New TestamentPodcast

How Many Apostles Were There?

How Many Apostles Were There?
History of Christianity
History of Christianity
How Many Apostles Were There?
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It is impossible to say exactly how many people in the early church were considered apostles. We can say with certainty that it was more than twelve.

The original twelve were these:

These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called 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 Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. (Matthew 10:2-4)

Apostles

The Twelve are important but they are not the only apostles. We see in 1 Corinthians 15:3-8 that the Twelve and the apostles were two different but overlapping groups.

So who else was an apostle?

The obvious additions are Matthias (Acts 1:26) and Paul. That brings us up to fourteen.

Barnabas was called an apostle (Acts 14:14). There there is Andronicus and Junia (Romans 16:7). I realize this is somewhat controversial and that some people interpret it that they were esteemed by the apostles and that they were not esteemed within the apostles. But that is more based on a discomfort with a female apostle than the actual grammar.

There is also James, the brother of Jesus who was an apostle (Galatians 1:19) but not one of the Twelve (there was one of the Twelve named James). Some by looking at 1 Thessalonians 1:1 and 2:6 say that Timothy and Silas were apostles. While they likely were apostles, the actual textual evidence is weak. In the Greek, Epaphroditus is described as an apostle but it is usually translated as a messenger (Philippians 2:25). In 1 Corinthians 4:6-9 Pauls seems to be suggesting that Apollos was an apostle.

This brings us to a total of twenty-two. There is also some indications of unnamed apostles but they will be left out here.

Last but definitely not least, Jesus was considered to be an apostle as well (Hebrews 3:1). Not in the same way as the others but the doctrine of the incarnation presumed that Jesus was sent (the meaning of apostle) from heaven.

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