Now the names of the twelve apostles are these first, Simon, who was called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the [son] of Zebedee, and John his brother;
Matthew 10 opens with Jesus calling twelve men to Himself and handing them His own authority. Verse 2 then records their names, starting with Simon Peter. Why are these men now called "apostles"? Why is Peter listed first? And why does the list run in pairs of brothers?
The word behind "apostles" means one sent, and it belongs first of all to Christ Himself.
The Greek word ἀπόστολος means "a messenger," "one sent." It carries this sense for any messenger in 2 Corinthians 8:23 and Philippians 2:25, and means "one sent" in John 13:16. It also has a much higher and stronger sense. It implies a divine commission in the one sent — first of the Lord Himself, and then of the twelve disciples whom He chose to be with Him during His ministry here. The Lord in His prayer in John 17:18 said, "As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world." He was the Sent One.
Matthew presents Jesus as King. A king surrounds himself with named officers. One writer notes that this Gospel uses the word "apostles" only here.
Now we have come to the part of the Gospel where the King must have His court. So here we get the twelve apostles who will one day sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel... He has not only the heart and the power to do everything, but He delegates that power or authority as it pleases Him... We must not lose sight of this, that it is the King who calls these twelve apostles. Matthew uses the word "apostles" only once, Mark once, Luke six times, and John once in his Gospel. John uses it in a general way — "he who is sent" (13:16), which is the meaning of the word "apostle."
The names arrive in couples, and those couples match how the Lord sent the twelve out.
But here we have only a preparatory testimony addressed to Israel. The names come in pairs, six pairs, as the Lord sent them out two by two. He seems not to have disregarded the natural or spiritual ties that link men together. Simon and Andrew are brothers, and Andrew had led Simon to Jesus. So here there were both links. The sons of Zebedee come next. Then Philip and Bartholomew. Bartholomew is thought to be that Nathanael whom Philip had brought to the Lord.
The arrangement served the work:
At any rate, two ensured mutual help and adequate testimony.
The verse gives Simon a second name, Peter, and his name heads every list of the twelve. One writer explains what that order does and does not mean.
Here again (Mark 3:16) you get Simon's new name emphasised, and in all the Gospels it is so. His name always comes first on the list (see Matthew 10:2; Mark 3:16; Luke 6:14; John 21:2). But he had no authority over his brothers, and no one made him a kind of chief bishop, 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.
Another writer points to the order of events. The man listed first was not the first one called.
Peter was not even the first called: Andrew, who had followed Jesus, brought Peter to Him.
Andrew is named second, and we hear little of him after this. Yet Andrew is the one who brought the man at the top of the list to Jesus.
We have a lovely record in John 1:41-42 of a man who did this very thing. He found the Lord — or the Lord found him — and what does he do? "He first found his own brother Simon." I love that little word "first."... And he brought him to Jesus. We never hear much about Andrew. But "his own brother" was Simon Peter, and what a blessing Andrew's brother has been to every one of us! What a debt we all owe to Andrew for that evening's work!
The Lord sent these twelve to one particular people.
Chapter 10 shows that Jesus, as Lord of the harvest, sends out labourers. He gives them full authority and power. But notice, it is still in special connection with Israel... Meanwhile it is a Jewish mission of the twelve Jewish apostles to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. I take this quite literally. It is not said of the Church, which is never called lost sheep. But the sheep of Israel in their desolate condition are most fittingly described this way.
- Sent. "Apostle" means one sent. The title belongs first to Christ, the Sent One, and then to the twelve.
- Named. Matthew uses the word "apostles" only here. This is where the King forms His court and hands His own authority to His men.
- Paired. The list runs in six pairs, following natural and spiritual ties. Two together meant mutual help and adequate testimony.
- First. Peter always heads the list. That came from his fervour, not from authority over the others. He was not even the first called.
- Fetched. Andrew is second, and he is there as the man who brought his own brother to Jesus — the quiet man behind the famous one.
Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the tax-gatherer; James the [son] of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, who was surnamed Thaddaeus;
Matthew 10:3 holds the middle six names in the Lord's list of the twelve men He sent out. The Bible says little about most of them, and one name carries a public stain — the writer's own.
The list is not a loose roll-call. The names come two by two, and commentators tie this to the way the Lord sent the men out.
But here we have only a preparatory testimony addressed to Israel. The names are in pairs — six pairs, as the Lord sent them out, two by two. He seems not to have disregarded the natural or spiritual ties that link men together... Then Philip and Bartholomew, the latter supposed to be that Nathanael whom Philip had brought to the Lord.
Sending them out in twos had a plain practical value:
The Lord now sent the twelve disciples out in twos, and Mark alone records this arrangement... At any rate, two ensured mutual help and adequate testimony.
The four lists of the twelve follow a settled pattern.
The names are grouped in three fours... Philip is always the first of the second four, and those four always stay together. James the son of Alphaeus is always the first of the last four... Only this list, which Matthew wrote, calls Matthew the publican. Matthew and Thomas are always put together, but when Matthew writes he puts Thomas first. There are many little things in this Gospel which bring out his humility.
The name in the list looks like a family name, not his personal name.
This was the apostle's family name, or surname; and it occurs in all four lists. Nathanael was most probably his personal name. It means "gift of God." He confessed the Lord as Son of God and King of Israel before His public ministry (John 1:49). John never mentions Bartholomew. Yet when John names other apostles after the resurrection, he includes Nathanael of Cana. Of him the Lord said, "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!"
His name carries a meaning, and only one Gospel writer records what he said.
The name Thomas means "a twin." So does Didymus, the name John uses three times. Only John says anything about him after his call and appointment. When the Lord spoke of going to Bethany, Thomas said to the other disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with him."
Older translations read "the publican." It means a tax collector, and the work carried shame.
