Episco-fact: What happened to Jesus’ disciples? Part I

This coming Monday, August 24, is the feast of St. Bartholomew, the Apostle. Who is he? What did he do? How did he die? For that matter what happened to the disciples after Jesus’ arrest?

The story of St. Bartholomew is somewhat obscure, and we will get to it. It might help to review who the twelve disciples were. Immediately below is a chart with the list of the disciples. As we can observe it is not a consistent list:

Chart with the list of the disciples.

Matthew	Mark	Luke	John	Acts
Simon, aka Peter	Simon, aka Peter	Simon, aka Peter	Simon, aka Peter, of Bethsaida	Peter
Andrew, br. of Simon	Andrew	Andrew, br. of Simon	Andrew, br. of Simon, of Bethsaida	Andrew
James, br. of John, son of Zebedee	James, br. of John, son of Zebedee	James	James, son of Zebedee	James
John, br. of James, son of Zebedee	John, br. James, son of Zebedee	John	John, son of Zebedee	John
Philip	Philip	Philip		Philip
Bartholomew	Bartholomew	Bartholomew		Bartholomew
Thomas	Thomas	Thomas	Thomas, the twin	Thomas
Matthew, the tax collector	Matthew	Matthew (Levi?)		Matthew
James, son of Alphaeus	James, son of Alphaeus	James, son of Alphaeus		James, son of Alphaeus
Thaddaeus	Thaddaeus
Simon the Cananaean	Simon the Cananaean	Simon(?), the Zealot		Simon, the Zealot
Judas Iscariot	Judas Iscariot	Judas Iscariot	Judas, son of Simon Iscariot
		Judas, son of James		Judas, son of James
			Philip, of Bethsaida
			Nathanael, of Cana in Galilee
			The disciple whom Jesus loved. (John br. of James?)
				James, the br. of Jesus, the Just
				Matthias
				Paul of Tarsus

The table shows all of the traditionally held disciples, who became apostles, except of Judas Iscariot who dies before the Apostolic Era begins. As is evident, the list of disciples/apostles is closely aligned but not entirely consistent.

Because of the length of the list, this question is a two-part answer, with some of the answers provided this week and some next week.

We will begin with Bartholomew, around whom the question was framed. Bartholomew is named among the disciples in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Acts. Some traditions hold that Nathaniel and Bartholomew are the same person, although there is nothing in the Bible or in early accounts of the new church to make this application hold. According to tradition (more about tradition following), he was martyred for preaching the Gospel, probably in India, and was either crucified upside down, or he was flayed and beheaded.

What is tradition? Tradition is made up of a great deal: oral histories, bits and pieces of writings, the historic Creeds, and more. In the case of the disciples, we have some stories and writings which have some reliability. Accounts from the Bible, though not rigorously historical, have greater veracity than apocryphal writings from the second and third centuries.  Some of the accounts to which we give greater credence, in addition to the Bible, are the letters of Clement of Rome, the writings of Hippolytus, the writings of Tertullian, and Church History by Eusebius of Alexandria. These texts, though certainly not without inaccuracies, are written much closer to the time and place of the events they record, and they are included among the libraries of the main-stream organizations of their times. Tradition sometimes means much later writings recording details long after they could have happened and yet, are acknowledged by churches of the Roman Catholic or Orthodox traditions, the oldest continuing traditions in Christianity. In relaying what happened to the disciples, it is a mixed bag.

Are there any Bible stories that tell us what happened to the disciples? From the list above, only two disciples have their deaths recorded in the Bible. The first is Judas Iscariot. He dies by hanging himself in the account of Matthew, seemingly not long after his betrayal of Jesus (Mt. 27.3-5). In the Acts of the Apostles, the sequel to the Gospel of Luke, the gospelist records that Judas’ internal organs burst out of him at his death. This does not directly conflict with suicide by hanging. This act, too, occurs not long after Jesus’ arrest at the direction of Judas.

The other Biblically recorded death is James, the brother of John, apparently the sons of Zebedee (i.e. the sons of thunder, Mk. 3.17). In Acts 11.27-12.3 it records the circumstances around James’ death. It was during the reign of Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, Emperor 41-54 AD. During this time, Herod Agrippa I (grandson of Herod the Great) began a persecution of the Church. Most persecutions of the church were local until empire-wide persecutions began in the 3^rd century under Diocletian. James was killed by the sword and Peter was arrested.

These are the sum total of the direct Biblical references to the deaths of the disciples. In the next Episco-fact; “What happened to Jesus’ disciples? Part II”, we will run through the other members of these lists and the sources by which we know about them.

Photo credit: … cover by John Mathews Digital Paintings All rights reserved.