n <►* \ Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive in 2007 witii funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation littp://www.arcliive.org/details/companionsoflordOOreedricli THE COMPANIONS OF THE LORD THE COMPANIONS OF THE LORD: CHAPTERS ON THE LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. BY CHARLES E. B. REED, M.A., LATE SCHOLAR OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. LONDON: THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY, 56, Paternoster Row ; 65, St. Paul's Churchyard AND 164, Piccadilly. "Men of all temperaments and all characters were within that first and nearest circle of disciples, that they might be the repre- sentatives and helpers of all who hereafter, through one difficulty and another, should attain at last to the full assurance of faith." R4^ PREFACE. It will be seen at once from the title-page that by no means all the Companions of the Lord are dealt with in the following pages. Under that name might have been included the family at Bethany, the women that ministered unto him, with many of the minor characters in the gospels ; whereas it was from the first intended to confine attention to the original group of ordained apostles. A partial exception has been made in favour of the Lord's brethren whom, though the writer cannot think them to have been of the number of the Twelve, it has yet seemed well to treat in supplementary notes on the same plan with the rest. This plan is to gather up scattered threads of reference both from the New Testament and other sources of information, and weave them into a connected history of each dis- ciple, in the hope of being able to illustrate some vi Preface, of the phases of the Christian life and of the ways whereby men are led to the Redeemer and trained for his service. A certain amount of repetition is unavoidable where the same scenes have to be revisited in order to study the parts played in them by one actor and another ; but the effort has been made to keep the lines of biography distinct and to light up the path with the more interesting results of modern travel and research. All direct aid has, it is believed, been acknow- ledged in the text ; of indirect aid no man can give adequate account. Warminster, September, 1873. CONTENTS PAGB I. THE PROBABLE MOTIVES OF OUR LORD IN CHOOSING APOSTLES I IL THE MEN OF HIS CHOICE IJ HI. GENERAL HISTORY AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TWELVE 31 NOTE ON THE DIVISION OF NARRATIVE BETWEEN THE FOUR GOSPELS '45 IV. THE PETER OF THE GOSPELS 1 TO THE TRIUMPHAL » ENTRY 47 NOTE ON THE PROMISE TO PETER ... 69 V. THE PETER OF THE GOSPELS : FROM THE ENTRY TO THE ASCENSION 75 VI. THE PETER OF THE EARLY CHURCH .... 97 VIL ANDREW 117 VIII. JAMES THE SON OF ZEBEDEE . • • • . I33 viii Contents. PAGE IX. THE JOHN OF THE GOSPELS I47 X. THE JOHN OF THE EARLY CHURCH . . . . 163 XL PHILIP 183 NOTE ON THE BETHSAIDAS 1 98 XII. NATHANAEL OR BARTHOLOMEW I99 XIIL MATTHEW 215 XIV. THOMAS 22Q XV. JAMES THE SON OF ALPHiEUS, JUDAS AND SIMON THE ZEALOT 25I NOTE (a) on the brethren OF THE LORD . 265 (b) ON THE EARLY LIFE OF THE BRETHREN 270 (C) ON JAMES THE JUST i . . . 279 (d) on jude 291 xvi. judas iscariot : to the compact with the priests 295 xvil judas iscariot : after the compact . . . 311 xvin. CONCLUSION 327 INDEX 339 i f robablf potiljts of om f orb in goosing ^postlts. •Christ said not to his first conventicle, *Go forth and preach impostures to the world/ But gave them Truth to build on; and the sound Was mighty on their lips; nor needed they, Beside the Gospel, other spear or shield To aid them in their warfare for the faith." Dante. EVERY religious teacher, if in earnest, will be a proselytizer. In proportion as he holds his opinions with a conscientious and intelligent grasp, must he desire to win men over to their acceptance; nor can his zeal be blamed provided only the ruinous spirit of strife and bigotry be avoided. And if he be not merely convinced of the importance of his message but wise in his method of spreading it, he will never be satisfied with merely impressing it in public upon the multitude around him, but will store it privately in a few choicer minds, that they may •carry the doctrine, like freighted vessels, to distant shores. As there is no comparison for effectiveness between the single machine which prints so many sheets of paper or winds so many reels of silk in the hour and the steam engine which sets and keeps in motion a whole room full of such machines, so the man who seeks to do the largest amount of good will recognize that far higher results may be attained by instructing a few persons of influence who " shall be able to teach others also," than by working always 4 The Companions of the Lord. upon an inert mass, destitute of life and reproductive energy. Hence we find that all the world's greatest teachers have gathered around them disciples. Socrates fre- quented the market-place and gymnasia of Athens at their busiest hours, and was ready to talk with any- body and everybody ; but there clustered about him a group of pupils and companions, whom he took pains to instruct in the esoteric parts of his system, because to them he looked for its preservation and propagation. Nor was his hope misplaced ; for the thoughts of mankind were moulded and stamped in