 (fourth century), for Parthia; the Acts of Thomas (third century, Syriac) for India. |
| James son of Alphaeus | Nothing is agreed. | The later accounts run him together with James the brother of the Lord, who is a different man. |
| Thaddaeus | Sent to King Abgar of Edessa. | Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 1.13 (fourth century); Jerome repeats it in his Commentary on Matthew (early fifth century). |
| Simon the Zealot | Nothing is agreed. | The medieval lists send him to Persia, to Egypt and to Britain, and they contradict one another. |
| Judas | Hanged himself, and the money bought the field. | Matthew 27:5 and Acts 1:18. This one is Scripture and not tradition. |
The betrayer, foretold and guilty
Jesus chose a man he knew would sell him, and laid the guilt for the selling on that man. Scripture says both in one breath and resolves neither into the other.
Written beforehand
Psalms 41:9Even my close friend whom I trusted, the one who shared my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.
Jesus read this over the table on the night he was handed over, and said it was being fulfilled in front of them.
Answered for by the man himself
Matthew 26:24The Son of Man will go just as it is written about Him, but woe to that man by whom He is betrayed. It would be better for him if he had not been born.”
The same sentence carries both: what is written, and the woe on the one who does it.
This site's tradition, Wesleyan-Pentecostal, holds both halves as they stand. God's purpose went forward, and the man who carried it out answers for what he chose.
Ambrose of Milan, preaching through Luke, refuses to read the choice as a mistake.
Judas too is chosen, not through inadvertence but through Providence. How great is the truth that not even a hostile minister weakens!
The rest of what Ambrose says here
How great is the integrity of the Lord, who preferred to endanger his judgment among us, rather than his compassion! For he had assumed the frailty of man, and therefore [he did not] refuse those aspects of human weakness.
The number restored
Peter stood up among about a hundred and twenty believers and called for the empty place to be filled. It had to go to a man who had been with them from the baptism of John to the ascension. Two were put forward, and the eleven prayed and cast lots.
Acts 1:26Then they cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias; so he was added to the eleven apostles.
Twelve was the number of the founding company, matched to the tribes, and it was whole again before Pentecost. This site's tradition, Wesleyan-Pentecostal, reads the office as open past that number, because Saul of Tarsus was commissioned later and outside this process, by the risen Christ on the Damascus road.
Read more at Acts, What these men did once the Spirit came..
Read more at The Jerusalem Council, The apostles sitting as a body over one question..
The words behind the names
Two Greek words separate what these men were from what they were sent to be. A third is the epithet the lists hand two ways.
Each word, as the lexicon files it
mathetes: disciple
Greek · G3101Strong's entry: a learner, i.e. pupil
A learner who follows a teacher. It is what the Twelve were called before they were sent.
260 times in the New Testament · mathetes, in full →
apostolos: apostle
Greek · G652Strong's entry: a delegate; specially, an ambassador of the Gospel; officially a commissioner of Christ ("apostle") (with miraculous powers)
One sent out with a commission. Luke says this is the name Jesus gave them.
79 times in the New Testament · apostolos, in full →
Zelotes: Zealot
Greek · G2208Strong's entry: a Zealot, i.e. (specially) partisan for Jewish political independence
A zealous man. Luke and Acts use it where Matthew and Mark keep the Aramaic form.
2 times in the New Testament · Zelotes, in full →
Where it leads
On this page
The men, and the books they left3
Where they stand together3
Sources
Every work this page stands on, with its edition and date (10)
- Berean Standard Bible
- Public domain since 2023. Every verse on this page is served from the site's verse store in this text.
- Eusebius of Caesarea, Proof of the Gospel
- Book 3, section 5. Fourth century. Quoted from the site's quote pool at Luke 6:15.
- Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit
- Sermon 639, Zealots (1865), lightly modernised in the CCEL edition. Quoted from the pool at Luke 6:15.
- Ambrose of Milan, Commentary on Luke
- Fourth century. Quoted from the pool at Luke 6:16.
- Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old and New Testaments
- 1832 to 1869. Read at Matthew 10:3 for Bartholomew as the son of Tolmai.
- John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament
- 1746 to 1748. Read at Mark 3:18, where he reports Lightfoot's identification of Bartholomew with Nathanael.
- Bede, in the Catena Aurea
- Eighth century, gathered by Thomas Aquinas in the thirteenth. Read at Mark 3:18 for Thaddaeus and Jude of James.
- Jerome, Commentary on Matthew
- Early fifth century. Read at Matthew 10:4 for the Cananaean and the Zealot, and for Thaddaeus at Edessa.
- Eusebius of Caesarea, Ecclesiastical History
- Fourth century. Books 1, 3 and 5 carry the reports of where these men went, several of them quoted from Origen and from a letter of Polycrates of about AD 190.
- Irenaeus, Against Heresies
- About AD 180. Books 2 and 3 place John at Ephesus into the reign of Trajan.
How this page is built
The table's cells are the names as the Berean Standard Bible gives them at each position, and the four passages open whole beneath it so a reader can check the table against the text.
Every quotation is served from the site's quote pool by row id, so its bytes are the bytes of the edition cited and nothing is retyped.
A church writer's date is given as his century rather than a year wherever the pool holds his death year in place of the work's date.
No claim about a man's later life or his death stands on the surface of this page. All of it sits in one table with the writer and the century named.