Disciple (Christianity)
Discipleship is not the same as being a student in the modern sense; a disciple in the ancient biblical world actively imitated both the life and teaching of the master.
The term "disciple" represents the Koine Greek word mathētḗs (μαθητής),[3] which generally means "one who engages in learning through instruction from another, pupil, apprentice" [4] or in religious contexts such as the Bible, "one who is rather constantly associated with someone who has a pedagogical reputation or a particular set of views, disciple, adherent.
"[7][8] While a disciple is one who learns and apprentices under a teacher or rabbi, an apostle is one sent as a missionary to proclaim the good news and to establish new communities of believers.
The first-century philosopher Seneca appeals to the "living voice and intimacy of common life" of the disciple–teacher relationship of many different philosophers: Cleanthes could not have been the express image of Zeno, if he had merely heard his lectures; he also shared in his life, saw into his hidden purposes, and watched him to see whether he lived according to his own rules.
Plato, Aristotle, and the whole throng of sages who were destined to go each his different way, derived more benefit from the character than from the words of Socrates.
[2] A disciple did not merely attend lectures or read books, they were required to interact with and imitate a real living person.
A disciple is first a believer who has exercised faith (Acts 2:38; see also Born again (Catholicism)) This means they have experienced conversion and put Jesus at the center of their life and participated in rites of Christian imitation.
A fully developed disciple is also a leader of others who attempts to pass on this faith to his followers, with the goal of repeating this process.
In addition to the Twelve Apostles there is a much larger group of people identified as disciples in the opening of the passage of the Sermon on the Plain.
Jesus practiced open table fellowship, scandalizing his critics by dining with sinners, tax collectors, Samaritans, and women.
From among them he names three women: "Mary, called Magdalene, ... and Joanna the wife of Herod's steward Chuza, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their resources" (Luke 8:2–3).
Mary Magdalene and Joanna are among the women who went to prepare Jesus's body in Luke's account of the resurrection, and who later told the apostles and other disciples about the empty tomb and words of the "two men in dazzling clothes".
Beginning with a testing trap laid out by his adversaries regarding observance of the Jewish Sabbath, Jesus uses the opportunity to lay out the problems with the religiosity of his adversaries against his own teaching by giving a litany of shocking comparisons between various, apparent socio-political and socio-economic realities versus the meaning of being his disciple.
The canonical gospels, Acts, and the Pauline epistles urge disciples to be imitators of Jesus Christ or of God himself.
[citation needed] The doctrine of the movement emphasized the "one another" passages of the New Testament, and the mentoring relationship prescribed by the Apostle Paul in 2 Timothy 2:2 of the Holy Bible.
It was controversial in that it gained a reputation for controlling and abusive behavior, with a great deal of emphasis placed upon the importance of obedience to one's own shepherd.
[20] Radical discipleship is a movement in practical theology that has emerged from a yearning to follow the true message of Jesus and a discontentment with mainstream Christianity.