succeeding ages by the rough old Greek who through Plato and Aristotle his intellectual heirs exercised a widening power through many generations. Peter the Hermit inflaming Europe to the Crusades, Luther waving on the world against priestly craft and tyranny, Loyola the founder of the Society of Jesus, Savonarola at Florence with his Penitents, and in England the twin leaders of Methodism — these are examples of religious teachers, not in every case formally organizing disciples, but ever setting their followers to work, and through their labours reaching men of all lands and in days long after the watch- fires of their own lives had died down. This same principle was acknowledged by our Saviour to a remarkable degree. He deliberately chose out and summoned to his side as permanent associates twelve men, who at his bidding forsook their trade, left their homes and followed him through the scenes of his ministry, occasionally leaving him for a while to preach his word and prepare his way, Why did the Lord choose Apostles ? 5 but anon returning to report their failures and suc- cesses, receive a fresh commission and learn his will more perfectly. Having taken upon him our nature, it was no derogation from his glory, but rather in complete agreement with his design, that he should employ for the diffusion of his gospel not the legions of trumpeting angels but the simple tongues of the men he had persuaded and enlisted ; and, while exception is taken by some to the actual objects of his choice as men ill-suited to his purpose, a little attention will, it is hoped, suffice to show that in this, as in all other matters, his selection was guided by a wisdom above that of the world, and justified by the attainment of the ends in view. But before going farther we are bound for a moment to consider the opinion held by many ex- cellent persons jealous for the divine honour, that there is no need to defend our Lord's choice by such reasons of prudence as mankind in general possess for action, inasmuch as the divine resources are dis- played to greatest advantage when associated with human feebleness ; and that therefore he was likely to select his apostles, not so much from a view to their fitness for the work, as with a desire to magnify in them his transforming and energizing grace. Thus it has been maintained that " our Saviour made choice of twelve simple and unlettered men that the greater their lack of natural wusdom was, the more admirable that might appear which God super- naturally endowed them with from heaven." It is no doubt true, as St. Paul says, that "God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. 6 The Companions of the Lord. and the weak to confound those which are mighty ; " for weak are the best earthly instruments for doing spiritual work, and only by inspiration from on high can they prove mighty to the pulling down of strongholds ; but the apostle appears to fall far short of teaching that the foolish and weak are selected specially because of their folly and im- potence. Oftentimes it may seem as though God chooses unfit instruments, when in the judgment of a wisdom that discards our shifting social standards they are the very fittest. If there be one lesson which the Old Testament impresses upon the mind of the reader more than another it is of the care which the divine Ruler has ever taken in pre- paring and polishing his tools, though often the event alone proved the previous skill. To outward appear- ance Gideon's host was weakened by its reduction, whereas we can now see that the dismissal of the timid and indolent really made it far more efficient and manageable. And there were two reasons why this principle of careful adaptation of means to ends should not have been neglected by our Lord. He bore our nature in all but its sins, and therefore must have followed the general lines of human foresight ; and as he lived for our ensample it is incredible that he should have shown a disregard of natural fitness in the means em- ployed, which it is admitted no living man would be profited or even justified in displaying. Bearing then in mind that God chooses with care, but often sees fit to choose those very instruments which men would pronounce incompetent, we are willing to Why did the Lord choose Apostles ? 7 believe that " it behoved Christ to select a number of men in whom the riches of His life might be unfolded in every direction. For this end He needed, above all things, people in whom the glory of His spirit and the peculiarity of His work might be distinctly identified ; laymen who would not chain His work to existing priestly habits ; unlearned men, who would not mix up His wisdom with traditional schemes of philosophy ; yes, even comparatively uneducated men, at any rate homely men, in order that the dulled taste of a diseased worldly civilization might not disturb the culture which the Spirit of the image of Christ operating from within was to impart to them.'" If now we examine our Lord's choice of apostles from the human point of view — which in fact is the only side by which we feel able at all to approach it — we are disposed to reckon first amongst his motives the desire for sympathy. His nature was genial, he loved children, was easily affected by the sight of a great multitude or a great city ; he had grown up