And it came to pass in those days that he went out into the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God.
Only Luke records this night. Before Jesus named the twelve men who would carry His work forward, He spent the whole night in prayer. Why that night, and why pray at all, since He is the Son of God?
The verse opens by looking back. The religious leaders were enraged, and they had begun plotting His death. Jesus answered that by turning to God.
When that failed, they were filled with rage, and they began to plot His death. As their hatred grew, Jesus withdrew to be alone with God. In the last chapter we saw Him going away to pray when crowds pressed around Him and success seemed to be His. He does just the same when dark clouds of opposition gather around Him. In every circumstance prayer was the resource of the perfect Man.
The hostility was only half the reason. A new work was about to begin.
The open hostility of the religious leaders led our Lord to special prayer. He turns from man to God. But there was another reason. He was about to call others to take up the work He had been doing, and to carry it to the ends of the earth… This special prayer suited both the evil on man's side and the fresh mission of grace on God's part.
Some have tried to identify the hill by name, since the older text carries "the mountain" rather than "a mountain." Kelly rejects the idea:
As to the definite article before "mountain," see note 39 on Mark (3:13). It is not a particular mountain, as Wetstein and others have supposed.
The striking thing is not that a man prayed all night, but that this Man did. He had every right to act on His own authority, and chose instead to wait on His Father.
This night was not an exception in Luke's account, and the contrast with our own instincts is sharp.
The next verse tells us what came of it: twelve apostles chosen at daybreak. One writer pictures what filled the hours:
Think of how He spent the whole night in prayer before choosing His twelve apostles. He went over every case with the Father.
One of the twelve would later betray Him. Hole meets that problem head on:
It is also significant that the choice of the twelve men who would be sent out as Apostles followed this night of prayer. Judas Iscariot was one of them, and to us it is a mystery why he was included. Yet the Lord chose him, and so his selection was right. There was no mistake after that night of prayer.
The choice itself was a public verdict on the scribes, the official teachers of the law.
Luke alone records that night of prayer. It was an important moment in the work given Him to do. By choosing the twelve, the Lord openly declared that He rejected the scribes as fit teachers of the truth He had come to make known.
Writers draw a plain rule from this night for anyone who serves.
Here is a solemn truth about ministry: the only time Scripture records the Lord spending a night in prayer was before He chose the twelve. In any service, however small, we must be with Him before we are sent out. We need to be "sent," and sent by Him.
- Pressure — His enemies plotted, and He withdrew to God instead of arguing. Prayer was His resource under attack, as it had been in success.
- Dependence — He leaned wholly on His Father, though He was free of men. That is what a perfect Man looks like: the opposite of self-reliance.
- Night — He gave the whole night to the Father before naming a single man, going over every case with Him.
- Dawn — the choice that followed was right, Judas included. That night of prayer left no mistake behind it.
- Mission — the twelve began a new order of ministry, and the pattern still stands: be with Him first, then go as one He sends.
And when it was day he called his disciples, and having chosen out twelve from them, whom also he named apostles
Opposition from Israel's religious leaders had hardened, and Jesus answered it with a whole night of prayer. Then He picked twelve men out of a larger group of followers and gave them a new name: why twelve, why these men, and what does that name mean?
Luke records what came first. One writer ties the prayer to the hostility of that moment:
Before He chose the twelve Apostles He spent the whole night in prayer. It was "in those days," the days when they were rejecting Him. At that time the perfect Man found His refuge in God. He sought His presence and relied on Him for guidance. The Gospel of Luke has much to say about the prayers of the Lord Jesus. His prayers express the dependence of His perfect humanity.
The timing carries a message. Israel already had its recognised teachers, and the Lord passed over them:
We have seen that the recognised teachers among the Jews refused to receive the Lord and His teaching. If they could, they would have got rid of Him. So He now called the twelve, whom He named Apostles. Later He would send them out to preach the good news of the kingdom. God's work would not suffer because the scribes and Pharisees kept opposing the prophet Moses had written about... By choosing the twelve, the Lord openly declared that the scribes were not fit teachers of the truth He had come to give.
Another writer sees a new channel opening for God's grace, because the old one could not hold it:
Having spent the night in prayer, when it was day He called His disciples to Him. Now we get the new order of ministry. Judaism is set aside as a vessel unfit to hold the new wine. The Lord ordains new ministers. The temple and synagogue services, the scribes and Pharisees, could not serve as ministers of this grace that was now flowing. So the Lord sets it aside and chooses new instruments.
The verse holds two groups: the wider body He called, and the twelve He picked out of them. The words themselves mark the difference:
There is a very distinct difference. We read, "He called His disciples and chose from them twelve, whom He named apostles" (Luke 6:13). The word "disciple" means "one taught" or "trained." The word "apostle" means "one sent out." Every true follower of the Lord was a disciple. But He sent out only the twelve as apostles. Theirs was a special place, therefore, of authority and service.
