99 Fun Facts About The Twelve Disciples

The word 'apostle' comes from a Greek term originally meaning what?

Messenger: the Greek apostolos is literally 'one sent forth', from a verb meaning to send away. 'Disciple', by contrast, comes from the Latin for a pupil, so the Twelve were learners first and envoys second.

Matthew's Gospel ends with Jesus sending the apostles to do what?

Teach all nations, or in newer Bibles 'make disciples of all nations': the Great Commission is set on a mountain in Galilee with only eleven apostles left, and Matthew admits that even then 'some doubted'.

According to Mark 6, how did Jesus first send the Twelve out to the towns of Galilee?

In pairs: Mark says he sent them out 'two by two' and made them travel light, with a staff and sandals but no bread, no bag, no money and no spare tunic.

What were the Twelve told to do if a town rejected them?

Shake the dust off their feet, as a testimony against the place. The one time the New Testament shows it being done, Paul and Barnabas do it on being thrown out of Antioch in Pisidia.

The Orthodox Church calls the apostle Andrew Protokletos, meaning what?

First called: in John's Gospel Andrew is one of the first two men to follow Jesus, and he at once fetches his brother Simon with the words 'We have found the Messiah'.

Whose disciple was the apostle Andrew before he followed Jesus?

John the Baptist's: Andrew heard him call Jesus 'the Lamb of God', followed Jesus home and spent the rest of that day with him.

Which two brothers are identified in Matthew and Mark as the sons of Zebedee?

James and John, whom Jesus nicknamed Boanerges, 'Sons of Thunder'. When he called them they walked off the job, leaving their father sitting in the boat with the hired men.

The tax collector called Matthew in his own Gospel is called what in Mark and Luke?

Levi: Mark and Luke tell the same story of a tax collector called away from his booth but give him that name, and Luke adds that he threw Jesus a great feast in his house.

Matthew was sitting at his tax booth in which town, Jesus's base in Galilee, when he was called?

Capernaum: Matthew got up and followed at once, then filled his house with fellow tax collectors for dinner, which drew Jesus's retort that it is the sick, not the healthy, who need a doctor.

What does the Aramaic name Cephas, which Jesus gave Simon, mean?

Rock or stone: its Greek form, Petros, is why Simon is remembered as Peter, and Jesus plays on the name when he tells him 'on this rock I will build my church'.

Which town does John's Gospel describe as 'the city of Andrew and Peter'?

Bethsaida, which John also names as Philip's home. Three apostles did not save its reputation: Jesus cursed the town for shrugging off his miracles with the words 'Woe to you, Bethsaida!'

Under which emperor was Peter crucified in Rome, according to Christian tradition?

Nero: tradition places Peter's death in the emperor's gardens on the Vatican Hill, and the grave said to be his became the spot over which St Peter's Basilica was built.

According to the apocryphal Acts of Peter, how was Peter crucified?

Head down, at his own request. Jerome later said Peter felt unworthy to die as Jesus had, though the Acts of Peter itself turns the moment into a sermon on a world whose values are upside down.

Three times the risen Jesus asks Peter whether he does what?

Loves him: 'Do you love me?' Jesus asks, once for each denial, and each yes earns the order to feed his sheep. John sets both scenes beside a charcoal fire.

What sound reminded Peter of Jesus's prediction after his third denial?

A rooster crowing: in Luke's telling Jesus turns at that very moment and looks straight at Peter, who goes outside and weeps bitterly.

Jesus promised Peter 'the keys of' what?

The kingdom of heaven, along with the power to bind and loose on earth. The verse is why Peter is painted holding keys, and why keys appear on the coats of arms of the popes.

On what shape of cross is the apostle Andrew said to have been crucified?

X-shaped, the form still called a St Andrew's cross. The earliest accounts in fact describe an ordinary upright cross, and the X did not become standard in pictures of his death until the later Middle Ages.

Andrew, said to have been martyred at Patras in Greece, is the patron saint of which nation?

Scotland: in one legend a churchman called Rule sailed from Patras with some of Andrew's bones and came ashore on the coast of Fife, where the town of St Andrews took the saint's name.

Which apostle was the first to be martyred, executed 'by the sword' by Herod?

