Jesus went up on a mountain to pray, and he prayed to God all night. At daybreak he called together all of his disciples and chose twelve of them to be apostles.
LUKE 6:12–13
It’s no wonder Jesus captured people’s attention. For a rabbi—a teacher well versed in sacred Jewish writings—his approach to just about everything he did in his ministry was incredibly unrabbi-like.
His miracles seemed more like something a prophet would do. His teachings seemed more like the wishful thinking of a heretic. And his choice of disciples was nearly as unexpected as a herd of flying pigs—not at all kosher.
The fact that he chose disciples was strange enough. It was supposed to work the other way around. Religion students typically picked the masters they wanted to study under, much like doctoral students today select a preferred mentor.
As strange as it was for Jesus to do the choosing, he escalated bizarre to a new level in the choices he made.
He didn’t go for the brainiacs, the holy elite, or the rising stars in Jewish scholarship:
• Instead of brainiacs, he chose fishermen—at least four.
• Instead of holy elite, he chose a taxman—whom the high and holy considered ritually unclean “scum.”
• Instead of rising stars in Jewish scholarship, he seems to have chosen at least one follower from a rising freedom fighter movement called the Zealots.
This was a mismatch of plaids and stripes that seemed destined to clash itself to death. On the one hand, a taxman was perceived as a traitorous Roman sympathizer. On the other hand, a Zealot freedom fighter wanted nothing more than to get rid of Romans and their sympathizers.
And who would expect anything but fish from a fisherman? Even after spending perhaps three years with Jesus, two of these fishermen—Peter and John—would draw a bland evaluation from Jewish scholars who sized them up as “ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures” (Acts 4:13).
Yet Jesus matched these men on the same team. His team. This dirty dozen became his chosen people. Jesus expected great things from them—nothing less than the fulfillment of prophecy: “You will do more than restore the people of Israel to me. I will make you a light to the Gentiles, and you will bring my salvation to the ends of the earth” (Isaiah 49:6).
Wishful thinking at its best.
NET FISHING 101
Fishermen used three kinds of nets: cast, drop, and tow.
Cast. Usable by a single fisherman, the cast net was designed as a circle about 20–25 feet across (6–8 meters). Lead sinkers on the edge pulled it down like a falling parachute, trapping fish between the net and the lake bottom.
Drop. Long and narrow like a fence, the seine net could be dropped over the side of the boat to hang vertically in the water—with weights on the bottom edge and floats on the top. Fishermen could use the net to surround a school of fish. Then they pulled in the net using ropes at the right and left sides—turning the net into a U filled with fish.
Tow. The trammel net, reinforced with three layers of netting, stretched nearly 200 yards (183 meters) between two boats. As fishermen rowed their boats forward, fish got trapped in the net.
Many fishermen worked at night, when it was harder for fish to see the nets and when fishermen could use torches to lure curious fish toward the boat.
When it came to matching rabbis with disciples, a famous rabbi of the first century expressed the customary method. His name was Gamaliel, a Pharisee who taught the apostle Paul. Gamaliel offered this advice for students who wanted to become Jewish scholars:
Find a teacher and lose your ignorance.
ABOT 1:16
It was up to each student to find a rabbi who would teach him how to interpret the Jewish laws. Serving much like an apprentice, the student would spend as much time as possible with the rabbi, learning from his words and actions.
The object was to retain as much knowledge as possible. Or as one rabbi in ancient times put it, to hold on to the knowledge like a “plaster-sealed cistern, not letting one drop of water escape.”
Jewish law, especially the hundreds of laws preserved in the first five books of the Bible, is what most rabbis of Jesus’ day taught. These scholars debated how to interpret the laws and how to apply them to life. For example, the Law said Jews shouldn’t work on the Sabbath. But at what point did an activity become work? (For more on Sabbath rules, see “Jesus and Disciples Break Sabbath Rules,” page 142.)
Rabbi Jesus, however, didn’t seem to spend much time teaching his disciples about the Law. Instead, he taught them about the God behind the Law.
Jesus said that was the purpose of the Law in the first place: “Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose” (Matthew 5:17).
The Bible never explains why Jesus chose the 12 he did—though history bears out the wisdom of his choices. Even Judas Iscariot had an important role to play. What’s clear is that Jesus chose working-class men, mostly from his own region, Galilee, and from his own level in society.