among a wide circle of relations and seemed never happier than when enjoying the hospitalities of the family at Bethany. And if„.notwithstanding his habit of solitary prayer, he rejoiced to feel human hearts beating true with his own, the character of the work he had come to do was such as to stimulate this yearning for sympathy. It was for him to tread the winepress alone, to be despised and rejected of men, » Lange, Life of Christ, voL iii. p. 4$. S * The Covtpayiions of the Lord a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief ; some of his countrymen would spurn his offers of mercy and plot against his life, while of those who listened many would straightway forsake him or follow only for a few faltering steps. How natural then for him to call around his person a company of disciples upon whose affection and sympathy he could firmly rely ! / The question however will make itself heard, — / were the Twelve whom he actually selected qualified to give him the required support ? When he chose ' them their faith was of the feeblest ; they appeared , unable to enter into his plans or understand his lofty I motives, and often when he came to them after the \ fatigue and disappointments of public teaching they / would harass his spirit with some trifling contention. \ What joy could he find in the society of minds so ■■ coarsely strung and so little in harmony with his ^ own pure and sensitive heart } At times, indeed, he seems to have felt the jar unbearable, and gladly to have escaped at evening from the jangling voices of the house to find the solace of the Father's presence amid the hush of the listening stars. Yet, in spite of this incongruity of temper, he could and did find true help in their attendance. He ordained them that they should " be with him " ; he called them not servants but friends ; his apprecia- tion of their friendship discovered itself in the pathetic appeal, "Will ye also go away.?" and at the end he expressed even, gratitude for their sym- pathy, saying, "Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations." Encouragement ought to flow forth to us from this fact, that common why did the Lord choose Apostles ? 9 people, poor artisans, rustics of unpolished manners, were not too vulgar company for Him, and that their stumbling faith, their brooding doubts and grievous sins did not hinder him from taking them as his daily associates. But it would be wrong to regard this desire for sympathy as our Saviour's principal reason in choos- ing the Twelve. He never put into the foremost place what contributed simply to his own comfort. If he called these men in part to cheer him, we may be assured it was chiefly that he might be made the stronger for that unselfish work whereto he had set his hand ; directly or indirectly they were sum- moned for the work's sake. Hence, as a second motive prompting his choice, may be named his design that the apostles should bear public witness of all they saw and heard whilst remaining with him. It was manifestly of high importance that some persons who had followed the whole course of the Lord's ministry should be prepared to give evidence of his teaching and of the wonderful and gracious works, culminating in his resurrection, on which he based his authority as a teacher sent from God. If, after his death, a compact body of such eye-witnesses should publish the same story, cling to it through persecution, alter their lives in consequence of it and upon its truth stake those lives, it would, as Christian apologists have often remarked, need scepticism raised to a very high power to withstand such testimony ; while, on the other hand, without so rich a legacy of evidence left to posterity, it is not easy lo The Companions of the Lord. to see how the reh'gion of Jesus Christ could make its way in the worid. But, granted the need for witnesses, were the men upon whom the solemn choice fell competent for the discharge of so grave a function ? We learn that the Twelve were ** unlearned and ignorant men " — a phrase not indeed conclusive of mental incapacity or a lack of all education, yet certainly inappli- cable to 'the cultivated classes of the Jewish people. The apostles were provincials of the middle stratum of society ; one was a subordinate collector of taxes, several were fishermen in no large way of business ; and all may be presumed to have been more or less warped in mind by the prejudices of the day. Upon some subjects it must be admitted they would have made indifferent witnesses, as, for example, if testis mony had been required of them on points falling properly within the scope of lawyers and rabbis. But the miracles of Jesus were of a kind which the humblest observer could judge, and perhaps judge even better than his superiors in rank. For shrewd- ness is no monopoly of the educated ; what men lack of artificial knowledge is often made up by a full share of mother wit, so that in this view the obscure origin of the apostles may be no drawback at all from the value of their testimony. We have at least yet to learn why a common-sense fisherman like Peter cannot tell as credibly about a miraculous draught or a coin found in the haddock's mouth as Gamaliel, or why the same disciple should not be as sound a wit- ness in the matter of his mother-in-law's recovery as Caiaphas would have been or Pontius Pilate. Why did the Lord choose Apostles ? 