The name also fixes a date. The office starts here, not later:
As Luke tells us, the Lord Himself names these chosen ones "apostles" (Luke 6:13). It is worth remembering that He used this title for them from the first. So the office of apostle, as far as the twelve are concerned, started before the church was founded.
Being sent came second. What they gained first was time with Him:
The work was not held back; it increased. In the morning He called His disciples together and chose twelve to be called apostles. These had the honour of being His special witnesses and representatives in the work of His grace. They were to be with Him, and so gain the priceless experience of learning His character and ways. Later that would fit them for use in establishing Christianity in the world.
The number is not random. One writer ties it to Israel itself:
The number twelve, we believe, clearly marks their relation to the twelve tribes of Israel.
The twelve include the man who would hand Him over. That raises a hard question, and one writer takes it head on:
But why did such a man get a place among the Apostles? If the Lord could foresee what Judas would do, why did He choose him?... He now spoke of that same one, still unnamed, and showed why he was counted among the Twelve — so that the Scripture might be fulfilled. The treachery Judas was about to show had been foreknown, and predicted too.
- Prayer first. The choice came out of a whole night with God. Dependence on the Father stands behind the twelve names.
- Rejection answered. Hostility from the scribes did not stop the work. It moved the Lord to appoint new men, because the old vessel could not hold the new wine.
- Named, not volunteering. "Disciple" means one taught; "apostle" means one sent. All His followers were disciples. Only twelve were apostles, and He gave them that title Himself.
- With Him first. Their training was nearness. They learned His character and ways, and later carried the work into the world.
- Twelve, and one a traitor. The number ties them to Israel's twelve tribes. Judas among them fulfils what Scripture had already predicted.
Simon, to whom also he gave the name of Peter, and Andrew his brother, [and] James and John, [and] Philip and Bartholomew,
Jesus prayed all night on the mountain, then chose twelve disciples and named them apostles — this verse begins the roll call with six of them. Why did the choice come at this moment, and why does Simon receive a new name at the head of the list?
Israel's religious teachers had already turned against Him. One writer reads the choice of the twelve as the Lord's public verdict on them.
We have seen that the recognised teachers among the Jews refused to receive the Lord and His teaching. They would have got rid of Him if they could. So He now called the twelve and named them Apostles, to send them out later to preach the good news of the kingdom. God's work was not going to suffer because the scribes and Pharisees kept opposing the prophet Moses had written about... Before choosing them, He went up a mountain to pray, and He continued all night in prayer to God. Only Luke records that night of prayer. It was a moment of importance in the work given Him to do. For the choice of the twelve was the Lord's open declaration that He rejected the scribes as fit teachers of the truth He had come to communicate.
The title is not decorative. It points past the men to the One who sent them.
He answers their attitude by gathering His disciples around Him. He chooses twelve of them as His "apostles," or "sent ones," to be the witnesses and heralds of the new Kingdom coming in.
The new name has a plain meaning, and it reached Simon in two languages.
Simon received a new name from the Lord, meaning a stone or a rock. In Aramaic, the language the Lord usually spoke, this name was Kephas, or Cephas (John 1:42; 1 Cor. 1:12; Gal. 2:9), and in Greek, Peter (Matt. 16:17).
Renaming a man was never a small act in Scripture, and one writer traces what it said about ownership.
Changing a name always implied that the person renamed was under the authority of the one who renamed him (see Gen. 17:5-15; Gen. 32:28; Gen. 35:10; Gen. 41:45; Dan. 1:7; Dan. 5:12). At that moment the Lord told Simon: You belong to Me; from this minute you are Mine... And what is a stone? A piece of a rock! And who was the rock? Christ.
Simon's name stands first here and in every other list. Commentators are careful about what that does and does not prove.
His name always comes first on the list (see Matt. 10:2; Mark 3:16; Luke 6:14; John 21:2); not that he had any authority over the others, or was made a kind of primate, as Rome would like to teach us. His natural fervour and warm-hearted, impulsive earnestness always put him in the front rank. If there is a question, Peter usually asks it; if there is a confession of who the Lord is, Peter is the spokesman.
Simon and Andrew, James and John, Philip and Bartholomew. Family ties and earlier links run right through the list.
The names are in pairs, six pairs, because the Lord sent them out two by two. It seems He did not disregard the natural or spiritual ties that link men together. Simon and Andrew are brothers, and Simon had been led to Jesus by his brother: here there were both links. The sons of Zebedee come next. Then Philip and Bartholomew, the latter thought to be that Nathanael whom Philip had brought to the Lord.
Bartholomew is a family name, not a personal one. One writer holds that we meet the same man elsewhere under his own name.
