Catalogues of the Apostles

CATALOGUES OF THE APOSTLES. - In Mt. 10:2-4; Mk. 3:14-19; Lk. 6:14-16 and Acts 1:13 is found the list of the names of the twelve Apostles. This catalogue of names is divided into 3 groups, of which the first is headed by Peter, the second by Philip and the third by James the son of Alphaeus. The so-called c. of the A. represents an old oral tradition, earlier than the written Gospels, and was only slightly framed by Mark within the historical narrative (cf. M. Dibelius, Formgeschichte des Evangeliums, 2nd ed., Tübingen 1933, p. 227).

It may be that the three names that begin the three groups were meant to indicate three sources of the oral tradition. In this case James the son of Alphaeus would represent the tradition of Mary, his mother (Mk. 15:40; 16:1; Mt. 27:56; Lk. 24:10), as a witness of the Resurrection of Christ. In the different c. of the A. the names of the individual Apostles are almost always the same. Only Simon the Cananaean (Mt. 10:4; Mk. 3:18) has in Lk. 6:15 (cf. Acts 1:13) the name "Simon called the Zealot," that is, his Aramaic nickname: "Cananaean" was translated into Greek, while for the name of Thaddaeus (Mt. 10:3; Mk. 3:18) the name of Lebbaeus is also found in the biblical manuscripts, but Lk. 6:16 (= Acts 1:13) knows for Thaddaeus the name: Judas of James.

Besides this more ancient c. of the A. in the canonical Gospels, there still exists an interesting c. of the A. in the apocryphal Apostolic Church Order (prologue). The list comprises the names of: John, Matthew, Peter, Andrew, Philip, Simon, James, Nathanael, Thomas, Cephas, Bartholomew and Judas of James (cf. A. Harnack, Die Lehre der zwölf Apostel, Leipzig 1884, p. 225). Similar is the list in the so-called Epistula apostolorum, ch. 2: John, Thomas, Peter, Andrew, James, Philip, Bartholomew, Nathanael, Judas the Zealot, Cephas. Characteristic of these two c. of the A. are: the fact that John stands at the head of the list; the presence of Nathanael; the distinction between Peter and Cephas. The origin of the c. of the A. of these two writings has been sought in the Gospel according to the Egyptians (A. Baumstark, Alte und neue Spuren eines ausserkanon. Evangeliums, in Zeitschrift für neutestamentl. Wissenschaft, 14 [1913], p. 232 ff.; cf. F. Haase, ibid., 16 [1915], p. 106). John as head of the c. of the A. probably stands in opposition to a c. of the A. of the Ebionites with Matthew at its head (Epiphanius, Panarion haer., XXX, 13, 3 and Ps.-Clement, Recogn., I, 55 ff.); that is, to the list of the Jewish Christians who preferred the Gospel of Matthew was opposed a list of the names of the Apostles based on the preference that was given in Egypt to the Gospel of John. But these c. of the A. of the Ebionites in Palestine and of the Egyptians are based on the existence of a written Gospel, whereas the older c. of the A. of the canonical Gospels still presupposes the existence of an oral tradition. A c. of the A. that has entirely special characteristics is the one inserted in the Canon of the Mass (v.).

Erik Peterson