1 1 It becomes us moreover to remember that, even if the Twelve were in any measure disqualified by inferior station from bearing trustworthy evidence, they were thereby just as much incapacitated for the concoction of a clever forgery. The gospels are either honest records of facts or they are masterpieces of fraud ; and it would have demanded a higher cultiva- tion to enable the apostles to manufacture falsehood into the form of the evangelic memoirs, than to narrate plain events actually witnessed by them. In short, the simplicity, if one may so term it, of the Twelve appears to be no ground at all for suppos- ing them to have been deceived, while it is the strongest possible ground for not accounting them deceivers. Another objection is sometimes levelled against the credibility of the apostles. They were, it has been said, too much of one class and neighbourhood. With the possible, but not certain, exce ption of Juda s Iscariot, all were Galileans. The band com- prised two or three pairs of brothers, four partners, five natives of the same country town, and in all pro- bability two or more relations of the Lord. Why, it is asked, was not care taken to draw them evenly from every rank of life and district of the land, in order that their testimony might be free from a sus- picion of partiality .'' Now, the course which the objection suggests as preferable is precisely that which an impostor would have adopted, conscious of deceit and studying by his selection of witnesses to make a show of candour and disarm inquiry. Such a man, if indeed he had dared to take any spec- 12 The Companions of the Lord, tators of his inner as well as his outer life, would have made them as varied and representative as possible; whereas Jesus, who was willing that his most private dealings should be scanned, seems to have been above such precautions and to have called men in any station who were available for his purpose. And his field of selection was narrower than one at first might think. For while his miracles were wrought without an attempt at concealment, and the cures he effected were freely exposed to the scrutiny of eyes awake to the slightest trace of im- posture, there were few to whom he could appeal for testimony. Pharisees and Scribes might be inwardly convinced, but they would never consent to publish abroad the fame of one whom they hated. On the contrary, all their efforts were bent towards suppress- ing the report, or explaining the deed as done by the aid of Beelzebub. It was therefore the friends of the Lord Jesus who must preserve and hand down the record, if any did so, for they alone were in- terested in it — and his friends were of the humbler order ; so that, in point of fact, such men as he did choose for his apostles were the only ones accessible for the service. • The day for " bearing a testimony" did not close with the apostles. Nobler miracles are wrought now than ever James or Philip saw. Sabbath by Sabbath multitudes are fed through the increase of a human supply poorer for its object than the lad's provision of loaves and fishes. Daily the blind see, the deaf hear the lepers are healed, the dead raised. Not Why did the Lord choose Apostles f 13 one of us but has felt in himself, or witnessed in others, the miraculous change which no power save that of the Almighty could work — no love save that of the All-merciful would deign to work. Every other evidence of religion is weak compared with that which is based on the lives of its present professors. If Christ cannot be seen in the conduct and every-day language of the modern Church, it avails little to tell men that he lived on earth once as Teacher and Redeemer, and that the history is enshrined in an inspired volume of indisputable authority. The account, they will reply, cannot now be verified ; but if you can show us this Christ as still alive — and your own book asserts that he promised ever to be with his followers — then and then only will we believe. We take up the challenge ; but alas ! where is our Lord to be found } Is it in the life 01 the self-seeking Christian whom " the world cannot hate " (oh ! the condemning irony of those words) because, despite his attention to the easy externals of religion, he is worldly to the heart's very core } Nay, these are the infidel-makers of society ten times rather than our overbold speculative writers. A supernatural faith, it is justly said, ought to produce supernatural lives. The world will never be con- vinced till it sees the Church living, not indeed in the letter but in the spirit of her Lord's example ; and when that day comes, the conversion of mankind will be near, even at the doors. The Master called his apostles, as we have now seen, to sympathize with him and attest the things 14 The Companions of the Lord, they saw and heard. He called them also to aid him in his life-work and prosecute it for him after his departure from the earth. So brief was his public ministry that, but for their cooperation, he could not have done all the acts of mercy, nor said all the words of wisdom, which were crowded into that eventful time. And if during his sojourn here he needed their services in spreading his doctrine and healing the sick, much more would those services be required