This is a very long post. I don't expect anyone will ever read it, but I just wanted to get it onto the record.
What are the names of the twelve apostles?
First we need to work out what is meant by the terms "disciple" and "apostle". Matthew,
for example, seems to be unaware of any difference when he says "Jesus
called his twelve disciples together" and in the very next sentence he
adds "These are the names of the twelve apostles." He seems to be
talking about the same twelve men. [
Matthew 10:1-4]
Luke,
on the other hand, is well aware of the difference when he writes,
"Jesus...called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he
named apostles." [
Luke 6:12-16]
But
then we turn to the gospel of John and discover that the word "apostle"
is never used. John always refers to the twelve "disciples", never the
twelve "apostles". It was the disciples who witnessed the first miracle
at the wedding in Cana. It was the disciples who ate the last supper
with Jesus. It was the disciples to whom Jesus gave the miraculous catch
of fish after his resurrection. If we read only the gospel of John, we
wouldn't even know what an apostle was!
So
here's how it works: Jesus had many followers called disciples and he
chose twelve of them to be his assistants and they were known either as
the "The Twelve", "The Disciples", or "The Apostles", depending on which
gospel you are reading.
The bible mentions a large number of apostles including many who were selected by church members after Jesus had died. Men like
Matthias,
Paul and Barnabas
for example. In this post we are considering only those apostles chosen
by Jesus himself. The twelve apostles who became known as "The Twelve".
Just one problem - there were fifteen of them!
Here’s a chart showing the names of the apostles as they appear in the New Testament:
These are the twelve commonly accepted apostles:
Simon/Peter
Andrew (son of Zebedee)
James (son of Zebedee)
John
Philip
Bartholomew
James (son of Alphaeus)
Judas Iscariot
Matthew
Thomas
Simon the Zealot
Thaddaeus.
But we are still left with:
- Nathanael
- Judas (the son of James)
- Levi
Let's start with Nathanael --- at the Key Way website Wayne Blank says,
Bartholomew
and Nathanael are recorded in the listings of the twelve apostles, but
never together. In Matthew, Mark and Luke, Bartholomew is listed as one
of the twelve, but Nathanael is not. Conversely, in John, Nathanael is
listed, but Bartholomew is not. From that, many logically assume that
Bartholomew and Nathanael were actually the same man who was known by
two names.
http://www.keyway.ca/htm2005/20051130.htm
He says "
many logically assume"
that Nathanael and Bartholomew are two names for the one man, and since
I was keen to discover what sort of "logic" they were using, I turned
to some of the online Bible Commentaries for information. I need hardly
have bothered; they've got nothing (my comments in red):
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
Nathanael is ... probably to be identified with the “Bartholomew” of the earlier Gospels.
The key word is "probably" - so no evidence.
Benson Commentary
Another was Nathanael ... Some, however, think he was the same with
Bartholomew, one of the twelve.
The key words are "Some, however, think" - so no evidence.
John Lightfoot's Commentary On The Gospels
Nathanael (who seems to be the same with Bartholomew)
The key words are "seems to be" - so no evidence
In
the chart (above) I have colour coded the slots for Nathanael and
Bartholomew so you can easily see what the Christian Apologists have
done. Without a scrap of evidence to back them up, they have simply
moved Nathanael's name from the bottom of the list, up to another slot
which lies adjacent to Bartholomew's name on the chart and casually
renamed him Nathanael Bartholomew.
Summary
The
apologists think they have reduced the number of apostles by one, but
they don't have any evidence for that claim; just wishful thinking (seems to be...some think...probably). In reality the count remains unchanged. We still have fifteen apostles listed in the New Testament.
Next we shall consider Judas, the son of James (who is called Judas, the
brother of James, in some versions of the New Testament).
Some
apologists say that the name "Judas"
was tarnished by Judas Iscariot (who betrayed Jesus) and therefore
Matthew and Mark tried to distance him from the betrayer by renaming him
Thaddaeus.