James the Great was put to the sword by Herod Agrippa in about AD 44. Acts adds that the killing went down so well in Jerusalem that Herod had Peter arrested next.

Which Spanish city claims the remains of the apostle James the Great, the country's patron saint?

Compostela, in full Santiago de Compostela: Santiago is simply the local form of 'Saint James', and pilgrims have walked the Camino to his shrine there since the ninth century.

Why is one of the two apostles named James styled 'the Greater'?

He was older or taller than the other apostle James, as far as anyone can tell. The tag was a handy way of telling two men of one name apart, not a ranking of their importance.

Which three apostles formed an inner circle present at the Transfiguration?

Peter, James and John, the same three Jesus took in to see Jairus's daughter raised from her deathbed and kept closest to him on the night of his arrest.

On which Greek island is the apostle John traditionally said to have written the Book of Revelation?

Patmos: the author calls himself John and says he was on the island 'because of God's word', which early writers took to mean a sentence of exile under Domitian. Many scholars doubt he was the apostle.

Which bird is the traditional symbol of the apostle John in art?

An eagle, because the Gospel that bears his name soars from its first line, 'In the beginning was the Word'. Matthew, Mark and Luke have a winged man, a lion and an ox.

One future disciple, told about Jesus by Philip, scoffed, 'Can anything good come out of' which town?

Nazareth: the scoffer was won over minutes later, when Jesus told him he had already seen him sitting under a fig tree, and he hailed Jesus on the spot as the Son of God.

Many scholars identify the apostle Bartholomew with which figure from John's Gospel?

Nathanael: 'Bartholomew' is only a surname, 'son of Tolmai', and the three Gospels that list a Bartholomew never mention Nathanael, while John has a Nathanael and no Bartholomew.

Bartholomew is most often shown in art holding what gruesome attribute?

His own flayed skin, because one legend has him skinned alive, though another says he was beheaded. Michelangelo painted him that way in the Sistine Chapel's Last Judgment, knife in one hand and hide in the other.

After preaching in India, where do popular traditions say Bartholomew went next?

Eusebius says he left a copy of a Gospel behind in India; the Armenian Church counts him as a patron saint.

What does the name Thomas, like his Greek nickname Didymus, mean?

The twin: John's Gospel introduces him as 'Thomas, called Didymus', the same word in Aramaic and in Greek. He earned 'doubting' by refusing to believe in the resurrection until he could touch the nail marks.

In which modern Indian state is Thomas traditionally said to have landed in AD 52?

Kerala, where the Saint Thomas Christians still trace their churches back to his arrival. The same tradition has him killed twenty years later at Mylapore, on the far side of India.

James, son of Alphaeus, is commonly known in church tradition by which epithet?

The Less: the Greek behind it, ho mikros, simply means 'the little', and the label tells the two apostles named James apart without ranking them.

Jude, also called Thaddaeus, is the Catholic patron saint of what?

Lost causes, or desperate cases: the devotion caught on in France and Germany only in the late 1700s, and it is why a children's research hospital in Memphis carries his name.

Why, on the likeliest account, is the apostle Judas Thaddaeus known in English as Jude?

To set him apart from Iscariot: in the Gospels both men bear the same name, Judas, so John has to introduce this one as 'Judas (not Iscariot)'.

At Pentecost, what is said to have appeared and come to rest on each of the apostles?

Tongues of fire, after a noise like a rushing wind. The apostles then began speaking in languages they had never learned, and scoffers in the crowd decided they were drunk on new wine.

What is the usual explanation of the epithet 'Iscariot'?

The man from Kerioth, a town in Judah, is the usual reading. A rival theory, 'dagger-man', ties him to the Sicarii assassins, but there is no evidence that they existed in his lifetime.

For how many pieces of silver did Judas betray Jesus, according to Matthew?

Thirty, weighed out by the chief priests. It is the very sum the prophet Zechariah is paid and flings down in the Temple, which is just what Matthew has a remorseful Judas do with it.

What did Judas carry for the group, according to the Gospel of John?

The money bag, and John says Judas helped himself from it. That is the Gospel's explanation for his protest that a jar of costly perfume should have been sold to feed the poor.