when his day of earthly work was ended. For who would then take up the work, organize the forces, and head the campaign t Who but those few that were fired by personal attach- ment, and had been previously penetrated by his teaching and animated by his own spirit ? Once more however we are compelled to ask how far the men of his choice were fit for either stage, the earlier or the later, of this responsible work ? During his intercourse with them their conduct cannot be described as invariably helpful to his designs. To take a single instance out of many: — At nightfall he arrives with them at the entrance of a Samaritan village, whose inhabitants are hostile. " Here be Jews," they say one to another, " with faces set to- wards Jerusalem ; and this is the Teacher, who preaches love to one's enemies. Let us take him at his word, and win his benediction by refusing him shelter." Meekly the Saviour is ready to journey on to a more hospitable place ; but the effect of his patient endurance is marred by the fiery impreca- tions of two men living under his daily influence, and naturally supposed to represent his sentiments. So Why did the Lord choose Apostles f 1 5 it is at other times. When he sits willing to receive all, these disciples repel the venturing mothers ; his power to cast out devils they discredit by the failure of their faith ; his teaching they deny by repeated dissensions. Truly he was wounded in the house of his friends. Yet it is impossible to read the history of the Tweb^e without perceiving that with all their faults, which must in some measure have counteracted much of our Lord's influence for good, they were a set of men pt^ssessing right noble qualities of soul, who did him good service and abundantly vindicated his choice. Through his ministry they were not always chiding and failing, but at his bidding went to preach and heal, to carry the gospel of divine love to the remote hamlets of Galilee, to arouse the curiosity of the inhabitants, to direct them to Jesus or prepare them for his coming. Still, their main work was yet in store ; their duty, so far, was to strengthen them- selves for the responsibility soon to be laid upon their shoulders — **Here work enough to watch The Master work, and catch Hints of the proper craft, tricks of the tool's true play." And when the emergency came, bravely was it met. The second narrative of St Luke relates chiefly to the labours of the later-born apostle of the Gentiles ; but such notices as reach us in its pages of the doings of the Twelve betoken a firmness and intelligence which show how rapidly their characters had been developed under Christ's teaching, and how accu- 1 6 The Companions of the Lord. rately he had foreknown their capabilities for his service. The objects for which the apostles were called are summed up by St. Mark, when he tells us that the Lord Jesus " ordained twelve that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach, and to have power to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devils." In his choice of such men for sympathy, witness and active work, we cannot fail to see that he calls no man common or unclean, but that, as the sun can turn a chip of glass into a flashing gem, or transfigure the dullest bank of cloud into a Hima- laya range, so the least promising materials can in his hands be manipulated to grandest ends. And while not even his presence and teaching will avail immediately to expel deep-rooted evil from our hearts, yet is his grace mighty for its removal. He can qualify the humblest for a useful career, and so purify the basest as to make them illustrations of his goodness and instruments of his glory. II. t Stm of 1 b Ckta "For this purpose it was especially requisite that they should all perfectly complete one another ; — that therefore on the one hand they should qualify, restrain and neutralize one another ; and on the other hand should encourage, strengthen and perfect one another, in order to exhibit the richest collective individuality as the organ of Christ's life. " THE honour of the Lord's choice fell upon twelve men, a number fondly dwelt on by the older writers, who rejoiced in nothing more than the dis- covery of small coincidences. Thus TertuUian asks why Christ chose twelve apostles and not any other number, and refers in answer to the twelve springs at Elim, and the twelve jewels on Aaron's breast- plate^ ; while Dr. John Lightfoot says, "The number of the present ministers appointed, whom he calleth * apostles,' was twelve, agreeable to the twelve tribes of Israel ; that, as they were the beginning of the church of the Jews, so are these of the Gentiles ; and to both these numbers of twelve joined together, the number of the * four and twenty Elders,' the repre- sentative of the whole church, hath relation."