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The Apostles were the twelve disciples chosen by Jesus Christ at the beginning of his ministry to be entrusted with a divine mission as messengers and delegates to carry on his work to heal the sick and to preach the revealed truth to the world. According to the Gospels (Mark 3:13-19a, Matthew 10:1-4, Luke 6:14-16), they were: the sons of Jonas, the brothers Simon (also known as Peter "The Rock") and Andrew, the sons of Zebedee; James and John, (all of four of them were fisherman); Matthew, the tax collector; Simon, the Cananaean zealot; Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Thaddeaus (also known as Jude), James the son of Alphaeus; and Judas Iscariot who betrayed him. Iscariot probably means the man from Kerioth (Josh 15:2.5), if so, then this Judas was the only Judean among the twelve. After his ascension, Jesus Christ chose Paul, formerly Saul of Tarsus, to replace Judas who had betrayed him, thereby supplanting Matthias who had been selected by the Apostles.
Jesus gave the Apostles the authority to continue his
mission of teaching, healing, casting out unclean spirits (those not aligned
with Divine Will), curing all disease and sickness, and spreading the good news
that included all of peoples.
He also charged them with the task of journeying forth like sheep in the midst of wolves with the advice that they be as innocent as doves yet as wise as serpents. Many of the Apostles, as well as, the early Christians were persecuted and executed, burned at the stake, fed to lions, or nailed to a cross. He told his disciples that whoever welcomed them also welcomed him; and to only let their peace come upon worthy houses that welcomed them and listened to their words. Lately there has been some questioning of the accuracy of this list of the Apostles which only listed men as apostles because it was based on the Gospels of Mark (3:13-19a), Matthew (10:1-4), and Luke (6:14-16). Jesus left no written works and the gospels were written by the apostles many years after the Ascension of Christ. Sometimes the true meaning and intent of a bible passage can also be lost in translation from one language to another. For example, changing the article "a" to the article "the" drastically alters the way that the statement "I am - son of God" is interpreted. "I am a son of God" implies that we are all children of God.
"I am the son of God" implies that God has
only one son and that son is Jesus. Since Jesus also tells his apostles that
they will also be able to do the same works he does and even better the
exclusivity that "the" implies somehow does not ring true...
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