What happened to the 12 disciples of Jesus ?

New Testament Apostolic Lists

• Hippolytus of Rome:
  • Birth unknown, died around 236 AD
  • See his entry in the Catholic Encyclopedia: click here
  • Here is a page on the Internet containing his writings: click here

• Eusebius:
  • Was the Bishop of Caesarea in Palestine, known as the "Father of Church History" because he wrote about the church history.
  • Lived around 260-341 AD
  • See his entry in the Catholic Encyclopedia: click here

• A very nice write up on the disciples (my source for this webpage): click here

We all know what happened to him...

• According to Hippolytus:
  Andrew preached to the Scythians [modern day Georgia] and Thracians [modern day Bulgaria], and was crucified, suspended on an olive tree, at Patrae, a town of Achaia [Greece]; and there too he was buried.

• According to Hippolytus, Bartholomew preached in India:
  Bartholomew, again, preached to the Indians, to whom he also gave the Gospel according to Matthew, and was crucified with his head downward, and was buried in Allanum, a town of the great Armenia [modern day southern Georgia].

• Eusebius, in his Church History, confirms the ministry of Bartholomew in India, and adds an eye witness account:
  About that time, Pantaenus, a man highly distinguished for his learning, had charge of the school of the faithful in Alexandria... Pantaenus...is said to have gone to India. It is reported that among persons there who knew of Christ, he found the Gospel according to Matthew, which had anticipated his own arrival. For Bartholomew, one of the apostles, had preached to them, and left with them the writing of Matthew in the Hebrew language, which they had preserved till that time. ---- (Book 5, Chapter 10)

• Hippolytus identifies that James was stoned to death in Jerusalem:
  And James the son of Alphaeus, when preaching in Jerusalem, was stoned to death by the Jews, and was buried there beside the temple.

James was the brother of John, the disciple "that Jesus loved".

• According to the Book of Acts in the New Testament, James was killed by Herod:
  Act 12:1 And at that time Herod the king threw on his hands to oppress some of those of the church.
  Act 12:2 And he killed James the brother of John with the sword.

• This is confirmed by Hippolytus:
  James, his brother, when preaching in Judea, was cut off with the sword by Herod the tetrarch, and was buried there.

• Eusebius descibed more precisely what was cut off of James:
  First Stephen was stoned to death by them, and after him James, the son of Zebedee and the brother of John, was beheaded... (Book 3, Chapter 5)

  Yep... James' head was cut...

John was one of the few disciples that did not die a cruel death, but of "old age".

• Eusebius discusses the reason that John wrote his Gospel:
  "Matthew and John have left us written memorials, and they, tradition says, were led to write only under the pressure of necessity...And when Mark and Luke had already published their Gospels, they say that John, who had employed all his time in proclaiming the Gospel orally, finally proceeded to write for the following reason. The three Gospels already mentioned having come into the hands of all and into his own too, they say that he accepted them and bore witness to their truthfulness; but that there was lacking in them an account of the deeds done by Christ at the beginning of his ministry." (Book 3, Chapter 24)

• According to Hippolytus, John was banished by Domitian to the Isle of Patmos, and later died in Ephesus:
  John, again, in Asia, was banished by Domitian the king to the isle of Patmos, in which also he wrote his Gospel and saw the apocalyptic vision; and in Trajan's time he fell asleep at Ephesus, where his remains were sought for, but could not be found.

• Eusebius referenced to Bishop Papias of Hierapolis, as early as c. 110 A.D., bearing witness to Matthew's authorship of his gospel:
  ....Matthew put together the oracles [of the Lord] in the Hebrew language, and each one interpreted them as best he could." (Eusebius, Book 3, Chapter 39)

• According to Hippolytus:
  Matthew wrote the Gospel in the Hebrew tongue, and published it at Jerusalem, and fell asleep at Hierees, a town of Parthia.\224 [Parthia is near modern day Tehran]

• Eusebius, quoting Papias of Hierapolis (c. 110 A.D.), records a tradition that the Gospel of Mark preserved the Gospel as preached by Peter:
  "Mark having become the interpreter of Peter, wrote down accurately whatsoever he remembered.... he accompanied Peter..." ---- (Book 3, Chapter 39)

• Irenaeus (c. 180 A.D.) records a similar tradition, and mentions that Peter and Paul founded the Church in Rome:
  "Matthew also issued a written Gospel among the Hebrews in their own dialect, while Peter and Paul were preaching at Rome, and laying the foundations of the Church. After their departure, Mark, the disciple and interpreter of Peter, did also hand down to us in writing what had been preached by Peter..." ---- (Irenaeus, "Against Heresies", Book 3, Chapter 1)

• Eusebius records that Peter was put to death under Nero in Rome:
  It is, therefore, recorded that Paul was beheaded in Rome itself, and that Peter likewise was crucified under Nero. This account of Peter and Paul is substantiated by the fact that their names are preserved in the cemeteries of that place even to the present day. ---- (Book 2, Chapter 25)

  (Paul was a Roman citizen can cannot be crucified but got an "easier" death sentence)

• Hippolytus confirmed the fact that Peter was crucified by Nero in Rome:
  Peter preached the Gospel in Pontus, and Galatia, and Cappadocia, and Betania, and Italy, and Asia, and was afterwards crucified by Nero in Rome with his head downward, as he had himself desired to suffer in that manner.

