CATALOGUES OF THE APOSTLES. - In Mt. 10, 2-4; Mc. 3, 14-19; Lc. 6, 14-16 and Act. 1, 13 one finds the list of the names of the twelve Apostles. This catalogue of the Apostles is divided into 3 groups, the first of which is headed by Peter, the second by Philip, and the third by James the son of Alphaeus. The catalogue of the Apostles represents an old oral tradition, prior to the written Gospels, and was only slightly framed by Mark into the historical narrative (cf. M. Dibelius, Formgeschichte des Evangeliums, 2nd ed., Tübingen 1933, p. 227).
It may be that the three names beginning the three groups were meant to indicate three sources of the oral tradition. In this case James of Alphaeus would represent the tradition of Mary, his mother (Mc. 15, 40; 16, 1; Mt. 27, 56; Lc. 24, 10), as a witness of Christ's Resurrection. In the various catalogues of the Apostles the names of the individual Apostles are almost always identical. Only Simon the Cananaean (Mt. 10, 4; Mc. 3, 18) has in Lc. 6, 15 (cf. Act. 1, 13) the name "Simon called the Zealot", that is, his Aramaic nickname: "Cananaean" was translated into Greek, whereas for the name of Thaddaeus (Mt. 10, 3; Mc. 3, 18) one also finds that of Lebbaeus in the biblical manuscripts, but Lc. 6, 16 (= Act. 1, 13) knows Thaddaeus by the name: Judas of James.
Besides this most ancient catalogue of the Apostles in the canonical Gospels, there is also an interesting catalogue of the Apostles in the apocryphal Apostolic Church Ordinance (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 Epistola apostolorum, chap. 2: John, Thomas, Peter, Andrew, James, Philip, Bartholomew, Nathanael, Judas the Zealot, Cephas. Characteristics of these two catalogues of the Apostles 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 catalogue of the Apostles in 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 sq.; cf. F. Haase, ibid., 16 [1915], p. 106). John as the head of the catalogue of the Apostles probably stands in opposition to a catalogue of the Apostles of the Ebionites with Matthew at the 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 there was opposed a list of the names of the Apostles based on the preference given in Egypt to the Gospel of John. But these catalogues of the Apostles of the Ebionites in Palestine and of the Egyptians are based on the existence of a written Gospel, whereas the older catalogue of the Apostles of the canonical Gospels still presupposes the existence of an oral tradition. A catalogue of the Apostles possessing entirely special characteristics is the one inserted Canon of the Mass (v.).