The Preparation of the Apostles

Recently, I feel I was given an essay topic to write to post on my website. That topic was: “How were the Apostles prepared for their mission before being called by Jesus?” Jesus prepared His apostles during His time with them, but He picked the twelve that He did because of who they were. We are not given a lot of biographical details about them, but we can infer quite a lot based on the details provided in the gospels, the context of Israel’s children and the history given to us by the bible. It is in this light I would like to present them. 

 

Before doing that, I wanted to discuss a bit why Jesus chose twelve particularly, and what this meant. Jesus tells His apostles that in the resurrection, they would sit on twelve thrones, and judge the twelve tribes of Israel. So these were chosen not just as messengers of the Gospel (Apostle means messenger in Greek), but also as eternal leaders of the twelve tribes. So each apostle in a way represents one of the twelve tribes, whom they are destined to lead. This is shown by the details we know about them, when understood in the context of biblical history. Of course, a study of the twelve tribes shows that there are four leader tribes, each tribe a leader of two other tribes. Given the details in the bible and in the Gospels, we can confidently identify each of these four tribes with four of the apostles.

 

The first of the tribes, and leader of all the tribes in Numbers was Judah. They were the first to go out, leading Israel’s children in the desert. Reuben was born before Judah (as were Simeon and Levi), but they all lost the birthright of leadership because of their sins. So the leader of the twelve tribes was Judah. They went first, and were also leader of Issachar and Zebulun. The standard or flag or mascot of Judah was the lion (the lion of Judah, mentioned in the bible). The symbolic leader of Judah in the gospels is Peter, leader of the apostles, and his gospel is that of Mark (his son).

 

The second of the tribal leaders is that of Reuben. Again, Reuben lost the leadership of the tribes because of his sin. However, he was not without honour, and his tribe was among the four leaders. His tribe went second after Judah and their sub tribes, and Reuben led the tribes of Simeon and Gad. Their standard, flag, and mascot was the ox. The symbolic leader of Reuben in the gospels is James (or Jacob), and his gospel is that of Matthew (or Levi). 

 

The third of the tribal leaders is that of Ephraim. Reuben lost the birthright, and the birthright of leadership went to Judah, but the birthright of blessing went to Ephraim, the favourite son of Jacob’s favourite son, Joseph. Levi was called to service in The Lord’s tabernacle, and so Joseph was split, and of the two tribes so formed, Manasseh took over Levi’s place, and Ephraim Joseph’s. So Ephraim is also the leader of two tribes, Manasseh his brother, and Benjamin, Joseph’s brother. Their standard, flag, and mascot was the human. The symbolic leader of Ephraim in the gospels is John, Jesus’ favourite, and his gospel is both that of Luke and John (as will be explained).

 

The fourth of the tribal leaders is that of Dan. Dan was considered the ancestral traitor, and the least liked of the children of Israel, but he was also a leader. Dan means “judge” in Hebrew, and from his birth he judged the other sons, and was disliked because of that. Even from the time of the exile in Egypt, Dan had boats, and it says in the bible that “Dan is glued to their boats.” They travelled extensively even from that time, and intermarried extensively into the other seafaring and trading people of the mediterranean, and of all the world. Through them, most of the world’s peoples were married into the family of both Adam and Eve, and into Israel’s children. They were the leaders of the tribes of Asher and Naphtali. Their standard, flag, and mascot was the eagle. The symbolic leader of Dan in the gospels is Judas Iscariot (Judah), but after his death Mary, (and therefore also John, because he took her into his home after Jesus died), and after her dormition and assumption, Paul. So because of this, his gospel is both that of Luke and John as well.

