What Happened to Jesus’s Disciples?

When the Biblical narrative utters it’s final, “Amen,” we are left with with many questions, not the least of which is, “What happened next?”

Jesus has come and gone and passed the baton into the hands of his closest friends and followers — The 12 disciples. But, if you’re like me, you’ve probably wondered what became of the men entrusted with the task of spreading the message.

Only two of their deaths are recorded in the Bible (James and Judas Iscariot). The things we know about the fate of other apostles comes from ancient Christian writers and church tradition, and there are often multiple accounts of where and how they died.

One thing that we can be fairly certain of is the fact that most of them were killed in quite brutal, and gruesome way for refusing to shut up and the man they called the Messiah.

Drawing on the Bible, early church writers, oral traditional and legend, here is what we can derive about the post-biblical lives, and deaths of each of Jesus Christ’s twelve closest friends:

Judas Iscariot

Judas Iscariot, the man who infamously betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver in an action that would ultimately send Jesus to the cross, was the first disciple to depart.

It is possible that Judas was caught up in the false narrative that Jesus would become the great military leader that he believed the promised Messiah was supposed to be. His act of betrayal may have been an attempt to force Jesus’s hand, but it all backfired when Jesus refused to fight back and is sentenced to death instead.

Judas had an attack of conscience and tried to return the 30 pieces of silver, declaring the Chief Priests, “Jesus is an innocent man!” They replied, “That’s your problem.”

In a moment of sheer despair, Judas sees no way out, and the Bible records, he hanged himself. The only disciple to not die a hero’s death, Judas perished in 33AD shortly before Christ himself.

James, son of Zebedee

The only other disciple whose death is recorded in the Bible is James, the brother of John. Acts 12 records both the apostle Peter being imprisoned and the apostle James being killed by the sword of King Herod. That’s not the King Herod involved in the crucifixion narrative of Jesus, by the way, but his nephew, known as Herod Agrippa. Suffice to say, none of the five Herods mentioned in the Bible were particularly cuddly characters.

The fact that Peter escaped from Herod Agrippa, but James was killed, legend has it, was put down to James’s famous temper that possibly got him into trouble. Along with his brother John, they were known as the “Sons of Thunder.” Historians estimate the year of his death to be around 44AD.

Matthew

Matthew, the tax-collecting friend of Jesus, was the next disciple to be killed. Following the death and resurrection of Christ, legend has it that Matthew became a missionary in Ethiopia.

Interestingly, the Quran mentions several disciples of Jesus visiting Ethiopia without naming them specifically, however Muslim exegesis holds to the tradition that Matthew was one of the disciples who went to Ethiopia to preach the message of Jesus.

Exactly how Matthew met his end is a matter of speculation. Some sources report that he was staked or impaled by spears and then beheaded. National Geographic gives a slightly different version, saying that Matthew was likely “stabbed in the back by a swordsman sent by King Hertacus, the Ethiopian Emporer after Matthew criticized his morals, or rather, his lack thereof. The year is believed to be around 60AD

James, son of Alphaeus

This James is sometimes referred to as James the Lesser, and for good reason. We know very little about him, either from the Biblical narrative or afterward.

There are a number of characters named James in the Bible — the half brother or Jesus, as well as the other disciple of the same name. However, tradition maintains that this James was crucified in Egypt, where he had been preaching the gospel, sometime around 62AD.

Peter

The most famous of Jesus’s apostles also died the most famous death. After the great fire of Rome in 64AD, Emporer Nero — renown for his eccentricity, if not outright madness — was looking for a scapegoat to blame for the disaster. He pointed the finger squarely at the Christians, and, subsequently, a great persecution broke out that claimed the lives of several apostles.

Peter was arrested and, after multiple trials in Rome, he was sentenced to death by crucifixion. However, feeling unworthy to be crucified in the same manner as Jesus, Peter requested to be crucified upside down on an inverted cross, which, according to tradition, he was.

Peter’s crucifixion was seen as the fulfillment of the words of Jesus who had said to Peter in John 21:18–19, “Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted, but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God.”

Photo by K. Mitch Hodge on Unsplash

Simon

Much like James the Lesser, very little is known about Simon, the Zealot after the close of the Bible. There are, however, quite several different theories surrounding his demise.

These include those of Moses of Chorene wrote in the fifth century that Simon the Zealot was martyred in the Kingdom of Iberia. However, The Golden Legend says he was martyred in Persia in 65 AD. Meanwhile, Ethiopian Christians believe he was crucified in Samaria along with Thaddeus — another disciple. Yet another account says he was crucified in 61 AD in Britain of all places!

We do not know for sure, but we can be reasonably certain that Simon died as a martyr.

Thaddeus

It’s traditionally believed that Thaddeus, also known as Jude, was martyred in Syria on a missionary journey with Simon the Zealot.

According to The Golden Legend, in around 65AD, Simon and Thaddeus were responsible for destroying certain idols in the city of Beruit, which caused the local religious leaders to fly into a rage, attacking and killing Thaddeus with an ax.

Andrew

Legend has it that Andrew was one of the most widely traveled disciples, going as far as Keiv in his missionary journeys. Consequently, today he is known as the patron saint of Ukraine, Romania, and Russia..