DISCIPLE UNDER THE BED
One story in the Talmud—a collection of sacred Jewish commentary and history about Jewish law—tells of an eager disciple hiding under his master’s bed. The student said he wanted to learn how the Law applied to sex:
Kahana sneaked into Rabbi Abba’s bedroom and hid under the bed. There, Kahana heard the rabbi and his wife engage in happy, intimate pillow talk—followed by exuberant sex.
Afterward, Kahana spoke from under the bed. “You sound like a man who’s never had sex before.”
Shocked, the rabbi replied, “Kahana, what are you doing here? Get out! You’re being rude!”
“No I’m not,” Kahana answered. “This is a matter of Law. And I have to study it.”
BABYLONIAN TALMUD, BERAKHOT 62A
How Jesus went about inviting the disciples to join his ministry is a bit of a puzzle, because it’s difficult to blend all four Gospel accounts. The writers drew from sources that saw the events from different perspectives.
The Gospels of Matthew and Mark both say Jesus invited brothers Peter and Andrew first, while they were “throwing a net into the water” (Matthew 4:18). Then, farther up the lakeshore, Jesus invited the brothers James and John, who were repairing their nets in a boat. All four fishermen worked for Zebedee, father of James and John. All four instantly left what they were doing and followed Jesus—though there’s no indication they had ever met him before.
Luke tells a different story. The four men were washing their nets after a night of fishing. They had caught nothing. Jesus asked Peter to push his boat into the water so Jesus could use it as a floating stage to address the crowd. Afterward, Jesus told Peter to row out farther and drop his net in the water. The huge haul ripped some of the netting. Peter and his partners rowed their harvest back to shore, where Jesus told them, “From now on you’ll be fishing for people!” (Luke 5:10). That’s when they left everything and followed him. Later, Jesus invited a tax collector to join the disciples: Levi, probably a nickname for Matthew.
The Gospel of John adds a third version to the mix. It says Jesus’ first disciples were a couple of transfers from the ministry of John the Baptist: Andrew and an unnamed colleague—perhaps his partner John, the writer of this Gospel, who had a humble habit of not mentioning himself in the book. The two joined Jesus after John the Baptist identified him as the Messiah. Andrew introduced his brother Peter to Jesus. And perhaps John told his brother James. The next day, Jesus added two more disciples: Philip and Nathanael.
Perhaps all these versions are accurate, at least from the perspective of the various witnesses. There could have been multiple meetings between Jesus and his first disciples. And it’s possible that the fishermen dropped what they were doing more than once to follow Jesus somewhere.
Yet the story gets a tad more complicated.
Jesus had scores of disciples following him. At one point he sent “72 other disciples” on a mission. He sent them into neighboring villages with these instructions: “Heal the sick, and tell them, ‘The Kingdom of God is near you now’ ” (Luke 10:9).
At some point, Jesus decided to create an elite group of 12 disciples.
Why 12? Some numbers had powerful symbolic meanings to the Jewish people. Twelve had a connection to the founding of the Jewish nation. God instructed Moses to organize the country into a dozen tribal clans.
It’s as if Jesus was sending the message that God’s people were being born again. They were getting a fresh start, a new covenant, and a bright future.
Jesus would extend this symbolic connection at the Last Supper, promising the disciples that they’d have authority over the original 12 tribes—that the era of the new covenant would take precedence over the old system of Jewish laws. “When the world is made new and the Son of Man sits upon his glorious throne, you who have been my followers will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Matthew 19:28).
Before Jesus selected his elite dozen from the scores of disciples following him, the Gospels of Mark and Luke both report that he “went up on a mountain to pray, and he prayed to God all night. At daybreak he called together all of his disciples and chose twelve of them to be apostles” (Luke 6:12–13).
The word apostle indicates a promotion for the 12. Disciple comes from a Greek word that means student or apprentice. But apostle refers to a trusted emissary—a messenger.
In the years that followed, the title of apostle would become reserved for only the most honored leaders in the first generation of Christians. These were leaders whom Jesus personally sent out to spread his teachings.
In every Bible list of the 12 disciples, and there are four—in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Acts—the same name always pops up first.
