Hi everyone and welcome back to our podcast.
So we're continuing to move through Mark and if you go to
mass today you'll hear from Mark chapter 3 verses 13 to 19 and
this is the passage where Jesus chooses his 12 Apostles.
Jesus went up into the hills and summoned, those he wanted So
they came to him and he appointed twelve, they were to
be his companions and to be sent out to preach with power to cast
out devils. and so, he appointed the 12, Simon to whom he gave
the name, Peter James, the son of Zebedee.
And John, the brother of James to whom he gave the name, bow
energies, or sons of thunder, then, Andrew Philip,
Bartholomew. Matthew Thomas, James the son of
alphaeus thaddaeus Simon the Zealot and Judas, Iscariot the
man who was to betray him. So that's your passage today and
as you can see, it's mostly taken up by the list of names.
So we want to try and get it the literal sense.
What might have the original here?
Is thought of as I heard this passage that Mark had written.
So firstly let's look at this setting in verse that verse 13.
So Jesus goes up into the hills, he's probably still in the
Galilee area. So he's going up to the hills
surrounding the Sea of Galilee and you can see those today.
If you go to the Lake. You can see that those heels
going up. All sides of the lake, and it's
quite beautiful actually. So, typically Jesus goes up into
the hills, when he wants a bit of privacy, he's trying to get
away from the crowds a little bit.
Here it appears. Some Scholars think that by him
going up, the hill at might call to mind Moses doing similar
things. So particularly in Exodus 19 3,
Moses goes up the mountain and that's where the original Twelve
Tribes of Israel were forged by God.
So that could be sort of a connection that Mark wants to
bring out here as well. And Jesus summoned those he
wanted. So notice this is an invite only
thing. Jesus, only calls together a
Group of people for this next part.
Now, it's not clear whether he only calls the 12 or he calls
together a larger group and then he's got that larger group in
front of him and then he picks the 12, it's not clear but it's
either way, he only calls a limited number to him at this
point. So he appoints 12.
Why does he choose 12? It's not an accident.
Jesus does choose 12 deliberately.
And we know that the it's important that there's 12
because later on after This is gone and Judas dies, the
apostles get together and they realize that they need to
replace Judas. They need a 12 Apostle and so
they do replace Judas. That's in the book of Acts.
So there must be something about having 12.
And almost certainly it represents the 12 tribes of
Israel or the 12 Patriarchs of Israel.
You remember in the Old Testament that Jacob has twelve
sons. And each of those Sons goes on
to be, the founder of one of the 12 tribes of Israel.
So they're like the original. You could say the founders of
Israel. So by Jesus choosing 12, he's
signaling that he is now establishing a new Israel with
new leaders. I think that's certainly the
implication here. And we know later in the
gospels, because Jesus says to them in heaven, you'll sit on
the 12 tribes on 12 Thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel.
So it is his intention to set up a parallel between the 12 tribes
of the Old Testament and the 12 apostles in the new.
So, these are Apostles where it is already called a whole lot of
disciples. These are now the apostles and
the Greek apostolos is the word that's used.
Used here. Which means sent out where as a
disciple is one who's called to listen and Apostle is a
particular person. Who's been commissioned to be
sent out at this point, there's only 12, although the word does
get used in different ways later in the New Testament.
For example, Paul considers himself to be an apostle even
though he isn't one of the 12 here, So Jesus is Calling
twenties. Basically got 12 Assistance or
12 helpers in his ministry. It was common for rabbis and
preachers at that time. If they traveled around to
actually have an inner circle of disciples, John the Baptist
probably had an inner circle and lots of other rabbis did as
well. But what Scholars have noticed
here, which is interesting is that it appears that Jesus
deliberately chooses only men to be part of his inner circle,
Where is it appears that other rabbis and other sort of
religious leaders traveling religious leaders in that
culture did choose women to be part of the inner circle.