Bartholomew. This was the apostle's patronymic, that is, his family name or surname; and it occurs in all four lists. Nathanael was most probably his personal name, meaning the "gift of God." Before the Lord's public ministry, he confessed Him as Son of God and King of Israel (John 1:49)... Of him the Lord said, "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!" (John 1:47).
John's Gospel fills in how both men came to Jesus.
Andrew was a disciple of John the Baptist. He left him to follow Jesus, and afterwards told his own brother the joyful news that the Messiah was found... Philip was also from Bethsaida, a fact stated twice in John's Gospel (John 1:44; John 12:21). He was one of the Lord's early disciples, called by Him, as it says, Jesus "found Philip and said to him, 'Follow me'" (John 1:43).
- Prayer first. A night of prayer on the mountain came before the list of names. This was an important moment in the Lord's work.
- Chosen against opposition. Israel's teachers had refused Him. So He set them aside and gave the message of the kingdom to twelve men of His own choosing.
- Named, then sent. "Apostle" means "sent one"; the title is a commission, marking these men as heralds of the kingdom that was coming in.
- Renamed, so owned. Simon became Peter, "a stone" — a piece of the Rock, who is Christ, and a sign that he now belonged to Him.
- First, not over. Peter heads every list. Writers point to his warmth and eagerness as the reason, not to any rank above the rest. The Lord sent the twelve out two by two, brother beside brother.
[and] Matthew and Thomas, James the [son] of Alphaeus and Simon who was called Zealot,
Two of the men named here could not be less alike: one collected taxes for Rome, the other joined a party sworn to drive Rome out. Luke tells no story about either — so why these names, and why so little?
The choice came at a turning point. One writer reads it as the Lord's public verdict on the scribes as teachers.
The moment had come for the selection of the twelve out of the company of His disciples. But before doing that, He went into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. That night of prayer Luke alone records. By choosing the twelve the Lord declared openly that He rejected the scribes as fit teachers of the truth He had come to give.
Three other lists of the twelve appear in Scripture.
We get a list of them in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and the Acts. In each case Peter is first, and Judas last, except where Matthias takes his place. These little undesigned coincidences are very comforting, since they show what we believe so heartily — the full inspiration of the Scriptures. The names are grouped in three fours; twelve is a complete number. Philip is always the first of the second four, who are always grouped together, while James the son of Alphaeus is always the first of the last four.
This Matthew appears earlier in Luke under a different name and a different job.
The son of Alphaeus and one of the twelve apostles. He was a tax collector for the Romans, called 'publican' in the older translation. He left his office as soon as the Lord called him, and he gave Him a feast. Everyone accepts that he wrote the gospel that bears his name… He is called LEVI in Mark 2:14; Luke 5:27, 29.
His trade carried a heavy social cost.
The Jews deeply resented paying taxes to the Romans, and they counted the collectors unworthy of any respect. This is why 'publicans and sinners' are often classed together. The religious people mocked the Lord for entering their houses. They sneered, calling Him "a friend of tax collectors and sinners." But God's grace was for all, and Matthew was called from his tax office to be one of the apostles.
His name is a description, and one writer supplies nearly all we know of him.
The name Thomas means "a twin," and so does Didymus, the name John uses for him three times. After his call and appointment, only John tells us anything about him. When the Lord spoke of going to Bethany, Thomas said to the other disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with him" (John 11:16). The Lord was teaching the apostles that He would soon leave, and that they knew the way. Thomas broke in: "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" (John 14:5). His refusal to believe the news of the resurrection has become proverbial (John 20:24-31).
He is named in every list of the twelve and nowhere else for certain. Whether a later James in Acts is the same man is not settled.
These are the only passages where this apostle is spoken of with certainty. But Acts shows a James at Jerusalem after the death of the son of Zebedee, and he holds something like first place there. At the conference about not enforcing the law on the Gentiles, he spoke with a measure of authority. This suggests he was an apostle, the son of Alphaeus, and most probably the writer of the Epistle of James.
Luke's word for this Simon is a translation, not a new title.
In "Zealot" we have the substitution of a Greek name for a Hebrew one. Matthew 10:4 has "Cananaean." The Zealots were the most extreme and violent of the Pharisees. The Jewish historian states that they originated in Galilee.
The party looked back to a hero of Israel's past, and its record ended in disgrace.
They stood out for their fierce defence of the ritual law given through Moses. They saw themselves as the successors of Phinehas, the priest who killed Zimri and Cozbi in zeal for the honour of God (Numbers 25). Pretending to the same zeal, they took to themselves the right to put to death a blasphemer, an adulterer, or any notorious offender, without the ordinary forms of law… But their zeal soon sank into every kind of immorality and wild excess. They became the pests of every class of society.
- Prayer first. The Lord prayed all night before naming the twelve. That choice declared the scribes unfit to teach His truth.