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The first apostle in terms of rank, and as leader of the twelve apostles, is Peter. Because of the details of the gospels, we can know quite a bit about Peter. The first autobiographical detail that is significant is that Peter had a sword. This is significant because in the time of the Romans, a sword was still worth about a year’s wages. That meant that not everybody had a sword. The Romans were the first to equip every commissioned soldier (every legionarius, or legionary) with a sword. However, this was considered a significant investment at the time, given the value of the sword. The legions were not only equipped with Roman soldiers though. In every province of the empire, they also mustered local soldiers that were called the auxilia (help in  Latin). They were composed of non-roman citizens, who were those who lived in a particular province, and typically fought with spears or other weapons, but not usually swords. However, if swords were taken as spoil in battle, they were given to the leaders of the auxilia, as a reward for their service. So this fits with Peter’s story, since he was also significantly older than the other apostles, and a seasoned leader. It seems to me that he was likely recruited into the auxilia as a young man, and then rose through the ranks to be one of its leaders. After his twenty years of service, he was discharged from the military with a small stipend, enough to help him buy a house and a boat, but not enough to live off of, so he became a fisher. He likely married after his time in the military, and soon after marriage had at least one son, Mark, who is named in the first letter of Peter. There are those who say that Mark is just a disciple of Peter, but I don’t think this is true. Where many other apostles, such as John, refer to other disciples as bretheren, Peter never did in his letters, always addressing them as “beloved.” The only one he states is his child is Mark, who is also by tradition thought to be the one who ran off naked at Jesus execution. Given that Mark would have been an adult at the time of Jesus, it makes sense that he was Peter’s son, born about the time of his military retirement. It would be odd for a Hebrew to name their child Marcus, after the Roman god of war, but makes sense if Peter served in the military, and lived a time where he wasn’t as close to God. He appeared to live a fairly worldly life after his retirement, but he still believed in God, and this explains why Peter told Jesus to depart from him when he was called, “because he was a sinful man”. Still, he was chosen to be leader of the apostles by both God The Father and Jesus. There are those who say that Peter did not write his three letters, however they are full of military jargon such as “being called to service” and “inspection,” among others. It is likely that Peter dictated the letter to “Silvanus” who he also says wrote the letter at the end, since he was probably unable to write much more than his name, like most people at the time of Jesus. He was the primary apostle to Rome, and the Roman Elder or Presbyter, and so the Roman episcopate or bishop is also the chief among the twelve episcopates, or twelve chief bishops of the universal church. And so the Roman Catholic church is the leader of all of the Christian churches of the world, though not all  churches are in formal communion with Her. 

 

The second apostle of the four is James (or Jacob). In Greek, James is called “Jacobus,” and so he still is in many countries (or has other analogues such as “Santiago”). Only in England/Ephraim was he called James, which bears little resemblance to the original Jacob. There is a historical linguistic connection between “Jacob” and “James” that is too much to detail in this essay. Jesus called the two sons of Zebedee, James and John, at the same time, and they were likewise also fishers. Zebedee was clearly a faithful Hebrew and a fisherman, and a wealthy one, being able to purchase their own boat. The boats (really fishing ships) at that time used on the sea of Galilee or sea of Tiberius were quite large, having two decks, and able to be crewed by a rather large crew, probably about twenty rowers. Part of the reason that the ship struggled against the waves in the story of Jesus walking on water is that they were under manned with just the apostles. Though James was not the leader of the apostles and not the favourite of the apostles, he was still important, and when Jesus called just the leaders of the apostles together, he was often there among Peter and John. As such, he was one of the few to experience Jesus transfiguration. Also as one of the apostle’s leaders, he was the first to experience martyrdom, and he did so exactly one year after Jesus did, in Jerusalem, and precisely the same way Jesus did, being crucified at Golgotha during the paschal (passover in Hebrew) feast. James and John asked Jesus to drink the cup that Jesus drank, and so James drank exactly what Jesus drank, exactly as He drank it, exactly one year later. Tradition holds that James was nevertheless able to journey to the end of Spain (and the end of the mediterranean world) at Compostela, and also even to the new world sailing on the trade ships there briefly before returning on that passover, and so the letter of James feels quite hurried, is in very transliterated Hebrew into Greek, and seems to end before it is fully completed. Still, being the pilgrim’s apostle, He is the apostle to Spain, the wildest of Europes’ tribes, and the New World, having gone there in person before his death. Being one of the two sons of Zebedee, he was also one of the Boanerges (sons of thunder), so designated by Jesus. 

