The Apostles of Jesus – 1 from 5

The Apostles of Jesus – The Traditional Story

A few facts must be clear before starting this chapter:

1. The early Christians did not write history. The Apostles and their followers were too busy making history to bother to write it. As a result the records are fragmentary. Even the “Acts” was written by (Saint) Luke, not as history, but more like a polemic to show that the spreading of Christianity to the Gentiles was done with divine authorization. However without wanting it Luke wrote history.
2. There were periods of silence in early Christian history. After Luke and other biblical writers such as Saint Paul, there was a silent period. This is not necessarily as strange at it looks. The early Christians were not really building a movement with a long future in sight. They thought that the return of Christ would happen during their lifetime. It took some time for them to imagine that His return could be far away.
3. The early Christians did not consider the Apostles important for biography. For the early Christians the Apostles were important, but only as leaders and brothers. It took some time for their descendants to look at them as Fathers of the Church movement. Their authority at first was in the anointing by the Holy Spirit, not as authors of a doctrine. They took a limited number of important doctrinal decisions such as the admittance of the Gentiles in the Christian movement but they really did not decide much. They spent more time telling what they heard from Jesus while travelling as missioners all over the known world. They were not the Church. Interest in the Apostles has increased and decreased many times in the last 2000 years.
4. History largely ignored Christianity in the first centuries. The history of the first few centuries of our era almost ignores the Christian movement. Josephus, for instance, only mentions the death of St. James. Even Roman history, with a few exceptions, ignores Christianity until long after the Apostles died. This could be due to the fact that the early Christians were simple people who, in general, do not interest the historians. History, however, gives us some information on how the early Christians lived. The Roman Empire, at the time of the Apostles, was a relatively safe civilized world in which the people traveled widely and often. It was a family of nations with a common language, ruled by a central government, with roads leading everywhere (from Britain to Africa, from Russia to France as well as from India to Spain).
5. Already divergence of opinion became the rule after the apostolic age there was a conflict of “Primacy” between the Western and the eastern part of the Christian world. The Pope claimed that he was the head of the Church, and so did the leader of the Eastern Church. It was in fact a political struggle that used all means available to impose their respective supremacy. The result was a first schism that was never healed completely. Each side tried to collect as many relics of the Apostles as they could. Emperor Constantine even built “The Church of the twelve Apostles” in which he wanted to collect all the remains of the Apostles and to provide a resting place for him after his death. The Bishop of Saint Peter in Rome did more or less the same thing. Constantine collected the remains of St. Peter and built a church on his resting-place in Rome hoping, perhaps, to move them to Constantinople later on. Constantine dedicated the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople in 337 CE, but he died soon after before the collection of the Apostle remains was completed. He is buried in his church that was never completed, as he wanted. As a result of his wish, an inventory of the remains of the Apostles and relics was officially made. The veneration of the relics started at that time and was probably a secondary result of Constantine’s research. They were considered of great value, as many people believed that they could heal more or less any illness.
6.  The motivations of the Apostles are now more clearly understood. Most of the Apostles took seriously Jesus’ requests to them and they did their best to evangelize the entire known world. Their story is the story of Evangelism in the early Church. They set an example for their descendants.
7. There was an apostolic strategy of missions. The Apostles were following a missionary strategy. First they went to the larger cities situated along the trade route. Their converts preached in the secondary towns where they built churches and organized local congregations that, in their turn, established others. They knew how to delegate responsibility to reach the maximum audience. Above all they built congregations and made their converts to become the church and dedicate their life to it.

The Apostles of Jesus Christ are seen as heroes and the Western and Eastern Churches have called all of them “Saint”. Their figures inspired respect even before the New Testament was assembled in one volume (the Canon). Jesus chose twelve, and only twelve, Apostles because this is the number of tribes of Israel, himself being the high priest of the thirteenth tribe, Levi. The Apostles were chosen to witness the resurrection of Jesus and His teachings. For this reason they had to be a long time with Jesus. This explains also the choice of Matthias as the replacement of Judas. Paul stated strongly that he too was an Apostle since he followed Jesus’ teaching for a long period. However there is no evidence to show that he was ever admitted to this inner circle of Jesus’ disciples. In fact he was not always trusted nor understood by the twelve Apostles. The “Acts” of the Apostles written by Luke is the earliest history book dealing with Christianity. It relates how Christianity, at first a Jewish sect, was opened to the Gentiles. It shows that Christianity was a minority movement among the Jews and, soon, it was taken over by the Gentiles when Paul became the leader of the European branch of the church. Peter remained for a time the leader of the Jewish-Christian branch. However Christianity soon died among the Jews after the first century. The “Acts” shows that Peter became a reluctant Apostle to the Gentiles and, at the same time, trying to keep Christianity as Jewish as possible. The “Acts” moreover demonstrates that Christianity intended to loose its exclusively Jewish character to become more that a Jewish sect, such as the Pharisees, Sadducees or Essenes. However the “Acts” is not the complete early history of Christianity. Its aim is to demonstrate that God himself wanted Christianity to be universal, and not a part of the Jewish movement. To do this God used first Peter then Paul, while the other Apostles had only minor role in this change.