- Order kept. In all four lists Peter comes first and Judas last. James the son of Alphaeus always heads the final group. Such small agreements point to the full inspiration of Scripture.
- Grace reaches down. Matthew collected taxes for Rome, and Jews classed such men with sinners. He left the desk at once, and he wrote a Gospel.
- Grace reaches across. Simon came from the opposite extreme — a party that claimed the zeal of Phinehas and put offenders to death without trial. Both men followed the same Master.
- Silence is not failure. Of Thomas we hear only through John; of James and Simon, almost nothing at all. What marks them is being chosen, not being written about.
[and] Judas [brother] of James, and Judas Iscariote, who was also [his] betrayer;
The list of the twelve closes with two men who share a name. One is known by his link to James. The other is marked forever by what he did to his Master. The verse raises a hard question: how could a traitor stand in that chosen company?
Luke separates the two by adding a family link to the first. That link is also how John keeps them apart when this quieter apostle finally speaks.
From Matthew we learn that Lebbaeus was surnamed Thaddaeus (Matt. 10:3), while Luke, in his Gospel and in the Acts, gives a further name of this apostle, that is, Judas [the son or brother] of James. John records a question of his, and marks him off from the traitor of the same name: "Judas (not Iscariot) says to Him, Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?" (John 14:22). There is no further reference to him by name in the New Testament.
The Greek says only "Judas of James." There is no word for son or brother, so translators must choose. Commentators differ, and one writer links the choice to the letter of Jude and warns against settling it too fast.
If we hold the contrary opinion — that the writer was an apostle — then we must translate the idiom in Luke 6:16 and Acts 1:13 as the Authorised Version does: "Jude [the brother] of James," to agree with Jude 1. The Revised Version has instead "Jude [the son] of James." And yet in an earlier case the same idiom comes out as "James [the son] of Alpheus." So the identification calls for patient discrimination, not hasty dogmatism.
The wording about Iscariot is precise. The Greek verb describes something that developed, not a label fixed on him from the start.
"Judas," so John 14:22. The same, it is supposed, as Matthew's "Thaddeus," "was the"; American Revisers rightly "became a" (or, "proved," ἐγένετο).
The choice was not an oversight. The One who made it already knew the man.
Among the twelve is Judas the traitor. He was called to be an apostle so that the Scriptures might be fulfilled. The Lord knew him from the beginning. He was not a believer in the Deity of our Lord; Judas never called Him Lord. A very old commentary gives the following suggestion: "Judas is chosen so that the Lord might have an enemy among His attendants. For a man is perfect when he has no reason to fear the watching eye of a wicked man who knows all his ways."
We may not see the reason. The choice was still right.
Among the twelve was Judas Iscariot. Why he was there seems mysterious to us. The Lord chose him, however, and so his selection was right. No mistake was made after that night of prayer.
The Psalms had already spoken of the betrayal. The eleven still never saw it coming.
The New Testament points us to three different Psalms (Ps. 41; 69; 109) as applying to him... His treachery, then, was distinctly the subject of prophecy; and he was chosen among the twelve so that the word of God might be fulfilled (John 13:18). Yet who ever looked for a traitor in that company?... They asked among themselves who would do it. The question, "Is it I?" came from each one. It showed they could not imagine that any of their number could be guilty of such baseness and wickedness.
Luke names the twelve two by two, and the final pair is striking — the man who would write about apostasy stands beside the man who committed it.
In Mark 6:7 we read that the Lord sent out the twelve two by two. In Luke 6:14-16 the apostles come in pairs. Put the two together, and we learn something striking: Judas Iscariot, the first apostate from Christ, went out on that mission with Jude — the very prophet whose message would be the Christian apostasy. This is all the more remarkable because Simon is coupled with his brother Andrew, and James with his brother John. Jude, though, is parted from his own brother, James the less, whose name is always joined with his earlier, and is placed with the Iscariot.
Nearness to Christ is not the same as belonging to Him, and Judas is the measure of the gap.
It was a test of man in new circumstances. He was a "familiar friend" (Ps. 41:9) of the Lord Jesus. He heard His gracious words, saw His miracles, and was likely allowed to work miracles himself in His name. And yet, as in every other test of man, he fell. Judas is a solemn instance of how far a person may be under the influence and power of Christianity, and yet become an apostate.
- Named — Two Judases close the list: one identified by James, one by his act. Scripture takes care to keep them apart.
- Disputed — Is the first the son or the brother of James? The wording leaves it open, so the point calls for care, not quick certainty.
- Became — Iscariot is not called a traitor by birth. The word means he turned into one.
- Chosen — He was picked after a night of prayer, by One who knew him from the beginning, so that Scripture would be fulfilled. No mistake was made.
- Warning — A man can hear the words, see the miracles, carry the name, and still fall. Position among the twelve saved nobody.