 

Now you may ask, how is James associated with the gospel of Matthew? There is reasoning for it in Israel’s history. Even though Reuben lost the birthright, he was still always the first born. So whenever something needed leadership and Judah couldn’t take it, Reuben did. The gospel of Matthew is the “official” Gospel, composed of the notes Matthew (Levi) took and wrote on scrolls, which he kept in a big bag, as he accompanied Jesus during His ministry. Unlike the other apostles, Matthew was able to read and write Greek. He was a tax official, but he was head of the tax booth when Jesus called him, and the tax booth’s head needed to be able to read and write to direct the money collected to Rome, and receive their instructions. Matthew also had an extremely good grasp of Hebrew, and the Hebrew scriptures, so it also makes sense that he was a scribe. For the people we call “Pharisees” and “scribes” or “lawyers” in the gospel were all people who did other jobs, but in their interactions with the synagogue, they also often took on a specialized role. For Matthew, having a gift for languages, was also involved with the Hebrew synagogue, and copied scrolls, and studied scripture. Given that all the other apostles were not able to read or write in Greek, it fell to Matthew the responsibility to document what Jesus was saying, and all he had available was a bag of scrolls! For this reason, sometimes things are out of order in the gospels relative to each other. For one, Matthew didn’t have a good grasp of what happened with Jesus before he was called (he was probably called last of all the apostles). For another, after Jesus died, Matthew had to sit down with his bag of scrolls and try to put them all together into what we now have as the gospel of Matthew. Jesus probably taught the same thing or something very similar over and over. This was good, because it helped the apostles remember what Jesus said, but it makes compiling a Gospel tricky, because it has to be decided when to put all that what Jesus said where. Matthew’s notes aren’t comprehensive, however, so when Peter told the history to Mark, and when Mary and John told the history to Luke, they added in other details that Matthew missed. Even when the same story is told among all three (or among all four), they all tell it with different words, and different details. Still, being a scribe, Matthew had a particular eye for when what Jesus did fulfilled scripture, and he made sure that when he recorded it, it was as close as possible to the Hebrew that he was familiar with.

 

The third apostle in terms of rank is John. Now, John was the most beloved of Jesus, as described multiple times in the gospel of John, so it makes sense that he would take up the standard of Ephraim, Israel and Joseph’s most beloved. John was known to the chief priests, so it is likely he was somehow involved in the priesthood, and so in a way also represents Levi. John asked Jesus, and Jesus granted him, that he would drink Jesus’ cup. However, Jesus also said that John would be present when He returned in 70 AD to safeguard His people when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem. So to reconcile these, John indeed was martyred after Mary’s dormition and assumption, by being boiled in a large pot. However, in tradition John survived, though his arms and legs were badly contracted and injured by the boiling, so that his disciples had to carry him around, feed him, and tend to all his personal needs. So it was that he was still martyred, but yet still lived to see the destruction of Jerusalem, and that particular return of Jesus triumphant over His enemies. Because John was living with Mary at the time that Luke (Mary’s royal physician) was interviewing her for Luke’s gospel, he probably also contributed to it. However, at a later date, when all the other apostles had been martyred and died except for John, likely his disciples asked him to give them more details about the life of Jesus than what was available in the other gospels, and so John dictated to them a sort of “second gospel,” with additional details, which is the gospel of John. Traditionally John is often given the eagle, and there’s reasonable reasons to assign it that way, however, there has been some disagreement over time as to who is what. Given the association with the tribes, he should probably be given the human, but it’s not really important. 