Other apologists don't even bother with an explanation, they simply
claim that Thaddaeus was actually Judas the son of James - and that's the end of that! Here's an example:
The name Thaddaeus appears in the list of Apostles given in Matthew
10:3, between James, son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot. In Mark
3:18, the name Thaddaeus appears, again, in the same placement. In Acts
1:13, however, a man named Judas, son of James, is listed below Simon.
And in Luke 6:16, Judas (son of James), is listed again among the 12
Apostles, between Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot. In John 14:22,
there is a reference to Judas (not Iscariot) who spoke to Jesus. The two
names, however, never appear in the same book, lending credence to the
belief that they both refer to the same person.
http://www.aboutbibleprophecy.com/p155.htm
"The two names ... never appear in the same book". How the hell does that "lend credence" to the claim that Judas and Thaddaeus were one and the same?
And I thought this was rather cute:
The
first Judas, son of James, was also called Thaddeus in the book
of Mark. It was common for the disciples to have multiple names ... As a
young boy I had two names: my real name and a nick name. Multiple names
are common.
https://www.neverthirsty.org/bible-qa/qa-archives/
The
apologist had a nickname as a child - so why couldn't Judas have been
nicknamed Thaddaeus? Biblical scholarship at its finest.
In
the chart (above) I have colour coded the slots for Thaddaeus and Judas
so you can easily see what the Christian Apologists have
done. Without a scrap of evidence to back them up, they have simply
moved Judas' name from the bottom of the list, up to another slot
which lies adjacent to Thaddaeus' name on the chart and casually
renamed him Judas Thaddaeus.
Summary
The apologists think they have reduced the
number of apostles by one, but they don't have any
evidence; just wishful thinking. In reality the count remains unchanged. We still
have fifteen apostles listed in the New Testament.
Now we come to Levi...
At
first glance it seems that the apologists might be onto something. If
we read the gospels in the order in which they appear in the New
Testament, we get the following story:
In
Matthew's gospel a man named Matthew is described as a tax collector
(or publican in the King James Version) and when Jesus calls him,
Matthew follows. Then Matthew prepares a meal for Jesus and his friends.
The Pharisees complain about the number of tax collectors at the house
(tax collectors were outcasts in those days) but Jesus reminds them that
he is not there to save respectable people, he's trying to save sinners
and outcasts. (Matthew 9:9-13)
Then,
in the very next chapter of the same gospel, we find a list of the
twelve apostles and right there in among them all, we can see "Matthew the tax collector". (Matthew 10:3)
Obviously
this apostle named Matthew the tax collector in chapter ten, is the
same Matthew who was called to follow Jesus in chapter nine.
The
next gospel in the New Testament was written by Mark and we find him
telling the same story about a tax collector who followed Jesus - but
this time the tax collector is named Levi. Apart from that name change,
however, it's exactly the same story as told earlier in the gospel of
Matthew:
Levi
is a tax
collector (or publican in the King James Version) who is called to
follow Jesus. After the call, Levi invites Jesus to share a meal with
him. The Pharisees complain about all the tax collectors at
the house but Jesus explains "I have come to call not the righteous but sinners." (Mark 2:13-17)
Then,
in the very next chapter of the same gospel, we find a list of the
twelve apostles but there is no one named Levi. There is, however, an apostle named Matthew. (Mark 3:18)
There
are so many similarities in these stories that it seems obvious that
they are about the same man. Both gospel writers know that the tax
collector's name is Matthew but it seems that Mark also knows that his
second name is Levi.
It is no surprise then, that we
find almost every Christian on the planet happily agreeing that Matthew
and Levi are two names for the one man and so the list of fifteen named
apostles has been reduced by one - or has it?
We
have been reading the various stories as they currently appear in the
New Testament, but the whole thing takes on a completely different look,
if we read the gospels in the order in which they were actually
written.
Mark was written in 70AD
Ten
years later, in 80AD, Matthew decided to write an updated version of
Mark's gospel. Matthew copied most of Mark's gospel word-for-word but he
did make small alterations from time time. Matthew also added a lot of
extra detail which Mark had not included in his own gospel - the story
of the birth of Jesus for example.
