Bible Synapse
What were the names of the twelve apostles?
Hard question · The life of Jesus · raised by 2 of the lists sceptics circulate
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Matthew’s list: the tenth name is “Lebbeus, whose surname was Thaddeus”, and one Simon is “the Canaanite”.
Now the names of the twelve apostles are these; The first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip, and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the publican; James the son of Alpheus, and Lebbeus, whose surname was Thaddeus; Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him.
Mark’s list has Thaddaeus in the same place, and “Simon the Canaanite”.
And Simon he surnamed Peter; And James the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James; and he surnamed them Boanerges, which is, The sons of thunder: And Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alpheus, and Thaddeus, and Simon the Canaanite, And Judas Iscariot, which also betrayed him: and they went into an house.
Luke’s list has “Simon called Zelotes” and “Judas the brother of James”.
And when it was day, he called unto him his disciples: and of them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles; Simon, (whom he also named Peter,) and Andrew his brother, James and John, Philip and Bartholomew, Matthew and Thomas, James the son of Alpheus, and Simon called Zelotes, And Judas the brother of James, and Judas Iscariot, which also was the traitor.
The eleven in the upper room: the same names as in Luke, without Judas Iscariot.
And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alpheus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James.
John mentions a second Judas among the twelve: “Judas (not Iscariot)”.
Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?
The objection
Matthew and Mark name one of the twelve Thaddaeus (Matthew adds Lebbaeus), while Luke, in his Gospel and in Acts, has “Judas the brother of James” in that place. One Simon is “the Canaanite” in Matthew and Mark but “Zelotes” in Luke. If the twelve were a fixed group, the lists ought to agree.
The answer
The four lists name the same twelve men; some of them simply went by more than one name. That was common: Simon was also Peter and Cephas (John 1:42), Matthew was also Levi (compare Matthew 9:9 with Mark 2:14), and Saul was also Paul (Acts 13:9). Each list falls into three groups of four, and each group begins with the same man: Peter, Philip, and James the son of Alphaeus. Thaddaeus (in Matthew and Mark) and Judas of James (in Luke and Acts) stand in the same third group, which points to one man under two names. John confirms that the twelve included a second Judas, “Judas (not Iscariot)” (John 14:22), and after the betrayal it is easy to see why this apostle might prefer another name. Luke’s Greek says only ‘Judas of James’, usually taken as ‘son of James’ (the KJV reads ‘brother’; compare Jude 1); either way he is set apart from Iscariot.
The two titles of Simon mean the same thing: ‘Canaanite’ (Greek Kananaios) does not mean a man from Canaan; it comes from the Aramaic word for ‘zealous’, and Luke gives the Greek equivalent, Zēlōtēs, ‘the Zealot’. In the same way Bartholomew (‘son of Talmai’) is a family name, and many identify him with Nathanael, whom Philip brought to Jesus (John 1:45).
Other answers Christians give
The manuscripts of Matthew
Manuscripts of Matthew 10:3 differ: some read ‘Thaddaeus’, some ‘Lebbaeus’, and the text behind the KJV has both. Whichever Matthew wrote, the man is the same apostle.
From the classic commentators
and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus—the same, without doubt, as ‘Judas the brother of James,’ mentioned in both the lists of Luke (Lu 6:16; Ac 1:13), while no one of the name of Lebbaeus or Thaddaeus is so.Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary, on Matthew 10:3 (1871)
he was one of the ‘Kanaim’, or ‘Zealots’; and therefore Luke styles him, ‘Simon called Zelotes’, Luke 6:15.John Gill, Exposition of the Bible, on Matthew 10:4 (1746–1763)
Sources
- John Gill, Exposition of the Bible: Matthew 10 (1746–1763), at Bible Hub
- Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary: Matthew 10 (1871), at Bible Hub