• According to Hippolytus, Philip preached and was executed in what today is eastern Turkey:
  Philip preached in Phrygia, and was crucified in Hierapolis with his head downward in the time of Domitian, and was buried there.

• According to Hippolytus, Simon the Zealot was the second Bishop of Jerusalem:
  Simon the Zealot, the son of Clopas, who is also called Jude, became bishop of Jerusalem after James the Just, and fell asleep and was buried there at the age of 120 years.

According to Mat 10:3 (KJV): Philip, and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the publican; James the son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus.... Thaddaeus is also known as Lebbaeus.

• Hippolytus records:
  Jude, who is also called Lebbaeus, preached to the people of Edessa, and to all Mesopotamia, and fell asleep at Berytus, and was buried there.

• Hippolytus records that Thomas was an active missionary, and that he met his fate in India:
  And Thomas preached to the Parthians, Medes, Persians, Hyrcanians, Bactrians, and Margians, and was thrust through in the four members of his body with a pine spear at Calamene, the city of India, and was buried there.

• Many of Jesus disciples died cruel deaths for preaching the gospel

• From other sources (e.g., Paul's letters, Pliny's letters to Trajan ( click here ), etc), all these Christians need to do to escape a cruel execution was simply: to denounce their faith in Jesus...

  Meanwhile, in the case of those who were denounced to me as Christians, I have observed the following procedure: I interrogated these as to whether they were Christians; those who confessed I interrogated a second and a third time, threatening them with punishment; those who persisted I ordered executed. For I had no doubt that, whatever the nature of their creed, stubbornness and inflexible obstinacy surely deserve to be punished. There were others possessed of the same folly; but because they were Roman citizens, I signed an order for them to be transferred to Rome. (A letter from Pliny to Trajan)

• Yet, they decided not to denounce Jesus... Why ???...

• People do not die for a lie - these disciples must have seen something that made them choose their cruel death over denouncing their faith.

• Remember that these disciples are Jews - and the ultimate promise of God to the Jews was the coming of a Messiah....

• Maybe, just maybe, they were convinced of having seen and touched the Messiah ? The ressurection of the death may have given them the necessary push that made them overcome their doubt ?

• Human nature is such that no sane man would give up his own life to a belief that he knows is untrue.

• If anyone knew for sure whether Jesus did or did not resurrect from His death, it would be His disciples.

  In fact, Christianity was NOT spread by Jesus, but by these disciples... They willingly went out to tell about Jesus' resurrection while putting their life on the line.

• The historical FACT that many of these disciples decided to give up their own life to tell the world about that "Jesus has resurrected" is a very STRONG evidence that what they died for is the truth !

• The reason that many of these disciples were executed is this:
  They refuse to renounce their Lord Jesus, the Christ... That is the truth they are willing to die for...

• There are 2 people who offer an even stronger testimony to Jesus' resurrection:
  • Jesus' (half) brother James
  • Paul

• Both of these persons were anti-Jesus before their conversion; and yet later in their lives, both of them were willing to give their life to Jesus whom they willingly called "Lord"...

• The Bible tells us that James did not believe in Him:
  John 7:5 For His brothers did not believe in Him.

  It should not be surprising that Jesus' own brothers would not believe - imagine growing up with Jesus and one day, your brother claims to be the Son of God... Tough sell...

• The Jewish Historian Josephus told us that James was martyred in Jerusalem:
  In Antiquities, Book 20, Chapter 9:

  Festus was now dead, and Albinus was but upon the road; so he assembled the sanhedrim of judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others, [or, some of his companions]; and when he had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned...

  (Note that Josephus was not a Christian and his work was mainly to write about Jewish history - his mentioning of Jesus and James affirms the historicity of Jesus and James as actual persons in history)

• This may be the reason why James was willing to die for Jesus:
  1Co 15:1 And, brothers, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you have received, and in which you stand;
  1Co 15:2 by which you also are being kept safe, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.
  1Co 15:3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received, that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures,
  1Co 15:4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures;
  1Co 15:5 and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the Twelve.
  1Co 15:6 Afterward He was seen by over five hundred brothers at once, of whom the greater part remain until this present day, but also some fell asleep.
  1Co 15:7 Afterward He was seen by James....

  Yep, if you see someone back alive after seeing Him die and be buried, the event can really change your mind about Him...

• Paul himself confessed that he was persecuting Christians before his conversion.

  According to his own words, Jesus appeared to Him on the way to Damascus (to round up Christians - see Acts, Chapter 9) and his life is no longer the same.

  His belief in Jesus was backed by his martyrdom in Rome (he was decapitated) - that's quite a turn around: from someone who could not care less about Christians to someone who would give up his own life for the belief....

  The only explanation is that Paul did see Jesus on that road to Damascus...