Peter and the other Apostles launched the Christian movement and admitted the believing Gentiles in it. As only a few Jews in the entire world accepted Christ, Paul turned to the Gentiles who were more willing to accept the message of the Gospel than the Jews. The Western Christians of the Roman Empire preserved the writings of Peter, John and Paul who worked among the Gentiles. The other Apostles, with the exception of Matthew, did not write much or, if they did, their writings were lost. Matthew’s writings do not allow us to really understand his personality. Mark was helping Peter, writing for him; but he was not an Apostle but only an apostolic assistant like Timothy, Titus, Epaphroditus, Luke, Barnabas, Silas, Acquilla, Priscilla and Erastus. Luke, although not an Apostle, wrote about Paul in the “Acts” and about the Apostles and Jesus in his Gospel. As a result the New Testament is the work of the Apostles Matthew, Peter and John and from Paul, an Apostle not part of the inner circle of the Twelve. Other writings of Mark and Luke, the Apostolic Assistants, and from Jude and James, are also included in the New Testament. These last two, the brothers of Jesus, were not part of the initial followers and started to believe after the Resurrection of Christ. The history of the Apostles, after the first few years in Jerusalem, is to be found in the “Acts”, the Epistles, the book of the Revelations of Jesus Christ, the writings and traditions or legends of the early post-Apostolic Christian writers, and the local traditions of the Christian movement in the place where the apostles lived and died. Legends and traditions are now considered much closer to the truth that was thought before. They may not always be totally correct, they may also be exaggerations, but generally, legends and traditions are, at the most, enlargement of reality and very often close to the facts.