And a lot of Protestants would say, well, he didn't choose
women because it wasn't a thing. You don't put women in your
inner circle, otherwise your ministry would have never gotten
off the ground because it's not accepted for women to have
leadership roles. But doing a bit more research,
it doesn't appear. That that's the case.
It does look like a lot of Of religious leaders had women as
their disciples. So the fact that Jesus chooses,
not to have any women amongst the 12, although he does have
women disciples, is significant and the Catholic Church sees
that as a significant indicator in relation to Jesus only
wanting male priests and that is brought out in the catechism,
passage will look at a bit later on.
So the text here says that they're going to have three
functions. So he calls The Twelve Apostles
and they're going to do three things to be his companions to
be sent out to preach and to cast out Devils.
Those are the three things, notice what they're not given
here, they're not given the power to do physical healings.
Jesus wants them to focus on the spiritual stuff at the moment.
So, the spiritual aspect of the kingdom of God.
So there to be his companions to travel the journey with him.
Be his friends to be sent out to preach.
And so they're going to preach the kingdom of God Just Like
Jesus Does. So that way the message can be
spread quickly more quicker quicker than if Jesus was doing
it by himself. And also so they can carry on
the message after Jesus is gone. And thirdly they Jesus gives
them power is the word in English to cast out Devils.
So Jesus gives him a special specific power and commissioning
that allowed them to cast out Devils.
It wasn't a special skill that he taught them.
It appears, he may have laid hands on them, but he gave them
some sort of special Supernatural power and it's a
supernatural gift and not everyone can do it.
In fact, very few people can do an exorcism, so Jesus gives them
that power. So, Jesus now goes on to list
the names of The Twelve Apostles.
It's likely that he would have known each of these 12 men
already. He's not just looking around at
the crowd going yet. While have you?
You look good? You look good.
He knows each of these 12 men already and if we counted up it
looks like he knows at least seven of them.
He's met at least seven of them by name already earlier in these
gospels. Maybe more.
It's likely that there were all part of his disciples, traveling
to Chuckles and now they're being promoted to his in a
group. So let's go through the list,
we'll just touch briefly on each of the name.
So verse 16, we start with Simon to whom he gave the name.
Peter Simon is always mentioned first in the list of the
Apostles because Mark and the other Riders want to highlight
his privacy as leader. He's clearly the leader of the
Apostles. That's clear in the gospels and
the early church and the early gospel readers knew that very
well that he's the leader. Jesus is actually already named
him Simon earlier on when Simon first meets Jesus which is in
John. Chapter 1.
Yeah, that's when Jesus gives him the name, Peter, then
there's James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James.
So, these two men are brothers and they were fishermen earlier
on. So we were introduced to them
earlier and Mark, and in fact, Jesus met them.
May have met them a little earlier as well in the Gospel of
John. He gave the name but this is
James and John. Jesus gave the name boa energies
or sons of thunder. So he gives James and John and
nickname. Either because their father
Zebedee had something to do with thunder or perhaps James and
John themself had quite a thundery or stormy personality,
and that does seem to be true. Because later, in the gospels,
remember, James and John come to Jesus.
And they say, would you like us to call down fire from heaven?
So, they do some have very bold personalities.
So, here's the Inner Circle, Peter James and John.
Those three are mentioned first. Next, we have Andrew he's
considered to be like the fourth most important Apostle.
But here's the brother of Simon, he meets Jesus earlier in the
Gospel of John, Philip is next in the list, he's from bethsaida
and he also meets Jesus in John chapter one although we haven't
met him in the gospel of Mark, yet Philip is quite prominent in
the Gospel of John. Next is Bartholomew.
He's sometimes called Nathaniel. And he also meets Jesus earlier
on in John chapter 1. Matthew and he's probably the
same guy as Levi. Remember earlier in Mark, we met
Levi, the tax collector, it's probably the same guy.
In any case, Matthew is the author of The Gospel of Matthew
So Jesus has met all of those and we know that from the
gospels and so the rest of the list you have sort of the Lesser
disciples, the ones who are not mentioned earlier in the
gospels, but probably Jesus, still knew them.
