• Overview
    • Apostles – disciples, but more than that
    • Where they came from
    • Their selection
    • What and how they learned
    • What was their function?
    • Where did they go?
    • What we know and what we don’t know
    • Apostolic succession
    • Veneration of apostles and saints
  • What is an apostle?
    • Apostle or disciple? Matthew 10:1-2; 20:17; 26:20
      • Squares and rectangles
        • Apostle = ambassador (apostle: one chosen and sent)
        • Apostles were disciples
        • Not all disciples were apostles
        • Not all apostles were apostles – Acts 13:1-3; 14:14
          • Barnabas and Paul were listed as apostles here because they were specifically sent on a limited commission to preach the gospel. This does not mean that Barnabas was now one of the twelve apostles.
    • Where did they come from?
      • Humble or despised means
        • Fishermen
        • Tax collectors
        • Political radicals
      • From where did the wise come?
        • Jerusalem
        • Babylon – Matthew 2:1-2
      • Why did God not choose the wise?
        • Luke 10:21-24
        • Most of the apostles not from Jerusalem or Babylon
        • Not from among the rabbis or scribes or other scholars
        • What can I teach a scholar?
        • What can I teach an infant?
    • Really, where from?
      • Don’t know physical origins of all
        • Peter, Andrew, Phillip, Bartholomew (Nathanael) – Bethsaida (John 1:43-51)
        • Peter, Andrew – Capernaum (WHAT?) (Mark 1:21-22, 29; Luke 4:31-32, 38)
        • Where was Jesus from?
          • Bethlehem? Nazareth? Capernaum? Matthew 4:13
        • James and John, sons of Zebedee – by the Sea of Galilee (Matthew 4:18-22)
        • Matthew – Capernaum (Matthew 9:9)
        • Paul (Saul) – Tarsus
        • Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Judas (not Iscariot), Simon the Zealot, Judas Iscariot, Matthias – Unknown
  • Coming weeks
    • When the apostles were just disciples
    • Choosing the apostles
    • Schooling the apostles
    • Duties of the apostles
    • Tradition and history
    • Veneration of apostles and saints
    • Apostolic succession