Apostles in the New Testament

[1] There is also an Eastern Christian tradition derived from the Gospel of Luke that there were seventy apostles during the time of Jesus' ministry.

After his resurrection, Jesus sent eleven of them (as Judas Iscariot by then had died) by the Great Commission to spread his teachings to all nations.

In the Pauline epistles, Paul, although not one of the original twelve, described himself as an apostle,[3] saying he was called by the resurrected Jesus himself during his road to Damascus event.

[4] The period and associated events in timeline of early Christianity during the lifetimes of the twelve apostles is called the Apostolic Age.

[5] The term apostle comes from the Greek apóstolos (ἀπόστολος) – formed from the prefix apó- (ἀπό-, 'from') and root stéllō (στέλλω, 'I send, I depart') – originally meaning 'messenger, envoy'.

[6] They are also instructed to "take nothing for their journey, except a staff only: no bread, no wallet, no money in their purse, but to wear sandals, and not put on two tunics," and that if any town rejects them they ought to shake the dust off their feet as they leave, a gesture which some scholars think was meant as a contemptuous threat.

[16] Matthew describes Jesus meeting James and John, also fishermen and brothers, very shortly after recruiting Simon and Andrew.

Matthew states that at the time of the encounter, James and John were repairing their nets, but readily joined Jesus without hesitation.

Tax collectors were seen as villains in Jewish society, and the Pharisees are described as asking Jesus why he is having a meal with such disreputable people.

[22] Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness.

These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him.He went up the mountain and called to him those whom he wanted, and they came to him.

[32] The Golden Legend, compiled by Jacobus de Voragine in the 13th century, adds to the two apostles also Simon the Zealot.

Jesus invited them to be the only apostles present on three notable occasions during his public ministry: the Raising of Jairus' daughter,[42] the Transfiguration,[43] and the Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane.

[47][48] Two of the leading triumvirate, Peter and John, were additionally sent by Jesus into the city to make preparation for the final Passover meal (the Last Supper),[49] and were also the only two sent by the collective apostles to visit the newly converted believers in Samaria.

[52][53] After Judas betrayed Jesus (and then in guilt committed suicide[54] before Christ's resurrection, one Gospel recounts), the apostles numbered eleven.

So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day he was taken up from us, must become with us a witness to his resurrection.So, between the Ascension of Jesus and the day of Pentecost, the remaining apostles elected a twelfth apostle by casting lots, a traditional Israelite way to determine the will of God (see Proverbs 16:33).

[55] Paul the Apostle, in his First Epistle to the Corinthians, appears to give the first historical reference to the Twelve Apostles: "For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve" (1 Cor 15:3–5).

In the second view, it is believed that Paul is simply making mention of the outstanding character of these two people which was acknowledged by the apostles.

[63] According to Luke, the only gospel in which they appear, Jesus appointed them and sent them out in pairs on a specific mission which is detailed in the text.

It is traditionally believed that John survived all of them, living to old age and dying of natural causes at Ephesus sometime after AD 98, during the reign of Trajan.

Bishops traced their lines of succession back to individual apostles, who were said to have dispersed from Jerusalem and established churches across great territories.