 

The last leader of the apostles was Judas. “Iscariot” means “of the city.” Judas was still so named (Judah) by his father, so this speaks of a certain faith, though presumably he was from the tribe of Dan, or somehow related to Dan. Jesus says “he was a betrayer from the beginning” and this echoes back to the old testament where Dan betrayed or deceived the people on multiple occasions. While the other tribes had to depend on God alone, Dan always had their boats, trade, and relationships through marriage with the rest of the land. For this reason is so much named after Dan, for instance, the Danube river, the Dnieper (Danieper) river, the Odan river, the Rhone river (previously called ‘Rhodanos’), Denmark (Danmark), Dresden (Dresdan), Scandinavia (Scandanavia), and likely, as the source for the ancestral pagan god Odin (for the Danites who left Israel’s children in the bible). Because of that though, Dan was always the tribe with a foot in the land (or their boat!), and a foot with God. They were also shipwrights and the makers of many trade goods. This is why in the desert, it is a leader from Dan who is commissioned to make the Solemn Tabernacle (tent of meeting) by God. Though in a way the last of the tribes, it was still counted as a leader, though the leader of the last three to leave with the Ark of the Covenant when Israel journeyed. Still, it’s clear from many accounts of Dan that though they didn’t always do what is right, they were still an important and integral part of the twelve. Dan wasn’t happy with their allotment in the book of Joshua, so they mostly left it and settled north of the rest of the tribes, and married into the people at Lebanon. This was always a matter of discontent, as Lebanon fought with Israel in many wars over history, dividing the Danites, though they are also cousins.

 

Judas Iscariot was also a controversial figure among the apostles. He had the treasury, and was known by the other apostles and by Jesus to steal from it. Presumably he used it to buy more expensive clothes than the others, but I think it is likely he also used it to fund time with prostitutes when they were available to him, which in part explains why he was so upset when Mary Magdalene used the lavender oil to anoint Jesus. Jesus knew from the beginning he was to betray Him, but he still trusted him with the money. It is notable that many times when Jesus has only Peter, James and John with him, it would stand to reason that He would also call Judas. I think that either he wasn’t there (because he was off attending to his own matters, like the Danites), or he was invited and didn’t come. It is notable to me that after betraying Jesus, when Judas sees Jesus is sentenced to death, he repents and asks the Pharisees to release Jesus. When he is rebuffed, he gives back the silver. Jesus says during the paschal supper that it is better if Judas “hadn’t been born.” Many interpreted this as that Judas was damned, but I think based on the Greek it just means Judas was to suffer more than the others in a way, even though the rest were martyred. The church recognizes that when someone kills themselves, they are not in their right mind, and so the guilt of killing a human (themselves) is lessened. In this case, Judas also repented before he died, and repentance being the only firm requirement for salvation, (baptism being a relative requirement, since it is clear by the death of innocents that not all that are baptized are saved), it makes the case of Judas’ Iscariot’s salvation one of controversy this side of the grave. So I think it make it difficult for us to say he was either damned or made a saint after his death. There are those who “hope” that he is a saint, but I neither hope nor fail to hope, for I think to hope for salvation in such uncertainty is in a way of canonizing those for which we do not truly know. 

 