So next we have Thomas and so he's famous for doubting Jesus
after his resurrection. James, the son of alphaeus.
Now, this is not the other James.
It's already been mentioned. It's also not the James, the
brother of Jesus. This is a third, James James,
the son of alphaeus. If we put together what we know
from the other Gospels, it appears that James might be the
brother of Levi, the tax collector because they're both
said to be sons of alphaeus. Next, we have 30th and we don't
know much about him at all. He appears to have no lines in
any of the Gospels. And sometimes Thaddeus is called
dude or Judas, but we're not talking about Judas, Iscariot
Simon. The Zealot is listed next.
So a zealot is someone who advocated for political
revolution, in overthrowing the Romans.
So some of the Jews was Alex. They was zealous for Israel and
they advocated political activism basically.
So, it's interesting. Jesus is deliberately picking
man from different places from different jobs and with
different, political Persuasions.
So that tells us a lot about Jesus not having a single mold
for what? He expects an apostle to be like
he picks them from all walks of life and lastly always listed
last is Judas Iscariot. So Iscariot is one of the only
people in the gospels that has a last name.
Iscariot. It could mean that he's from the
village of curiosity. So that's what some Scholars
think. It's a bit of a strange word
though. Iscariot.
Now he's deliberately listed Mart Last by the gospel authors.
So he's considered to be the least Apostle because of what he
does later in his life by betraying Jesus.
So that's your list of Twelve Apostles.
And obviously, there's a lot. You can say about each of the
12. It appears that all 12 of them
were eventually martyred for their faith, except maybe John
the son of Zebedee and they went all over the world after Jesus
died. Eventually they moved all across
the Roman Empire. Thomas for example, went to
India to preach and some of them went to Rome.
So all over the place They certainly did carry out the
mission that Jesus gave them. So let's have a look at the
catechism. There's a few interesting
passages here. You wouldn't think that a list
of 12 names is that insightful in terms of theology but the
Catholic Church considers itself to be founded on the 12 apostles
and The Bishops in the Catholic church are descended from the 12
apostles. So it is quite important that we
that the Catholic Church talks about the apostles.
So in paragraph, five, 51, and 55 to, which is in the
discussion about the Keys of the Kingdom.
It says from the beginning of his public life, Jesus, chose
certain men, twelve in number to be with him and to participate
in his mission. He gives the 12 a share in his
authority and sent them out to preach the kingdom of God.
And to heal Simon Peter holds. The first place in the College
of the 12. Jesus entrusted, a unique
mission to him. And then, in paragraph 7 65,
which is in the section about the church.
The Lord Jesus in doubt, his community with a structure that
will remain until the kingdom is fully achieved before.
All else, there is the choice of the 12 with pita as their head
representing, the 12 tribes of Israel.
They are the foundation stones of the New Jerusalem, the 12 and
the other disciples share in Christ's Mission and his power.
But also in his lot by all his actions Christ prepares, and
builds his church. And then in paragraph 1577, this
is part of the section of the catechism that deals with holy
orders and this paragraph answers, the question who can
receive the sacrament of holy orders.
This is quite a strong teaching as you'll hear hear from the
language. Quote only a baptized man
validly receives sacred ordination unquote.
The Lord Jesus chose men to form the College of The Twelve
Apostles, and the apostles did the same when they chose
collaborators to succeed them in their Ministry.
The College of Bishops with whom the priests are united in the
priesthood, make the College of the 12 and ever present, and
ever active reality, until Christ's return.
The church recognizes herself to be bound by this Choice made by
the Lord himself for this reason, the ordination of women
is not possible. So that's in paragraph 1577.
So as you can see that Catholic Church does see this list of
Twelve Apostles and their role in preaching, the kingdom as
quite significant in the church's own mission.
Okay. Thanks for listening.
Hope you learned something new from the list of Twelve Apostles
and will continue with Mark chapter 3 tomorrow.