^ Nor is I Quoted in Cave's Lives of the Apostles, Introduction, p. 3. This quaint but solid historian, whose work was published in 1677, observes that "it were endless, and to very little purpose, to reckon up all the conjectures " of the Fathers on this matter. The twelve stones chosen by Joshua out of Jordan, and even the twelve spies sent to discover the Land of Promise, are pressed by one and another into the service. a Collected Works, vol. iii. p. 67. »9 20 The Companions of the Lord. it only among the older writers that the light of fancy- plays. One of the ablest modern commentators in- forms us that, as three is the number of the Spirit, and four the number of the world, " twelve must surely represent the world in her spiritual fulness, in the spiritual unity of her various powers ; " and, speaking of the division of the apostles into quater- nions — a division presently to be noticed — he adds, "Each group in its unity has the Spirit of Christ, each stands forth a little world entire in its number four."' The niind recoils from subtleties like these; but, though we may decline to believe that our Lord studied minute correspondences in so important a choice, it may be allowed that he recognized an agreement with the number of the tribes of Israel when he spoke to his apostles of their sitting on thrones, judging the twelve tribes. Of the companions of the Lord there are given us in the New Testament four lists, one by St. Matthew, another by St. Mark, and two by St. Luke, which it may be convenient to present side by side, previously to a detailed examination of the names, and the attempt to draw from them a resultant catalogue. The first thing that strikes one upon a view of these lists is that each arranges itself into three groups of four names, and that the leading name in each quaternion is the same in every list. Simon Peter occupies always the foremost place ; Philip the fifth ; James of Alphaeus the ninth. It has been asserted by some also — though the inference is rather bold — that Matthew and Luke in their * Lange, Life of Christy vol. iii. p. 58. The Men of his Choice, 21 s SJ « I ^ O) SSI' -a W5 O '^ ^ o ._&! i is 2 -S U: N £. (A ! IT) \0 t^ 00 o « § cJ5 o ■5:5 AS ■73 "cS 22 The Companions of the Lord, gospels enumerate the apostles by pairs and in an order which answers to the date of their calling, whereas Mark ranges them according to their per- sonal influence before the Saviour's death, and in the Acts they are set in their order of importance after the Ascension. So much for the general arrangement. Let us now look at the names separately : 1. Simon, as we have seen, heads all four lists. The surname given him by Christ was Cephas, of which the Greek equivalent was Peter. "" St. Paul often calls him by his Aramaic surname, but neither by him nor by others is he described as Simon Cephas.'^ Simon Peter was the usual combination, until che original name Simon gave way before the growing prevalence of the appellation Peter. 2. Andrew, his brother, was made acquainted with the Lord before him, but only by a few hours. In point of eminence he should follow the sons of Zebedee ; but it is better for convenience' sake to link him with the more distinguished member of the same family. 3. James of Zebedee. The ellipse may be sup- plied by the word son or brother ; but while in some cases there is considerable doubt as to the relation- ship which is to be understood, there is no question that the former applies here. Why James should take precedence of John is not clear ; he may have been the elder, though by some writers this is disputed. 1 Whether in the masculine or feminine form will be asked in the note attached to chapter iv. 2 Save in the Syriac Version. The Men of his Choice, 2j 4. John^ his brother, was in all probability one of the first disciples of the Lord Jesus, though the opinion is built not on any distinct statement, but on a silence in the opening chapter of his gospel, which has been interpreted as "the reserve of holy love."* The two brothers were surnamed by Christ the sons of Thunder, while John is usually distinguished in his own narrative as " the disciple whom Jesus loved." The four apostles now mentioned were partners in a fishery on the Lake of Galilee, unless another view be entitled to greater weight, which supposes them to have been united only on special expeditions. 5. Philip was, in common with the sons of Jonas and Zebedee, a native of the small but flourishing town of Bethsaida, situated somewhere on the busy north-western shore of the Sea of Tiberias, probably not far from the point at which the Jordan enters it on the north,^ 6. Bartholomew is a patronymic like Barjonas, so that the actual name of this apostle is missing, unless he may be identified with a disciple mentioned by St. John, named Nathanael. This conclusion is now almost universally adopted, and in a later chapter the reasons will be adduced upon which it rests. 7. Matthew in his own list follows Thomas, but his fellow evangelists unite in giving him the precedence. A comparison of Matthew ix. 9 with Luke v. 27 1 Were not this altogether agreeable to the evangelist's habit, one might think the name suppressed in order to avoid the confusion between two Johns in the same passage. a Its exact site is uncertain. See cap. xi. for a notice of the various theories about the two Bethsaidas. 24 The Companions of the Lord. renders it highly probable that his original name was Levi, though there appears no firm ground for the idea that it was Jesus who gave him the name by which he is commonly known. Levi was, according to Mark, a relative "of Alphaeus," and if it can be shown, first that he was son of Alphseus, and second that this Alphaeus was the same person with the Alphaeus mentioned in connexion with James the Less, he will be brought into relationship with that apostle, and probably also with Judas of James. We believe however that, though no evidence may be forthcoming in disproof of either of these positions, there is just as little in their favour. 