COMPARING LISTINGS OF APOSTLES
COMPARING LISTINGS OF APOSTLES
Virgil Warren, PhD
Mt. 10:2-4 Mk. 3:16-19 Lk. 6:14-16 Acts 1:13 John’s Gospel
Simon Peter Simon Peter Simon Peter Peter Simon Peter/Cephas8
Bar-Jonah7 Simon son of John7
Andrew James Andrew John The disciple Jesus loved 9
James John James James James (21:2)
John Andrew John Andrew Andrew
Philip Philip Philip Philip Philip3
Bartholomew Bartholomew Bartholomew Thomas Thomas2 Didymus6
Thomas Matthew11Levi Matthew Bartholomew
Matthew Thomas Thomas Matthew
[Nathanael]5
James of Alphaeus James of Alphaeus James of Alphaeus James of Alphaeus
Thaddaeus12 Thaddaeus Simon Zelotes13 Simon Zelotes13
Simon the Simon the Judas of James Judas of James Judas1, 10
Cananaean13 Cananaean13
Judas Iscariot Judas Iscariot Judas Iscariot Judas (1:16, 25) Judas Iscariot10
The lists always form three sets of four with the same person first in each set. Judas Iscariot is always last. In the place where Matthew and Mark have Thaddaeus (Lebbaeus), Luke in his gospel and in The Acts has “Judas of James.”
(1) There is a Judas that is “not Iscariot” (John 14:22).
(2) Thomas appears in 11:16; 14:5-7; 20:24-29; 21:2.
(3) Philip appears in 1:43-45; 6:5-7; 12:21-22; 14:8-9. Philip was from Bethsaida as were Peter and Andrew (John 1:44).
(4) Andrew is mentioned in John 1:40; 12:22.
(5) Nathanael of Cana appears in John 1:45-49; 21:2. He was among apostles on two occasions: the episodes of John 1:35-51 and Jesus’ appearance to the seven by the Sea of Tiberias (John 21). Since John’s gospel does not mention Bartholomew, Matthew, James of Alphaeus, or Simon Zelotes, Nathanael could be a second name for any of these four—if he is an apostle. Matthew already has a second name (Levi), and Simon has the nickname Cananaean/Zelotes; so Bartholomew or James of Alphaeus is the most likely one to equal Nathanael. In the synoptic lists, Philip of Bethsaida appears next to Bartholomew (but not in Acts 1) while in John 1:45-51 Nathanael is closely connected with Philip. In that account Philip goes and finds Nathanael to tell him about discovering the Messiah. According to “Contendings of the Apostles” (2:50), however, Nathanael is identified with Simon the son of Clopas, which assumes that Alphaeus and Clopas are variant Greek spellings of the Hebrew/Aramaic name Halphai. But Alphaeus (the father of the second apostle named James) is probably not the same as Clopas since Κλοπᾶς uses a κ to transliterate the first letter of Halpai. Hegessipus said that Clopas (Κλοπᾶς, John 19:25; = Cleopas/Κλεοπᾶς of Luke 24:18?) was a brother of Joseph (the husband of Mary) and the father of Simeon, who succeeded James the Just as head of the Jerusalem church. (Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History 3:11)
(6) John 11:16; 21:2
(7) Matthew 16:17 Simon Bar-Jonah (Σίμων Βαριωνᾶ) = Simon son of John (Σίμων ὁ υἱὸς Ἰωάννου) in John 1:42 = Simon of John (Σίμων Ἰωάννου) in John 21:15-17.
(8) John 1:42
(9) John 13:23; 19:26; 20:2; 21:7, 20
(10) John 6:71 (Judas, son of Simon Iscariot); 12:4; 13:2, 24-30; 18:2-5
(11) Mark 2:14 [= Luke 5:27] “son of Alphaeus” + Matthew 9:9. The apostle Matthew was a tax collector (Matthew 10:3, etc.) and so was the apostle Levi (Mark 2:14); hence, they are equated.
(12) Many manuscripts add “Lebbaeus” or “called Lebbaeus.”
(13) Cananaean is the Hebrew/Aramaic equivalent for the Greek term Zelotes, meaning militant Jewish nationalist.
In reference to Acts 1:13, English readers will find “Judas, the brother of James” (KJV) and “Judas, the son of James” (ASV, etc.). The difference is a translation matter, not a manuscript variant. The Greek text simply reads “Judas of James.” The words “the son of” or “the brother of” are added in English to clarify the shorthand expression in the original.
The shorthand expression “X of Y” virtually always means “son of,” although if context could clarify it, the format could indicate “wife of,” “father of,” “brother of,” or some other relationship. The standard relationship, however, is son-to-father when the idiom occurs.
The reason translators like those of the King James Version (the New King James reads “son of”) thought it might be “brother of” here is that there were two prominent brothers in the Jerusalem church named Judas and James. They authored the two New Testament letters that bear those names. But those were half-brothers of Jesus, as New Testament scholars generally agree. The Judas and James of Acts 1:13 would surely not refer to them since the next verse mentions Jesus’ brothers as present in the upper room just before Pentecost. There would be no reason to mention them in 1:14 after naming them in 1:13.
We have no evidence for a James-Judas set of brothers among the apostles. There is a Judas “not Iscariot” (John 14:22) that Luke includes in his apostle lists as “Judas of James” (Luke 6:14-16; Acts 1:13), who in turn corresponds to Thaddaeus (Lebbaeus) in Matthew 10:2-4 and Mark 3:16-19. The other brother combinations among the apostles are clearly labeled brothers aside from the phrase “X of Y.” The text either says directly they are brothers, or their fathers had the same name (as with Matthew Levi and James of Alphaeus—Mark 2:14; 3:18). So, we know of three sets of brothers: Peter-Andrew, James-John, and Matthew-James of Alphaeus. Making Judas a “brother” of James would at best create a three-way set of brothers between “Judas of James”/Thaddaeus Lebbaeus, Matthew Levi, and James of Alphaeus. But for the reasons in the previous paragraph, Judas “brother of” James would not refer to the James-Jude who wrote New Testament books with those names.
Summary Listing
Peter, Simon Peter, Simon Bar-Jonah; Simon, son of John; Cephas
Andrew, brother of Peter
James, son of Zebedee, Boanerges
John, son of Zebedee, Boanerges
Philip of Bethsaida
Bartholomew =? Nathanael of Cana
Thomas, Thomas Didymus
Matthew, Levi of Alphaeus
James of Alphaeus
Thaddaeus, (Thaddaeus Lebbaeus), Judas of James
Simon the Cananaean, Simon Zelotes
Judas, Judas Iscariot, son of Simon Iscariot
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