DISCIPLES OF THE LORD. – This title (μαθηταί Κυρίου) in Apostles (v.), while in Acts it designates all believers. In a stricter sense, it indicates those followers of Jesus who, not having been included in the apostolic college, were less intimate with the Savior, although they went with Him more or less frequently (Jn. 6:66). They were therefore also “witnesses” (Acts 1:8; 10:59; etc.) for the future evangelization. On one occasion they are sent on a mission (ἀνέδειξεν): Lk. 10:1. Their number is given now as 70 (οἱ ἑβδομήκοντα), now as 72. The brilliant success of this first preaching, which the Master strengthened with miracles, is described (Lk. 10:17). Certainly many of the “500 brothers” (I Cor. 15:6) to whom the Risen One appeared belonged to these disciples.
In the Gospels and Acts only four disciples appear by name: the wealthy Joseph of Arimathea (Mt. 27:5; ἐμαθητεύθη τῷ Ἰησοῦ); two of them (Lk. 24:13; δύο ἐξ αὐτῶν) go to Emmaus; one is named Κλεατὸς. In addition, St. Peter names two “men who were always united with us from the baptism of John until the Ascension” (Acts 1:21): Joseph Barsabbas (v.), the Just, and Matthias.
Later attempts were made to discover the names of the others. Papias (beginning of the 2nd century) names two disciples as τοῦ Κυρίου μαθηταί, Ἀριστῶν καὶ ὁ πρεσβύτερος Ἰωάννης; but there is almost universal agreement that the “presbyter Johannes” is the result of a division into two persons, since he is the same as the apostle John. Aristion (v.), the teacher of Papias, is mentioned by an Armenian manuscript of the Gospels from 986: before the conclusion of Mk. (16:9-20), one reads in red ink: “of the presbyter Ariston” (Ariston eritzu), where this disciple appears as the author of those 12 verses. (E. Nestle, Einführung in das Neue Testament, Göttingen 1909, pl. 9; 4th ed., there 1923, pl. 19).
Clement of Alexandria still knows no catalogue of the disciples, but he names “Barnabas, Sosthenes” (I Cor. 1:1) and Cephas, who bears the same name as the apostle Peter (fragment of Book V of Hypotyposes, in Eusebius, Hist. eccl., I, 12, 1; PG 20, 117; ed. Schwartz, 80, 17-82, 5; ed. Stählin, 3, 196). The information given by Eusebius himself is highly controversial and practically unusable (Th. Schermann, pp. 294-97).
Contemporary with this is the assertion of Adamantius (De vera fide: PG 11, 1721; ed. W. H. van de Sande Bakhuyzen, p. 10) that Mark and Luke belonged to the “70.” For the ethnically Christian Luke this must be completely excluded; but it is also very improbable in the case of Mark. This false report concerning Mark and Luke was accepted by St. Epiphanius, who supplemented it in an entirely fanciful manner: the two Evangelists belonged to those who were scandalized by Jesus’ Eucharistic discourse (Jn. 6:62) and separated themselves from Him. Their teachers Peter and Paul won them back to the faith (Haer., 51, 6, 11; PG 41, 900, 908; ed. Holl, 2, 256, 263). In addition, Epiphanius names the seven deacons (Acts 6:5), Paul, and five other men.
The Constitutiones Apostolicae (5th century) make the Apostles speak of “bishops ordained by us”: 30 names are given there (VII, 64; ed. Funk, pp. 452-55). The Chronicon Paschale (ca. 629) uses all the names in Acts and in the Pauline epistles to form a list of 70 names (PG 92, 1059-66). Since the later lists of disciples have no historical value whatsoever, it will suffice to enumerate the principal ones (with Th. Schermann): Ps.-Epiphanius (beginning of the 8th century), Ps.-Dorotheus (beginning of the 9th century), Ps.-Hippolytus (middle of the 9th century),
Ps.-Simon Logothetes (10th century), and finally the Greek Synaxaria (of the 11th and 12th centuries). There are also lists by Arab writers (Solomon of Bosra and ‘Amr, etc.) from the same period. Th. Schermann presents precisely (pp. 327-49) the individual names of the 145 persons who, even if only once, were counted among the disciples of the Lord, supplying all the references.