Quest for the Historical Apostles

Jesus selected twelve men to be a special group of His disciples; one, Judas Iscariot, would betray Him and then kill himself in grief. Another witness, Matthias, would take Judas’ place. The promotion and advancement of Christianity began with and was centered on these twelve Apostles, but what can be known about them?

W. Brian Shelton takes the reader on a journey to attempt to understand what was believed about the ultimate fate of the twelve Apostles plus Paul in Quest for the Historical Apostles: Tracing Their Lives and Legacies.

The author tackles the complexities of the task well: the different names which are presented in the different texts; the many competing stories about where the various Apostles ended up and how most of them were martyred; and so on. For each Apostle the author presents what is known about their discipleship, what, if anything, is said about them in the Gospels or Acts; what they did write or what they were purported to have written; and the various stories of ministries in various places. The author concludes each by considering the legacy of the apostle and where it is believed they are buried.

For Peter, James, John, and Paul, the ground covered is pretty familiar. For the rest, generally, not so much. The author attempts to wade through all of the stories which attended to the various apostles but maintained a critical eye: conflations were many, and many of the legends would contradict one another. I appreciated how the author would present the information, considering all primary sources and many of the secondary sources, and then provide a reasonable conclusion, rarely granting the most incredible stories and legends while trying to discover any possible grain of historical truth within the narratives.

Those extremely critical of church tradition and the legends and hagiographies which have attended to the Apostles will most likely not be persuaded or impressed. But if you are interested in considering the legacies of each Apostle and the claims which attended to them, this is a great introductory resource.