8. Thomas was also called Didymus. The various explanations which have been offered of these names will be noticed in due course. 9. James of Alphseus, who introduces the third class, has almost always been taken as son of Alphaeus. Difficult questions beset his name, such as the identification of this family with that of Clopas and Mary, and the claim of James to be con- sidered a brother of the Lord ; but as they do not affect the settling of the list, they may be deferred for the present.^ 10. Judas of James has been taken by the English translators as brother of the foregoing, whereas others follow Luther and the Syriac in supposing him his son. James however is described by reference . to his father Alphaeus — assuming that Alphaeus was his father — in a way which implies that the latter was at « See chapter xv., with its supplementary notes. TJu Men of his Choue, 2^ the time alive and known ; and if so, it is highly improbable that Alphaeus should have had a grand- son old enough to be chosen as an apostle. The identification of this Judas with Lebbaeus and Thaddaeus is another point of difficulty. An attempt to derive the two latter words from a pair of Hebrew equivalents has been pronounced unsatisfactory by the best authorities, and what with this failure and the many conjectures' of ancient writers and modern editors, the waters have been stirred till there is no seeing through them. Usher used to compare the change between Judas and Thaddaeus with that which he held to exist between Judas in Josephus and the Theudas of Gamaliel's speech ; while Mr. Venables sums up his article in the Dictionary of the Bible with the disheartened conclusion that " the safest way out of these acknowledged difficul- ties is to hold fast to the ordinarily received opinion that Jude, Lebbaeus, and Thaddaeus, were three names for the same apostle, who is therefore said by Jerome to have been * trionimus ' (sic)^ rather than intro- duce confusion into the Apostolic catalogues, and render them erroneous either in excess or defect."^ II. Simon the Canaanite — or more properly the Cananite — may, without any of this hesitation, be identified with Simon the Zealot. The two surnames 1 One may be mentioned. ** He was called 'Lebbeus,* I suppose, from the town * Lebba,' a sea-coast town of Galilee : of which Pliny speaks." So thought Lightfoot (xi. 171), but Cave says the name was Jebba in the copies of Pliny he had seen {Lives ^ p. 202). 2 Vol. i. p. 1 163 b. The dictionary referred to in these pages is that edited by Dr. William Smith, which at present stands imrivalled. 26 The Companions of the Lord, mean precisely the same thing, the former having as little to do with Cana of Galilee as it has to do with the land of Canaan, and being simply a Chaldee term applied to the sect of the Zealots. Who Simon's father may have been we are not told ; but, inas- much as Luke inserts his name between the brothers James and Jude, many have imagined him to be a third brother of the same family. If this be allowed, others are ready to maintain that the father of these three apostles cannot have been a different person from the Alphaeus who was father of Levi ; while the school of critics which seeks to reduce all things to the smallest possible number of elementary bodies comes forward to point out that Thomas may, from his name, have been twin-brother of Matthew, in which case we should have no fewer than five sons of the said Alphaeus in the apostolate — a fair example of the unsubstantial erections which are rapidly built by the licence of conjecture. 12. Judas y the man of Kerioth — if this be the true interpretation of his surname, as it is the usual one — not only closes each evangelic list, but has ever appended to his name the stigma of his crime, his contemporaries setting no example of leniency to- wards the man for whom even Jesus could say it had been well that he had never been born. Possibly the words "who also betrayed him" are added in the gospels to explain the subsequent introduction of Matthias into the place from which Judas by transgression fell. We are now in a position to draw up a cata- Tlie Men of his Choice. 27 logue which shall combine and arrange the examined lists. Cephas \ g Simon, surnamed or f r Peter \ Andrew ) J°^^ !^ P^'"^^ James 1 Surnamed Boanerges, John ) sons of Zebedee and Salome of Bethsaida. Philip Nathanael son of Tolmai (Bartholomew) of Cana Matthew or Levi, son (?) of (one) Alphgeus Thomas or Didymus James (the little) son of Alphaeus Judas or Lebbaeus or Thaddseus, brother of James Simon the Zealot or Cananite Judas of Kerioth. " One is your master," said Christ to his apostles, " and ye are brethren." It was so ; but the brethren were not equal in prominence or force of character. Besides Judas Iscariot, who stands out in a lurid light whilst developing his covetous and traitorous designs ; besides Matthew, who, as an evangelist, claims a place of distinction ; besides Philip, Na- thanael and Thomas, who now and again step to the front with some searching question or noble confes- sion, there were four apostles, " €K\€KT