Also, as with Matthew there is a clear association with a gospel, but it is also not a perfect association. Since Judas was frequently absent, it is clear that Mary, Jesus mother, but in a way, also Mary Magdalene filled in for him when he was gone. Both of these are also in their way apostles, for Mary, Jesus’ mother, is queen of the apostles, and Mary Magdalene was apostle to the apostles when she with the other women announced to them that Jesus had been raised. They kept an eye on Judas and the treasury, and helped him more than the other apostles, as he needed help and their motherly care more than they did, as he sinned more than they did. So it is fitting that the gospel of Luke, being primarily Mary’s gospel, is also that of Judas, though like Dan he was an absent father. When Judas died, leaving his leadership absent, Matthias, was chosen in his stead. The true successor to Judas in a way though, was Paul (though he can also be seen as the successor to James), for after John was martyred and James killed, Paul took up their mantle to Rome to be with Peter in exile, and Paul was martyred with Peter in Rome, and so the four Roman basilicas of St. Peters, St. John Lateran, St. Paul’s outside the walls, and St. Mary Major (sopra Minerva) represent the four chief apostles through Peter and Paul, and also through Mary (standing in again for absent Dan), and also the four chief tribes of Israel, Judah, Reuben, Ephraim, and Dan. That being said, the eagle is customarily the standard of Dan, because he flew in his ships to the four corners of the land, and because the symbol of Dan is also the snake, and the eagle is interpreted as a flying snake (or dragon, also a Danite symbol). When Jesus said “where the corpse is, the vultures will gather,” He was really saying: “where the corpse is, the eagles will gather. Both in Hebrew and in Greek, there is a word for vulture, or buzzard, but Jesus intentionally used the Greek word for eagle, so we should be able to interpret that He did not actually mean vulture, though in Latin the word for vulture and eagle is the same. Rather, Jesus meant both His own corpse, and Judas’ corpse as the corpse in question, and the eagle in question the standard of the Roman army (every legion had a bronze eagle standard as the Roman military standard). So when Jesus said the eagles would gather where the corpse was, he meant both His own body and the corpse of Judas, and the Roman eagles gathering where they were buried outside of Jerusalem, at its destruction in 70 AD. So Mary “fills in” for Judas during his absence and after his death, as other tribes filled in for Dan throughout history when he was absent, or betrayed them. This is also the history of the bishops of the church, so the twelve apostolic bishops still remain in one form or other, though not all of them are in communion with Rome. For instance, the orthodox are Danites among the Christians, and the Protestants are like Ephraim, who left Judah to form their own kingdom. Where an apostle vacates their seat in such a way, however, the church always fills the seat in, though we hope that our separated brethren will again rejoin us one day. God also blesses them with blessings, but not to the extent He does to the Roman Catholic Church, since they are His Judah, and the steward over His house. 

 

Now at the end of this long essay, you may ask, so how were the apostles prepared? God chose the twelve apostles from the beginning, when Israel their father begat (Beresit, or “creation” in Hebrew, the first word of the Torah and of the bible) the twelve sons that founded Israel’s twelve tribes. Jesus chose the twelve because mysteriously, they are the leaders of the twelve tribes of Israel. So we still have in this day twelve apostles who lead The Church. So the apostles were not just prepared by Jesus, they were prepared by the entire history if Israel’s children as the holy, chosen ones of God. Then again, where their seats have been vacated by scandal and division, they have been filled by others, and will continue to be filled. So Jesus’ prophesy that others will come to take their place at the feast of God and Heaven’s kingdom is fulfilled by the acceptance of Jesus by other nations that were at first not called. So Israel’s history prepared Jesus to choose them, and their identities were made known in the spirit of the twelve tribes when Jesus prayed all night on the mountain before He chose His apostles and sent them as his messengers. And so they bring His salvation to every human. So though Jesus was only able to say so much to the Apostles while He was still with us, so did the Apostles know their mission because they were put on the ancestral throne, and knew the character of the tribe father for which they were named. So this was their preparation, the whole history of the people of Israel, as it is our preparation, being the children of Israel everywhere in the land and being the preparation of our salvation that was accomplished through Jesus.

So as God prepared the apostles through the history of the bible, God prepares us through the bible, and His history, which is our history as well. Still those of us who recognize their heritage in Christ and in the twelve tribes through the twelve apostles glorify God for His mercy and generosity to us. So through Christ and the twelve apostles, all of the promises of God to His people and His servants were fulfilled and still are fulfilled every day even among us now, His children throughout the world. The physical sign of His presence is none other than the Roman Catholic Church, whose leaders do what they do under the authority of Peter, leader of the apostles and Christ’s householder. So we have thus been prepared from the beginning, and even now will continue to be forever through Christ until the time He comes and renews everything again at the end of this age. As He promised, and as we have seen, all God’s promises will be fulfilled, as they have been fulfilled and will be forever. Glorify The Lord Jesus Christ always with the Father, and the Holy Spirit. As Jesus and His namesake Joshua instructed us, be courageous and watch until He comes again, for He will come soon.