Picking of the Apostles

[darinhouston]

Anyone have a narrative and/or timeline for the choosing of the Apostles, how they came to follow Christ, when and circumstances of being chosen, etc.? I need it for a bible study I'm leading.

[steve]

There is only biblical information for the calling of seven of the twelve.

Philip and Nathanael (whom I consider to be the same man as Bartholomew) were called in John 1:43ff. Jesus had met Andrew, Peter and (probably) John on the previous day, but there is no evidence that they were called to follow Him until later. This seems to have been very early—seemingly only days after Jesus returned from the wilderness temptations.

The four fishermen, Peter, Andrew, James and John were called from their nets considerably later, near the beginning of Jesus' first Galilean campaign. That would bring the number to at least six by then.

Matthew (Levi) was called from his tax office in Capernaum, during the first Galilean campaign.

There is no information about the time or circumstances of the calling of the other five apostles. Their names were:
Thomas
James (of Alphaeus)
Thaddaeus—aka Lebbaeus, or Judas (of James)—not Iscariot
Simon the Zealot
Judas Iscariot

It is believed that only Judas Iscariot was not a Galilean. This is because Judas was a man of Kerioth (the probable meaning of "Iscariot"), a town of Judea. The assumption that the rest were all Galileans (something never actually affirmed in scripture) seems to come from the reaction of observers at Pentecost, who said, "Are not all these who speak Galileans?" (Acts 2:7).

Jesus had "disciples" following Him as early as the time of His first miracle at Cana (John 2:2)—seemingly several months previous to the first Galilean campaign, and therefore prior to the call of the fishermen and of Matthew. Whether any or all of these five had begun following Him that early would be a matter of conjecture.

Remember, Jesus chose the twelve apostles from the larger group of disciples that were following Him around. It is possible that Jesus had scores of followers very early on (after John the Baptist pointed Him out to his own disciples). We can only guess how any of these unnamed disciples came to leave their regular activities in order to follow Jesus. A small number of them were later called to be apostles.

[darinhouston]

Thanks, Steve -- how about Luke?

[steve]

Luke joined Paul's team for the first time in Troas. We know this because the first "we" section in Acts begins with the departure from Troas—i.e. "they" (Paul and his team) came down to Troas (Acts 16:8) Vs. "We" (the same team, with the author joining them) sailed from Troas (Acts 16:11). Luke remained with Paul through the end of the book of Acts, with few absences. He remained in Philippi when Paul and Silas were forced to leave, but rejoined them for their trip back to Jerusalem.

Was he a man of Troas? Or was he from Philippi, visiting Troas when he met Paul, then accompanying him back to Philippi? It seems that he was a Gentile (Col.10-11, 14). As far as we know, he was never a disciple of Jesus during Jesus' earthly ministry.

[darinhouston]

So is it fair to say he wasnever one of the twelve but traveled with them and had Apostolic authority? How would you describe that authority? Different in kind to the twelve? In what way? How would that affect our view of his writings as authoritative? Surely there were other travelers with the group at times. Would we consider their letters as candidates for canonicity?

[steve]

Luke and Mark need not have been apostles in order for them to write authoritative histories. We do not have any epistles or instructions to churches written by them. They may have been regarded as second-rung "apostles" because of their belonging to the apostolic teams of Paul and Peter, respectively, but whether or not this is so, it has generally been held that the gospel of Mark carried Peter's approval (authority) and that Luke/Acts was approved/authorized by Paul. It seems impossible to imagine Luke's being able to write these documents, during the years he lived with Paul, and their being published without Paul's approval.