APOCRYPHAL GOSPELS.— See Gospels (Apoc- ryphal).
APOSTLES.-
Introduction.
1. The first disciples.
2. Beginning of our Lord's Galil:ean ministry
3. Choice of the Twelve.
4. Training of the Apostles.
Literature. Introduction. — It is proposed to treat in this article the chief facts relating to that group of our Lord's personal disciples known to us by the name of 'apostles.' The sole authorities on the subject are the four Gospels and the first chapter of the Acts. The remaining books of the NT furnish no information as to the relations between Jesus and His Apostles during His ministry on earth ; and nothing that is found in the Apocryphal Gospels can be regarded as historical.
The assvuiiption so often made that the Synoptics possess a greater trustworthiness than the Fourth Gospel is baseless, and its baselessness cannot be better seen than in the case of the Apostles. The Apostles of the Fourth Gospel are the Apostles of the first three. Their character, prejudices, limitations, ambitions, views, sj'mpathies are the same in the four Gospels. How can this harmony be explained unless all our authorities draw from the life ? But more than this. The Fourth Gospel contains information regarding the Twelve peculiar to itself which, properly weighed, enables us to understand much that is otherwise perplexing in the first three. How can this famili- arity with the Apostles be accounted for if the writer was not himself one of them? What is the alternative hypothesis? That the writer of the Fourth Gospel, with the first three before him, was able to form so true and complete an apprehension of the intelligence, moral condition, modes of thought, and lan- guage of the Twelve as to be able to create situations where he represents them as speaking and acting with perfect verisimil' tude, while all the time he was simply drawin '' '
but
his nnagina-
I. The author of the Fourth Gospel was a man of genm his genius was religious, not intellectual or imaginativ
APOSTLES
The achievement attributed to him was wholly beyond his powers or the powers of any man wlio has ever lived. The disciples of the Fourth Gospel are the disciples of the first three ; their portraits are firm, exact, striking, because the writer knew them personally.
When the attention of a reader is called to the numerous occasions on whicli the Apostles hgure in the Gospels, he might feel disposed to contend that the Apostles are so prominent in the Gospels because they are their ultimate authors. But this supposition, however ingenious, is unsubstantial. Great as is the place tilled by the Apostles in the Gospels, they are never magnified ; it is Jesus alone who is magnified. The many references made to the Apostles correspond exactly to the position they held ; the Gospels are so much occu- pied with them only because Jesus Himself was constantly occupied with them, not the least of the tasks of His life being to teach and train them to understand His mind and heart, and to transmit to others a correct representation of what He was and said and did.
The Gospel of St. Mark has been characterized as preeminently the Gospel of the disciples. But this language does injustice to the rest of the Gospels, which are equally Gospels of the dis- ciples. A judicious reader sees at once that the Apostles hold substantially the same place in all the Gospels. There is nothiir,' ■ prove that one of the Evangelists took a deeper interest in the
Twelve than any of the rest.
1. The first disciples. — It is clear from the Go.'spels that several of the Apostles had been on the ino.st intimate terms -n-ith our Lord before He selected them to become Apostles. In fact the most promi- nent among them passed through two stages of relationship to our Lord before they were chosen as Apostles. They were first called to become dis- ciples in the most general sense of the term, and thereafter they were summoned to leave their usual occupations and to become the personal com- panions of Jesus. It is therefore desirable to leani the connexion in which the most distinguished of them stood to Jesus before their formal appoint- ment to the apostolate.
After the Temptation our Lord returned to Bethany in PenBa. Whether this happened by arrangement betweeen Himself and His forerunner we cannot tell, but nothing was more natural than for Him to go thither. The Baptist could best fulfil his duty if He were by his side. On two occasions John, fixing a steadfast gaze on our Lord, said in the hearing of some of his disciples, 'Be- hold the Lamb of i'.mV (Jn l=s-S6). The remark- able expression doubtless suggested to his hearers that this was the Messiali. Two of tliera sought an interview vith our Lonl, and ere they quitted the house were convinced that they had found the Messiah. Not a word is related of the considera- tions which brought them to this conclusion, but the explanation is to be found partly in the testi- mony of the Baptist, partly and pre-eminently in the impression produced on them by the personality of Jesus. There was that in His character, aims, and language which distinguished Him from all other men. Hence Andrew and Jolin, the two disciples in question, had no doubt tliat the ^lessiah stood before them (v.-"). It is not quite clear whether each started to find his brother; but Andrew, at anyrate, brouglit his brother Simon to Jesus. Reading his character and discerning its possibilities, Jesus bestowed on him the name by which he is now known to the world : the name Peter (v.«). Our Lord, for reasons unknown to us, had determined to set out for Galilee, accompanied by His new disciples. On starting. He called Philij) to follow Him, and the instant obedience renderetl suggests that Philii) had already believed that Jesus was the Messiah, probably through his friends and fellow-citizens Andrew and Peter. On the way Philip encountered hLs friend Nathanael,