However, Andrew finally met his end in Greece in 69 AD, when a debate about religion between him and the Roman proconsul Aegeates turned nasty. Aegeates tried to convince Andrew to forsake Christianity so that he would not have to torture and execute him. But when that didn’t work, Aegeates decided to give Andrew the full treatment.

(Never argue about religion or politics).

Andrew was scourged and then tied rather than nailed to a cross so that he would suffer for a longer time before dying. Legend has it that Andrew was executed on an X-shaped cross, rather differently to Jesus. It took Andrew two full days to succumb, during which time he apparently preached to passersby.

Thomas

The Apostle Thomas, also known as the infamous “Doubting Thomas,” has a fairly straightforward tradition surrounding his death. Of all the details we have about the deaths of the various apostles, we have the most specific information on Thomas.

Sometime after the death and resurrection of Christ, Thomas carried the gospel message all the way to India. However, there, Thomas came into conflict with the Hindu priests of Kali, who killed him for insulting their deity.

The Acts of Thomas says he was martyred in Mylapore, India, where he was stabbed with spears. Syrian Christian tradition specifies Thomas was martyred in Mylapore on July 3, 72 AD.

Bartholomew

Bartholomew was probably martyred — but like many of the apostles, there are several ways in which it may have happened. The most popular theory is that he was flayed and then beheaded, which is why most art portrays him either shows him holding or wearing his skin, or associates him with flaying knives.

Pretty gross, right? But there are other records of his death, too.

Foxe’s Book of Martyrs claims that in India, “He was at length cruelly beaten and then crucified by the impatient idolaters.” Another tradition claims he was beaten unconscious and drowned in the ocean. Still others claim that he and the apostle Phillip were crucified together.

However, Bartholomew died, it was probably pretty gruesome. But while they may disagree on the manner of his death, all of the traditions connect Bartholomew’s death to his ministry.

Phillip

Very early on, Christians confused Philip the Apostle with Philip the Evangelist from the Book of Acts. So we can’t say for sure which accounts are referring to which Philip. To make matters worse, there are conflicting stories.

Basically, we don’t know how Philip died. But there are plenty of possibilities. One record says he died of natural causes. Another says he was beheaded. Or stoned to death. Or crucified upside down. What we do know is that he died sometime in the first century, possibly around 80 AD.

Most of the earliest traditions seem to point to him being martyred in the ancient Greek city of Hierapolis. Polycrates of Ephesus wrote in a letter to Pope Victor, “I speak of Philip, one of the twelve apostles, who is laid to rest at Hierapolis. . .”

The Acts of Philip provides the earliest, most detailed account of his martyrdom, but again, it’s hard to say how much we can trust it. Philip supposedly converted a Roman proconsul’s wife, which angered the proconsul enough to have him and Bartholomew — another disciple — crucified upside down. While hanging there, Philip preached, and the crowd was so moved by his words, they they demanded that they be released. Legend has it that Phillip told the authorities to to free Bartholomew but not to take him down.

Photo by Greg Rosenke on Unsplash

John

John is traditionally regarded as the only apostle to die of old age. Some accounts suggest a couple of others died of natural causes, but John’s tradition is the most firmly established.

Before Jesus died, he entrusted his mother Mary to the beloved disciple (John 19:26–27), who is most widely believed to be John. Perhaps Jesus knew that John would be a survivor among his disciples.

When Mary died, John allegedly went to Ephesus, where he wrote his three epistles. From there, he was exiled to the island of Patmos for preaching the gospel, where he received the revelation from Christ and wrote the Book of Revelation. Eventually, he made it back to Ephesus and died an ordinary death sometime after 98 AD, making him pretty darn old.

Tertullian, a Christian writer from the late second and early third century, wrote that before the Romans banished John, they brought him into a coliseum and dunked him in a vat of boiling oil. Legend has it that he emerged unharmed, and the entire colloseum converted to Christianity. This is why some iconography shows John in a vat of boiling oil.

. . .

Heroes or madmen?

While we don’t know many of the details, there is enough information available to us to conclude that almost all of Jesus’s closest friends laid down their lives boldly preaching about Christ.

What are we to make of this?

These were the men who purportedly bore witness to all the Jesus did in his lifetime, his gruesome death, and his apparent resurrection. In fact, that each of these men went to their graves refusing the deny the resurrection as a literal historic event which they observed with their own eyes, is one of the most compelling evidences we have for the resurrected Jesus.

Surely, if it were all a ruse, at least one of those men, under threat of incredible torture and death, would have broken rank and come clean about their “made up” story about Jesus supposedly rising from the dead.

Yet the remain steadfast in that belief until the end.

They were either heroes or deluded madmen!

I vote for heroes.

—

This post was previously published on Backyard Church.

***

You Might Also Like These From The Good Men Project

You Said ‘Race’, but Are You Actually Talking About Race?

Understanding the Nonbinary: Are You Confusing Gender With Sex?

The Difference Between Compassion for Those With Disabilities & Ableism?

‘Masculinity’ Is Having an Identity Crisis