What did the chief priests buy with the silver Judas returned, according to Matthew?

A burial field for strangers, because blood money could not lawfully go back into the Temple treasury. Matthew says it was known ever after as the Field of Blood; Acts has Judas buy the land himself.

Gethsemane, the garden where Judas kissed Jesus, has a name meaning what?

Oil press, a fitting name for a garden among the olive groves of the Mount of Olives. Judas had told the arresting party that the man he greeted with a kiss was the one to seize.

How was Matthias chosen to replace Judas among the Twelve?

By casting lots: the believers prayed over two nominees and let the lot decide between them. It fell to Matthias, who is then never mentioned in the New Testament again.

At the Last Supper in John's Gospel, what did Jesus do for the Twelve that made Peter protest?

Washed their feet, a servant's job. Peter flatly refused, then, on being told he could have no part with Jesus otherwise, asked to have his hands and head washed as well.

Peter said Judas's replacement had to have done what?

Followed Jesus throughout, from his baptism to the ascension: the newcomer's whole job, Peter told some 120 believers, was to stand with the eleven as a witness that Jesus had risen.

When Jesus was arrested, which part of the high priest's servant did Peter slice off with a sword?

His right ear: John names the swordsman as Peter and his victim as Malchus, and Luke adds that Jesus touched the wound and healed it on the spot.

Who, though never one of the Twelve, called himself 'an apostle to the Gentiles'?

Paul, who never followed Jesus in his lifetime and began as a hunter of Christians. He rested his claim on a vision of the risen Christ that stopped him on the road to Damascus.

Leonardo's Last Supper shows the Twelve reacting to which news?

A betrayal: Jesus has just said that one of them will betray him, and Leonardo sets the apostles reeling in groups of three, each reacting in his own way, while Judas shrinks back.

Which room on Mount Zion, named from the Latin for 'dining room', is the traditional site of the Last Supper?

The Cenacle, also known as the Upper Room. Acts says the eleven went back to an upper room after the Ascension, and tradition makes it the same one, the place where Judas's successor was chosen.

What did Jesus promise to make Simon and Andrew when he called them beside the Sea of Galilee?

Fishers of men: the two were casting a net at the time and simply left it where it fell. A little further along the shore another pair walked away from their boat and their father just as fast.

Legend says the apostle John walked unharmed out of a cauldron of what?

Boiling oil: the story is set at Rome's Latin Gate, and it suits the old tradition, still debated, that John alone of the Twelve escaped martyrdom and died of old age at Ephesus.

At the Transfiguration, which two figures did the watching apostles see talking with Jesus?

Moses and Elijah: a flustered Peter blurted out an offer to put up three shelters, one for each of them and one for Jesus, 'not knowing what he said', as Luke drily adds.

In the Book of Acts, people laid the sick in the streets hoping what of Peter's would fall on them?

His shadow was thought enough to heal, so people set the sick out on cots and mattresses, and crowds came in from the towns around Jerusalem.

When the apostle Peter stepped out of the boat to walk on water toward Jesus, what made him afraid?

The strong wind frightened him, and as he began to sink Jesus caught his hand and asked why he had doubted.

Where did Jesus tell Peter he would find the coin to pay the temple tax for them both?

In a fish's mouth: Jesus sent Peter to cast a hook into the sea and open the first fish he caught, which held one coin worth the tax for two.

What did the frightened disciples think they saw when Jesus walked across the Sea of Galilee?

A ghost was their first thought, and they cried out in fear until Jesus called to them not to be afraid.

At the Last Supper, what did Jesus wash for each of his disciples as a lesson in serving others?

Their feet, and Peter at first refused to let his teacher do a servant's job, then asked to have his hands and head washed as well.

Andrew, brother of Simon Peter, is the patron saint of which part of the British Isles?

Scotland adopted him after a legend that a monk carrying some of his bones was shipwrecked on the coast of Fife, where the town of St Andrews now stands.

Which animal did Jesus send two disciples to fetch from a village for his entry into Jerusalem?

A donkey was tied up with her colt just where he said, and the two disciples were to tell anyone who objected that the Lord needed them.