Ten years later
still, in 90AD, Luke brought out a new edition of the same basic gospel.
Like Matthew before him, Luke copied most of Mark's gospel
word-for-word, but he made some minor alterations along the way. He also
added a lot of extra detail that had not been included in either Mark's
gospel, or Matthew's. Luke also made some changes to to story of the
birth of Jesus. For example, whereas Matthew said that Jesus was born
circa
6BC during the reign of King Herod, Luke said Jesus was born during the time of the census organised by Quirinius in
6AD.
So
let us now put the gospels into the order in which they were written -
Mark, Matthew, Luke - and see what happens to the story of Matthew and
Levi:
First
of all Mark tells us (in 70AD) that a tax collector named Levi was
called to follow Jesus. Later, when Levi invited Jesus to share a meal,
the Pharisees complained about the number of tax collectors in the house
and Jesus explained "
I have come to call not the righteous but sinners." (
Mark 2:13-17)
In
the very next chapter we find Mark's list of apostles, but Levi is not
among them. Levi seems to have disappeared into thin air. His name
appears once in chapter two and that's the last we see of him. His name
is never mentioned again.
We do have Matthew's name appearing on
Mark's list of apostles
but notice that the reference contains only Matthew's name and no other
details; no mention of Matthew being a tax collector, so there is no
connection between Matthew and Levi.
Remember
that this was decades before any of the other gospels were written, so
there is no way that anyone could have had gained even the slightest
hint that Matthew was a tax collector. Levi was the tax collector, but,
in Mark's gospel, he was not connected to Matthew in any way at all.
Next
we have Matthew's gospel which was written about ten years after Mark's
gospel first appeared. The author of this second gospel is copying
Mark's gospel almost word-for-word and he notices the same thing that we
just noticed - Levi is called to be an apostle in Mark's chapter two,
but he is not listed as an apostle in chapter three!
And
this is where we get our first hint that the gospels were not inspired
by the Almighty God of Truth, but were written, instead, by people who
were quite prepared to tell lies when it suited them to do so. In this
case, the author of the second gospel casually deletes "
Levi" from the story and replaces him with "
Matthew". (see
Matthew 9:9-13)
But
the author of the gospel of Matthew didn't stop there. In the next chapter
of his gospel, he dutifully copied down Mark's list of the twelve
apostles but when he came to Matthew's name he compounded his original
lie by adding the words "
the tax collector".
For the last ten years the apostle Matthew had been nothing more than the apostle named "
Matthew," but now, in this new gospel, the apostle Matthew has suddenly become "
Matthew the tax collector".
This
was brand new information that no Christian had ever heard before -
which is not surprising since the author of the second gospel had only
just made it up.
And he made it up so that the Matthew who replaced Levi in
chapter nine could be more easily connected to the Matthew listed as an apostle in
chapter ten.
(They are both described as "tax collectors" so the connection seems
obvious to the casual reader - just a shame that it is based on a lie
and completely untrue.)
-----
Luke's
gospel came ten years later in about 90AD. He was aware of the lies
that had been included in the gospel of Matthew and decided not to repeat
them in his own gospel.
Instead he took inspiration from Mark and copied that gospel almost word-for-word. So once again we have
Levi the tax collector being called by Jesus and then disappearing into thin air; never to be heard from again!
And in
Luke's list of apostles we find Matthew's name but there is no mention that he was a tax collector.
-----
Clearly
there is no evidence to suggest that Levi was just another name for
Matthew. In fact it would be impossible to connect the two names were it
not for the blatant lies told by the author of the gospel of Matthew. And
so the count remains unchanged - we still have fifteen named apostles in
the New Testament; all of them vying to be included among The Twelve.
You see, as well as the pre-packaged biscuits, the grocer also had biscuits delivered to his store in big tins and he would sell them loose. 
You see, as well as the pre-packaged biscuits, the grocer also had biscuits delivered to his store in big tins and he would sell them loose. 