First we get a list of the names of the twelve, and here only is Matthew called "the publican." It is as if the writer wanted to show his thanks for the grace that could take up a poor tax collector and number him among that select company — the apostles of the Lamb.
Who do we hear announcing the shame of Matthew but his own mouth? Matthew the Evangelist tells us of Matthew the tax collector. His fellows call him Levi, unwilling to lay a finger on the blot of his unpleasant profession. He himself will not cover it or whiten it at all. He publishes it to all the world in thankful recognition of the mercy that called him.
The last two names belong together, and the man called Thaddaeus here has another name elsewhere.
Judas is called in Matt. 10:3 by the name of Thaddaeus... John's Gospel keeps him clearly apart from the traitor Iscariot (14:22)... He was connected with James the son of Alphaeus. Some would say as his son; but others, and we think with more reason, would call him his brother... The Lord coupled brothers in this way, as Simon and Andrew, and James and John. That strengthens the view that Judas was the brother of James the son of Alphaeus.
These men left few stories, yet their names carry weight.
No doubt what we have of these earliest workmen should reveal to us much more than we have ever found in it. Even their names and their number should be significant. The Lord Himself connects them with the twelve tribes of Israel, over whom they are to rule in the day of the earth's "regeneration" (Matt. 19:28). And their names are also found on the foundations of the heavenly city (Rev. 21:14).
- Named — the names are not filler. The Lord ties the twelve to the twelve tribes, and their names stand on the foundations of the heavenly city.
- Paired — the list runs in six pairs. He sent them out two by two, so each man had help and each testimony had two witnesses.
- Identified — Bartholomew is most likely Nathanael, "gift of God." Thomas means "twin." Thaddaeus is not Judas Iscariot, and he is tied to James the son of Alphaeus.
- Labelled — only his own Gospel calls Matthew the tax collector. He publishes his old disgrace instead of hiding it.
- Grace — that label is the point. Grace took a despised tax collector and numbered him among the apostles of the Lamb.
Simon the Cananaean, and Judas the Iscariote, who also delivered him up.
The list of the twelve closes with two very different men: a former political radical, and the one who handed Jesus over. Their two short names raise questions readers still ask. What does "Zealot" mean? And why is a traitor on the Lord's own list?
The first name has nothing to do with the land of Canaan or the town of Cana. It marks the man out by the political-religious group he belonged to.
Simon was called Zelotes (Luke 6:15, Acts 1:13). This answers to the Hebrew word translated "Cananean," as it should be. It does not mean either of Canaan or of Cana. It means "zealot," one of that well-known fierce party of Jews.
Different Gospel writers use different words for the same man — one keeps the Hebrew term, another translates it into Greek.
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 second name is also a description. It names the town Judas came from — the one disciple not from Galilee.
Who was Judas? His surname is given here. Iscariot combines two words, "Ish" and "Kerioth." Together they mean "the man of Kerioth." He was the only disciple from Judea among the twelve. The rest were all from Galilee. This is significant and shows the apostasy of Judah.
The same writer sets Judas beside the disciples who also failed, and points to what the Old Testament had already said.
Luke tells us that Satan entered into him. That mighty enemy now takes real possession of the one who was indeed his own, for Judas had never believed in Christ. Peter may deny Him and the rest of the disciples may forsake their Lord, yet Satan could never enter into them, for they were saved, had life, and the power of God kept them. All this had been predicted in the Old Testament. See Zechariah 11:12; Psalm 41:9; 69:25; 109:8. And the price for which Judas betrayed the King was the price of a servant, a slave, according to Exodus 21:32.
Judas never appears in the middle of a list. His position, and the phrase that follows his name, are fixed.
This name is always placed last of all in the lists of the apostles. With one or two exceptions, every mention of him carries a phrase pointing to his betrayal of Jesus.
One writer finds comfort in this fixed order across the four lists.
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 small, unplanned agreements are very comforting. They show what we believe so strongly — the full inspiration of the Scriptures.
Matthew lists the twelve in pairs. That made the traitor the working partner of the zealot. And the work Judas did then was real.
The Twelve went out two by two, Judas being in the company of Simon the Canaanite (Matthew 10:4), for Matthew marks them off in couples. No doubt Judas had worked miracles, had brought about cures like the rest, and had preached the Gospel of the kingdom too. So in the past he had appeared as a worker — an authorised worker, really commissioned by Christ.
Commentators answer in two ways. One points to the Lord's own words in John's Gospel:
At an earlier point in His ministry He had indicated that there was one of them whom He then called a devil (John 6:70). He now spoke of that same one, still unnamed. He showed why this man was among the Twelve — so that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
Another writer leaves the reason unexplained. He still holds that the choice was right.
Among the twelve was Judas Iscariot, and why he was among them seems mysterious to us. The Lord chose him, however, and so his selection was right. No mistake was made after that night of prayer.
Judas had every outward advantage a man could have. It did not save him.
It was a test of man under new circumstances. He was a "familiar friend" (Psalm 41:9) of the Lord Jesus. He heard His gracious words and saw His miracles. He was probably even 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 in the end abandon the faith.
- Named — "Zealot" ties Simon to the fiercest Jewish party, not to the land of Canaan. "Iscariot" marks Judas as the man of Kerioth.
- Placed — Peter comes first in every list and Judas last. Writers see that fixed order as a mark of Scripture's full inspiration.
- Paired — Matthew lists the twelve in pairs. The traitor went out working and preaching beside Simon, on a real commission from Christ.
- Chosen — commentators differ on why. Some point to Scripture being fulfilled. Others call the reason mysterious, yet say the Lord's choice was right.
- Labelled — the note about his betrayal follows his name everywhere. It warns that a man can live close to Christ, never believe, and still fall away.