Before Jesus fed the crowd, the apostle Andrew pointed out a boy carrying what food?

Five loaves and two fish were all the boy had, barley bread at that, yet the disciples gathered twelve baskets of leftovers afterwards.

Whom did the disciples try to turn away before Jesus indignantly told them to let them come to him?

Little children were being brought for a blessing, and after scolding the disciples Jesus took them in his arms and blessed each one.

What did three of the disciples keep doing while Jesus prayed in the garden just before his arrest?

Falling asleep again and again, they were asked by Jesus whether they could not keep watch with him for even one hour.

In John's Gospel, what was the name of the high priest's servant whose ear Peter cut off?

Malchus is named only by John, and only Luke adds that Jesus touched the wounded ear and healed it.

What illness did Jesus cure at Simon Peter's house by taking a bedridden woman by the hand?

A fever had struck Peter's mother-in-law, proof that the apostle was a married man, and she got up and waited on the guests as soon as it left her.

During which Jewish festival did the Holy Spirit come upon the apostles in a Jerusalem house?

Pentecost found the city full of devout Jews from many nations, and each of them heard the apostles speaking in his own language.

From the cross, whom did Jesus place in the care of the disciple he loved?

His mother went to live in that disciple's home from that hour, after Jesus told the two of them to treat each other as mother and son.

Which town did Nathanael scoff at, asking whether anything good could come from there?

Nazareth was Jesus's own home town, and the friend who had invited Nathanael answered the jibe by simply telling him to come and see.

Where did Jesus say he had seen Nathanael before the two of them had even met?

Under a fig tree was the spot, and the remark so startled Nathanael that he at once hailed Jesus as the Son of God and his king.

Which two Old Testament figures appeared beside Jesus as three apostles watched the Transfiguration?

Moses and Elijah were seen talking with him, and one awestruck apostle offered to put up three shelters, for the two visitors and for Jesus.

In Matthew's Gospel, how did Judas Iscariot die after throwing the silver down in the temple?

He hanged himself, Matthew says, while the Book of Acts tells it differently: there he fell headlong and his body burst open.

How did the apostle Peter get out of King Herod's prison on the night before his trial?

An angel led him out past two guard posts, and when he knocked at a friend's house the servant girl was so overjoyed she forgot to open the gate.

On which Greek island is the apostle John traditionally said to have written the Book of Revelation?

Patmos draws pilgrims to a cave where John is said to have received his visions, and the cave and its nearby monastery are a World Heritage Site.

What appeared to rest on each apostle after a roaring sound from the sky filled their house in Jerusalem?

Tongues of fire settled on each of them, and they began speaking in languages they had never learned, which some onlookers put down to too much wine.

Which follower of Jesus, first to meet him risen in John's Gospel, is called 'apostle to the apostles'?

Mary Magdalene earned the title by carrying the news of the resurrection to the men, who at first dismissed the women's report as nonsense.

Catholic tradition counts the apostle Peter as the first man to hold which church office?

Bishop of Rome is the pope's own title, which is why every pope is called the successor of Peter, the fisherman from Galilee.

Near which city did Peter first declare that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of the living God?

Caesarea Philippi lay north-east of the Sea of Galilee, and from that moment the Gospels turn Jesus toward his last journey to Jerusalem.

By what name did Jesus rebuke Peter for protesting when he first foretold his own suffering and death?

Satan was a startling thing to call the follower he had just blessed, and Jesus added that Peter was thinking as men do, not as God does.

Which married couple fell dead after lying to Peter about the price of land they had sold?

Ananias and Sapphira kept back part of the money while claiming to give it all, and they collapsed one after the other, about three hours apart.

Which sin of buying church office is named after a sorcerer who offered Peter money for spiritual power?

Simony takes its name from Simon Magus of Samaria, whom Peter told his silver could perish with him, since the gift of God could not be bought.

Which Roman centurion, baptized after Peter visited his house, is often called the first Gentile convert?

Cornelius had been told in a vision to send for Peter, and the Holy Spirit fell on his household before the apostle had even finished speaking.

In a rooftop vision in Acts, what did Peter see lowered from heaven full of animals he thought unclean?

A great sheet came down three times, and Peter took it to mean he should call no person unclean, just as foreign visitors arrived at the door.