Peter. He was the leader of the 12. The spokesman who confronted Jesus when others had questions they were afraid to ask. The first to say out loud that Jesus was the Son of God. And the first to preach a sermon after the resurrected Jesus ascended to heaven.
Peter was also one of Jesus’ three best friends—an inner circle that included brothers James and John. Only these three were allowed to accompany Jesus at critical moments in his ministry, such as when Jesus resurrected the daughter of Jairus, when he met with Elijah and Moses on a mountain and was transfigured into a glowing celestial presence, and when he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night of his arrest.
AKA. Simon, Cephas, Rocky. His name was originally Simon, son of John. Jesus renamed him Peter, the Greek word for “rock.” (That’s Cephas in Aramaic, the language most Jews spoke, having brought it home with them from exile in Babylon 500 years earlier.)
Hometown. Bethsaida, by the Sea of Galilee. But he apparently moved to nearby Capernaum, where he had a home.
Occupation. Fisherman on the Sea of Galilee. He and his brother Andrew worked as partners with James and John, the sons of Zebedee.
Claim to fame. After temple officers arrested Jesus and took him to trial, Peter waited outside. There, a servant girl asked if he was one of Jesus’ followers. “Woman,” he said, “I don’t even know him!” (Luke 22:57).
Ministry highlight. After Jesus returned to heaven, Peter preached the disciples’ first-known sermon, leading about 3,000 Jews to faith in Jesus and jump-starting the Christian movement. That seemed to fulfill a prediction Jesus had made: “Upon this rock I will build my church” (Matthew 16:18).
Manner of death. “Crucified at Rome with his head downward,” wrote Origen, a church leader in the AD 200s. This seemed to fulfill what Jesus had told Peter would happen: “ ‘When you are old, you will stretch out your hands.’ … Jesus said this to let him know by what kind of death he would glorify God” (John 21:18–19).
Andrew. Brother of Simon Peter. Andrew was the disciple who brought to Jesus the boy with five small loaves of bread and two fish—from which Jesus fed more than 5,000.
Hometown. Bethsaida. But he may have lived in Capernaum with Peter.
Occupation. Fisherman and partner with Peter, James, and John.
Claim to fame. He introduced Peter to Jesus, saying, “We have found the Messiah” (John 1:41).
Manner of death. Crucified on an X-shaped cross, according to the Acts of Andrew, a book written in the AD 200s.
James, son of Zebedee. Along with his brother John, as well as Peter, James was one of Jesus’ three closest friends.
Hometown. Somewhere near the twin fishing villages of Capernaum and Bethsaida.
Occupation. Fisherman in partnership with his brother John and the brothers Peter and Andrew.
Claim to fame. First apostle to die a martyr’s death, and the only one whose martyrdom is reported in the Bible.
Manner of death. “King Herod Agrippa [son of Herod the Great] began to persecute some believers in the church. He had the apostle James (John’s brother) killed with a sword” (Acts 12:1–2).
John, son of Zebedee. Brother of James—the two of whom Jesus nicknamed “Sons of Thunder.” Perhaps they were Zealots, wanting to overthrow Rome. But more likely they earned the nickname because of their fiery tempers. When a Samaritan village refused to welcome Jesus, the bold brothers said to Jesus, “Lord, should we call down fire from heaven to burn them up?” (Luke 9:54). Jesus declined the offer.
Hometown. Somewhere near Capernaum and Bethsaida.
Occupation. Employed by his father as a fisherman in partnership with John, Peter, and Andrew.
Claim to fame. He and James brought their mother to Jesus so she could ask a favor: “In your Kingdom, please let my two sons sit in places of honor next to you, one on your right and the other on your left” (Matthew 20:21). This infuriated the other disciples.
Ministry highlight. John was probably the unidentified “beloved disciple” to whom Jesus, hanging on the cross, entrusted the care of his mother, Mary. Many scholars also consider John the author of the Gospel of John, the three letters of John, and Revelation, too.
Manner of death. Early church leaders said he died of natural causes at an old age, around AD 100, in Ephesus.
Philip. At the Last Supper, he asked Jesus to show them God the Father. Jesus replied, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father!” (John 14:9).
Hometown. Bethsaida.
Occupation. Unknown.
Ministry highlight. He introduced Jesus to Nathanael, also known as Bartholomew.
