On a recent Sunday morning we read how Jesus called 12 young men out of his followers to preach the coming of the Kingdom of God. Their names were Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter), James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means “sons of thunder”), Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot 19 and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. (Mark 3:16-19 NIV).
After Jesus ascended to heaven (Acts 1). The 11 remaining disciples appointed a brother named Matthias to replace Judas, who had committed suicide after betraying our Lord. This is a debated point because the Scripture gives us no indication whether or not God wanted them to do this, and many see the apostle Paul as God’s obvious replacement for Judas. While I personally tend to hold this point of view, I find it pointless to argue or debate. God has called all of us to the work he has for us and no one is more important or more holy or more loved in God’s kingdom than any other person.
The reason I’m writing this blog is to make the point that these people spent years with Jesus (except Paul) before his death and all of them (including Paul) had interactions with someone they believed to be the risen Jesu after his crucifixion. All of them suffered greatly because of their proclamation of Jesus as Lord and it their testimony strongly shapes our faith today.
What happened to these men after Jesus is based in part on historical record and in part on church tradition. Unfortunately politics enters into the traditions of men and so we have traditions claiming that James, the brother of John, went to Spain, when the Bible makes it clear that he was the first of the 12 to be martyred (killed) for his faith in Jesus, when he was put to the sword in the early days of the church in Jerusalem.
PETER
Peter was crucified around 66AD in Rome under the persecution of Emperor Nero. There are all kinds of unverified traditions about his death, most notably that he was crucified upside down because he didn’t consider himself worthy to die the same way Jesus did.
JAMES
James was the first of the 12 to be put to death. King Herod had him killed by the sword in Jerusalem (Acts 12). There are some non-biblical traditions about James that I will address later.
JOHN
The writer of the the Gospel of John, the book of the Revelation and three epistles bearing his name, John is the only one of the 12 that history says was not put to death for his faith, although he suffered greatly because of Jesus throughout his long life. Tradition says he ended his life ministering in the region around Ephesus in modern day Turkey and is buried there.
ANDREW
The brother of Peter, Andrew traveled north, bringing the good news to what is now Russia and the western regions of the former Soviet Union. He later traveled through modern day Turkey and Greece where he was martyred.
PHILIP
Philip ministered in North Africa and then Asia Minor. Traditions says that a Roman Proconsul was so enraged that his wife had converted to Christianity because of Philip’s preaching that he had Philip brutally put to death. There is disagreement about the manor in which he died but no matter the method, it was because he fully believed that Jesus had died and risen from the grave. It is possible that Philip’s tomb was recently discovered (read about HERE).
BARTHOLOMEW/NATHANIEL
Bartholomew was apparently someone who loved to travel. Some accounts have him going to India with Thomas, then Armenia before heading along the trade routes between Ethiopia and the southern Arabian regions. While we are not sure how he met his end, tradition agrees that he was martyred for his faith. In some places he is listed as “Nathaniel” which could have been a family name or a name he was known by in the church.
MATTHEW/LEVI
The gospel writer who had previously been a tax collector, Matthew traveled to modern day Iran and then down to Ethiopia, probably following established trade routes and preaching the gospel along the way. While some account do not include how he died, others say he was stabbed to death in Africa.
Like Bartholomew, Matthew was known by more than one name: Levi. This other name is easier to pin down and is probably a family or tribal identification.
THOMAS
Thomas get’s a bad rap. Although he doubted the resurrection at first, Thomas’ faith in the risen Jesus was strong enough to send him traveling east to Syria and Iraq to preach the gospel, eventually ending up in India were the Marthoma Christian tradition considers him to be their founder. The Marthoma tradition says that Thomas died by stabbing at the hands of four soldiers.
JAMES THE SON OF ALPHAUES
Very possibly the brother of Matthew/Levi, James is believed to have preached in the regions north of Israel. A non-christian historical account says that he was stoned and then clubbed to death. He is sometimes known as James the Younger (younger brother of Levi?) or James the Lesser (which would have had different connotations then it does for us today).
SIMON THE ZELOT
Simon’s ultimate end is somewhat unclear. I wrote earlier that politics gets involved in the traditions about the apostles. When Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire it became politically advantageous to be connected with the apostles or notable christian events or leaders. This means that places like Turkey, Greece, Rome and Jerusalem naturally had more power/influence than churches in places like Britain, France, Africa and Spain.
As I said earlier, there are non-biblical traditions regarding the apostles. In the 12th century, a Spanish bishop began to promote the idea that James had come to Spain, despite the account of James’ martyrdom in Acts 12. The same is true with Simon the Zelot with different groups and agendas making claim to Simon’s legacy. The majority view seems to be that Simon was sawn in half in Persia.
PHILIP
Little is known about Philip’s life after Acts 2. Some have tried to link him with the Philip found later in the book of Acts but the circumstantial evidence doesn’t seem to fit other than sharing the same name. Tradition says that he preached in the Phrygia region of Asia Minor (modern day Turkey) and was martyred for his faith in Jesus in the town of Hierapolis.
JUDAS THADEUS
The early church father Jerome called Jude “Trinomius” which means three names. Mark and Matthew list him by his family name “Thaddeus”, while Luke refers to him as Judas the Brother of James. Some have tried to link him with Jude, the half-brother of Jesus who wrote the book of the same name but we reject this view.
Tradition holds that he preached the gospel in the area we could think of as Northern Syria, Iraq and Turkey. He was said to have been killed with arrows in Turkey’s mountainous northern region.
MATTHIAS
Tradition says that Matthias traveled north, possibly as far as the Caspian Sea. He was martyred for his faith although the method of his death is unclear.
PAUL
Paul suffered for the Lord throughout his life. In addition to imprisonment and multiple threats to his life, Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 11:25 that “Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. Once I spent a whole night and a day adrift at sea.”
Paul was beheaded in Rome in 66 AD, possibly at the same time as Peter.
JUDAS
Judas committed suicide after betraying Jesus. I mention this because every one of Jesus’ followers died. 10 of them as martyrs. John died of old age. But Judas chose a cursed path. He was not the only one who betrayed Jesus; all of the other disciples abandoned Jesus, Peter directly denied knowing him. Paul persecuted Jesus’ followers. Yet all of them embraced the grace and forgiveness of God and that same grace was available to Judas.
If you’ve read this and have ever felt like Judas, thinking there is no hope, you need to know that each and every apostle was at some point in a place of “no hope'“ but unlike Judas they turned their eyes to Jesus and embraced his grace. The same is available to you.
Note: This post was updated from an earlier version to include corrected information.