From which hill just outside Jerusalem did the apostles watch Jesus ascend, in the Book of Acts?

The Mount of Olives was only a Sabbath day's walk from the city, and two figures in white asked the apostles why they stood gazing at the sky.

After a lakeside breakfast, what did the risen Jesus tell Peter three times over to feed or tend?

His sheep, meaning the believers, were put in Peter's care, and Peter grew hurt at being asked a third time whether he loved Jesus.

On the road, what had the disciples been arguing about that left them silent when Jesus asked?

Who was the greatest was the quarrel, and Jesus answered it by standing a small child among them and saying the first must be servant of all.

Which of the seven men the apostles appointed to serve tables became the first Christian martyr?

Stephen was stoned outside Jerusalem while a young man named Saul of Tarsus looked after the coats of the men who killed him.

According to Luke, how did Jesus spend the whole night before he chose the twelve apostles?

Praying on a mountain until daybreak, he then called his wider band of followers together and picked twelve of them to be apostles.

What were the hungry disciples doing in the fields that some Pharisees called unlawful on the Sabbath?

Picking heads of grain to eat was the offence, and Jesus defended them by recalling how a hungry David once ate the priests' sacred bread.

By what sign did Jesus say at the Last Supper that everyone would recognise his disciples?

Love for one another was the mark he named, calling it a new commandment moments after the betrayer had gone out into the night.

What did Simon Peter and Andrew leave behind at once when Jesus called them to follow him?

Their nets were left where they lay, and the next two brothers he called walked away from their father and his hired crew in the boat.

Sending out the Twelve, Jesus told them to be as wise as serpents and as harmless as which birds?

Doves stood for innocence, and the advice came with a warning that the Twelve would be dragged before governors and kings.

In Acts, which servant girl was so thrilled to hear the escaped Peter's voice that she left him outside?

Rhoda ran to tell the praying household, who insisted she was out of her mind while Peter went on knocking at the gate.

In which Syrian city were the followers of Jesus first called Christians, in the Book of Acts?

Antioch was where two missionaries taught large crowds for a whole year, and the new nickname for the disciples stuck.

In John's Gospel, what did Judas Iscariot complain should have been sold to help the poor?

Expensive perfume, a pound of pure nard worth about a year's wages, had just been poured over Jesus by Mary of Bethany, filling the house with its scent.

In Matthew's Gospel, what gave Peter away to the bystanders in the high priest's courtyard?

His accent marked him as a Galilean, and under pressure Peter swore that he had never known the man on trial inside.

Jesus promised his closest followers thrones from which they would judge whom?

The tribes of Israel numbered twelve, and the promise came in answer to Peter asking what the disciples would get for having left everything.

In Mark's Gospel, what single item did Jesus let the Twelve carry on their first preaching journey?

A staff was the lone exception, with bread, bag and money all banned, so the Twelve had to live on the welcome of the villages they entered.

At which entrance to the Jerusalem temple did Peter and John heal a beggar who had never walked?

The Beautiful Gate was where he begged every day, and Peter told him he had no silver or gold to give before taking his hand and lifting him up.

Which Pharisee, later named as Paul's teacher, urged the council in Acts to free the apostles?

Gamaliel argued that a merely human movement would collapse by itself while one from God could not be stopped, so the apostles were beaten and let go.

In the Book of Revelation, the twelve apostles' names are written on which part of the New Jerusalem?

Its foundations number twelve, one for each apostle, and each layer is faced with a different precious stone, from jasper to amethyst.

According to Tertullian, the apostle John was plunged into what in Rome and came out unharmed?

Boiling oil failed to harm him in the story, and a small chapel in Rome, San Giovanni in Oleo, is said to stand on the very spot.

By what other name does John's Gospel call the Sea of Galilee, after a city on its western shore?

Sea of Tiberias came into use after a city was founded on the western shore in honour of the emperor Tiberius, and John sets a resurrection meeting there.

In the Quo Vadis legend, on which road out of Rome did the fleeing Peter meet the risen Jesus?

The Appian Way has a small church on the supposed spot, and in the legend the meeting gave Peter the courage to turn back to the city.