The World of the Apostles

Around 30 CE peace had come to be accepted in the Roman Empire, even in the occupied countries. There were, of course, some local rebellions from time to time but Rome was running the Empire firmly and, as far as could be seen, this situation was going to last. Augustus and his successor, Tiberius, made certain that nothing would change and that their authority was accepted by all. Any rebellion or local riot was crushed before it could grow. The Pax Romana brought prosperity, trade, education, cultural and language homogeneity, and safe travel. The only trouble spot was Judea where the local population was hostile. Herod and his successors ruled since the days of the first Caesar by delegation from Rome. They understood, after visiting Rome, even if their people did not, that Rome was there to stay, and that the Pax Romana was the best alternative available. The Judeans could not see farther that their borders and they hated the Romans as oppressors, idol-worshipper inferiors, and outside the Covenant with God. They always rebelled and assassinated the Roman soldiers whenever there was an opportunity. In the end only Rome could win, but the will for independence in the Jews was so high that rationality had no place. The Jews were ready to loose the safety and prosperity they had gained by being part of the big Empire as nothing Rome was doing was right to the Jews. On the other hand the Romans had to keep Judea quiet, or face rebellion everywhere else. The Romans tried to be fair but there was no way to satisfy the Jews and the outcome was tragic for Judea. The Roman peace opened the known world to travel, and this facilitated dissemination of Christianity. In every Roman City Jews were to be found. All Israelites from the Judah, or any of the other twelve tribes, were now known as “Jews”. As we have seen Judah was the Royal tribe of David and Jew an abbreviation for Judah. The Exiled from Babylon came back to Jerusalem and it was the strongest tribe and the keeper of the Jerusalem Temple, the most important religious building for the Jews anywhere in the world. Intermarriage between members of the different tribes in the Diaspora helped to bring all the Jews together, and to identify themselves with Judah. Those who did not joint this spiritual and nationalistic movement were soon lost, not as a whole tribe, but individually, through intermarriage with Gentiles or attrition by getting away from the main stream. The dispersion of the tribes of Israel started in 725 BCE when Assyria removed many people from the Northern tribes to their country. There were other waves of forced removal from Judea with the result that Jews were living all over the world. The Apostles, went travelling, always went first to the Jews so this dispersion helped their mission. The language of each country was used locally but, through the Roman Empire, Greek and Latin were of common use. This helped Greek philosophy and culture to penetrate in the Empire and, later on, it would become the literary and linguistic vehicles for the Christian Gospel. Exchange of goods and customs were made easy due to the good and safe Roman roads and sea ways. The Christian faith was propagated this way. In the first century the Roman world, despite its initial cruelties and harsh conditions, became united into the largest empire ever known. The Mongol Empire of the Middle Age was bigger and more populated, but it did not last or leave any civilization. It was an Empire of destruction who soon faded back where it came from in Asia. On the opposite Rome’s culture lasted until today. Rome drew its culture from other nations, starting with the Etruscans, but they soon became assimilated and they disappeared. Egypt and Greece also had a big influence on the Roman Empire. Judea is at the confluence of three continents and on this small piece of land the Jews came, went, and came back again. The Greek and the Romans conquered it but none really subdued the local people, as rebellion never stopped completely. The Romans, however, were too strong and would have taken over from the Herods if these local kings could not resolve the situation. The Herods would have lost face and power and they tried to stop the rebellions with their own means. Jesus Christ was illegally charged, judged, and condemned to death for blasphemy, sedition, and treason after that the Roman Governor Pilate had found him innocent. Of course these accusations were false. Jesus was condemned because he threatened the Jewish political and ceremonial religion system as well as exposing the religious bureaucracy of the professional priests, Pharisees and Sadducees. For these reasons all the main Jewish leaders wanted Jesus to die. His Apostles, after the resurrection, were very popular in Judea. The death of Jesus lay on the public conscience and the Apostles’ promise of salvation, for those who repented, was most welcomed. As a result thousand of Jews became Christian converts after the Resurrection. No big enough meeting places were available in Jerusalem to accommodate all of them and, although the Authorities tried to discourage the Apostles, nothing could stop them. Despite the martyrdom of some Apostles (Stephen and James, the brother of John) and the imprisonment of Peter, the Christian church continued to grow and soon it spilled out of Judea to Samaria, the whole of Judea and Antioch in Syria, the cross road of East and West. From Antioch the Christians sent Barnabas and Saul of Tarsus (later known as Paul, his friend, to Barnabas Island home, Cyprus, where they converted first the Jews then the Gentiles. From there they went to the mainland of Asia Minor and it became obvious that the Gospel had been intended for all, Jews and Gentiles alike, and was well accepted by all. Christianity was not to be exclusively Jewish anymore to become a universal movement. Paul and Barnabas were not the first to open Christianity to the Gentiles. This had been done on Pentecost day when Jews and Gentiles together heard the message after the ascension of Jesus but, in Jerusalem, conversion of the Gentiles was very limited. The eleven surviving Apostles, after the death of James, remained in Jerusalem or at least in Judea for some time but soon Jewish persecutions forced some of them to go in other countries as Jesus had asked them to do. As the Jewish Authorities were still unwilling to accept Jesus as the Christ, the Apostles first tried to convert the Jews and, if rejected, turned to the Gentiles in the same way that Paul and Barnabas had done. As the book of “Acts” records, persecution moved Christianity out of Jerusalem into the Roman world with a universal message for Jews and Gentiles alike. Rome was more hostile to Christianity that Jerusalem had been but many Jews and Gentiles accepted the new faith. During the life of the Apostles, Jesus’ message had reached Gaul, Britain, Alexandria, Carthage, Scythia, Armenia, Persia and India. This missionary work was quite adventurous however the Apostles did not realize that they were making history and they did not leave us many direct records. St. Luke, who wrote the book of the “Acts”, tells us how St. Paul really started to preach to the Gentiles and to convert them to Christianism, freeing the movement from it’s limited Jewish roots. After the Jewish leaders rejected Jesus Christ, the Gospel was presented to the Gentiles as God always intended. Pentecost was an international experience as Jews and Gentiles alike from different countries were present in Jerusalem on that occasion. God’s explicit approval of Gentile evangelization exists, even if it is not always clear to everybody now. For instance Peter was told by God to baptize Cornelius, a Roman centurion. Initially St. Paul was a faithful Jew and, even after his conversion, he never broke the Mosaic law. In his preaching campaign he always tried first to convert the Jews and, only after being rejected, and sometime persecuted, did he go to the Gentiles. Some historians have noticed that the Apostles remained a long time in Jerusalem after the resurrection, perhaps 25 years. This could be interpreted as if they wanted to cling to Judaism and the Temple despite the fact that Jesus asked them to preach to all nations. During that time they converted and accepted some Gentiles, but they always came back to Jerusalem. Even during the time of persecution they avoided to leave their town as if they were afraid to break with Judaism. The book of the “Acts” was written in 66 CE and, by that time, most Apostles had left Jerusalem. That book covers a period of about thirty-five years and presents St. Paul’s challenge to the early Christians, as well as to the Apostles, in converting the Gentiles of all nations as Jesus asked. St. Luke addressed the book to the “Theophilus” but we know nothing of them. It could be that St. Paul, in a very devious way, wanted to remind the Apostles that God asked them to preach to the world and not only to the Jews of Jerusalem. He could not attack them openly, as they were Jesus’ disciples long before he joined Christianity. St Paul had noted the reluctance of the Apostles to reach the Gentiles and, in his own way, he wanted to encourage and remind them of their duty. Later on the Apostles agreed on a world strategy of evangelization and each of them went on his own way after “dividing” the world between themselves so that each had his own zone of influence. If this change of strategy is due to St. Paul is unknown, but his example must have been noted. By 64 CE Peter had gone to Asia Minor but it is not clear if all the Apostles had already left Jerusalem by that date, or if they had started to preach to the Gentiles.