Manner of death. Crucified in Turkey, according to church tradition.
Bartholomew. Appears in every New Testament list of apostles, including in Acts, but is not mentioned otherwise.
AKA. Nathanael. That’s what many scholars speculate. His full name may have been Nathanael bar Tholami (son of Tholami).
Hometown. Cana, assuming he is Nathanael.
Occupation. Unknown.
Claim to fame. When Philip invited him to come and meet Jesus the Messiah, Nathanael replied, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” (John 1:46).
Ministry highlight. Church tradition says he took the gospel to India.
Manner of death. One tradition says he was skinned alive and beheaded in India. Another says he was stuffed in a sack and tossed in the sea.
Matthew. Perhaps the most unlikely of all disciples.
AKA. Levi, according to the Gospels of Mark and Luke. This may have been a nickname or part of his full name: Matthew Levi.
Hometown. Most likely Capernaum, because that’s where Jesus met him.
Occupation. Tax collector. He operated a toll booth, probably on the main trade route that ran near Capernaum.
Claim to fame. Jesus invited the likes of him—a tax collector—to join the band of disciples. Most Jews hated tax collectors because tax men got rich by overcharging people.
Ministry highlight. After accepting Jesus’ invitation, he threw a party for Jesus—inviting his tax collector colleagues. When Jewish scholars saw this, they asked Jesus’ other disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with such scum?” (Matthew 9:11).
Manner of death. Executed with an ax or a sword in Ethiopia, according to the most popular tradition.
Thomas. After learning that Jesus expected to die in Jerusalem, Thomas courageously urged the other disciples, “Let’s go, too—and die with Jesus” (John 11:16).
AKA. Doubting Thomas, “nicknamed the Twin” (John 21:2).
Hometown. Probably somewhere in Galilee.
Occupation. Unknown.
Claim to fame. After the other disciples told him they had seen the resurrected Jesus, he replied, “I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side” (John 20:25).
Ministry highlight. Early church writers said he started the church in India. Today, the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church of India, with three million members, claims Thomas as founder.
Manner of death. Tradition says he was speared to death in India.
James, son of Alphaeus. Outside the list of apostles, he’s not mentioned in the Bible.
AKA. Possibly the same person as “James the younger” (Mark 15:40), perhaps to distinguish him from the older apostle named James.
Manner of death. Crucified in Egypt, according to one tradition. In Iran, according to another.
Simon the Zealot. His name shows up in the Bible only in the list of apostles. The descriptor “Zealot” could refer to his personality—as a go-getter. But most Bible experts say it probably links him to the Jewish rebel movement by that name. About 40 years after the time of Jesus, Jewish Zealots led the nation into a doomed revolt against Rome.
AKA. Simon the Cananean. “Cananean” is “an Aramaic term for Jewish nationalists” [or Zealots] (Matthew 10:4 footnote).
Manner of death. Crucified, or hacked to death, in Iran, with Judas the son of James, according to tradition.
Judas, son of James. He shows up only once outside the list of apostles. He asked Jesus why he was revealing his identity only to the disciples and not to the world (John 14:22). It’s a question Jesus sidestepped by telling Judas simply to do as he was told.
AKA. Called Thaddaeus in Matthew and Mark. This may have been his nickname or the name of the village from which he came.
Manner of death. Martyred with Simon the Zealot, according to tradition.
Judas Iscariot. He is always listed last—for good reason.
Hometown. Probably Kerioth, a village whose location is now unknown. Iscariot, scholars say, likely means “man of Kerioth.” Judas’ father was also known by that last name: “Simon Iscariot” (John 6:71). There was a city by that name in southern Israel. If that’s where Judas came from, he may have been the only non-Galilean among the disciples. Some scholars say the name Iscariot may reveal that Judas was a rebel, since the name sounds a bit like Sicarii, a group of Jewish freedom fighters much like the Zealots.
Occupation. Unknown.
Claim to fame. For a reward, he helped Jewish authorities arrest Jesus.
Ministry highlight. “In charge of the disciples’ money, he often stole some for himself” (John 12:6).
Manner of death. He hanged himself (Matthew 27:5). Then his body “fell headfirst into the field. His body burst open, and all his insides came out” (Acts 1:18 CEV). Perhaps the rope or tree branch from which he hanged himself broke.