The Original Disciples Series

Thomas. After the resurrection of the Lord Christ Jesus, Thomas went to Babylon; it is believed that he established the first Christian church there. He is known to have traveled to Persia and China. He reached India around 49 AD, preaching the Gospel leading to many converts. The apostle Thomas is said to have been a fearless evangelist and a great builder of churches. He preached to all classes of people and had about 17,000 converts. According to ancient church traditions, Thomas evangelized this area and then crossed to the coast of southeast India, where, after carrying out a second mission, he suffered martyrdom (he was killed with a lance. It is believed that he died on 21 December, 72 AD.

Simon. The apostle Simon (the Zealot) is somewhat of a biblical enigma. We have only minor snippets of biblical information about him, which has led to the ongoing debate among Bible scholars. Simon left Jerusalem and traveled first to Egypt and then through North Africa to Carthage. From there he went to Spain and then north to Britain. There is a Church tradition that says that he, along with the apostle Jude, were thought to have preached together in Syria and Mesopotamia traveling as far as Persia. Both were believed to have been martyred. Simon being sawed in half and Jude being martyred with a lance ax (halberd.) A different tradition infers Simon was crucified by the Romans in Caistor, Britain, and subsequently buried there on May 10, circa 61 AD.

James, son of Alphaeus. James is often referred to as the lessor James, mentioned only three times in the Bible, each time in connection with his mother Mary. We know he lived at least five years after the death of Christ because of mentions in the Bible. James was stoned to death in Jerusalem for preaching Christ and buried by the Sanctuary. Not much is known about the latter ministry of this apostle. It is said that the seeds of Syrian Christianity had been sown in Jerusalem during the Apostolic age. A contention has been made that the first bishop of the Syrian church was none other than St. James of the Twelve Apostles, identified as ‘St. James the Less’. James died in 62 AD when was arrested along with some other Christians for preaching the Gospel. He was executed by King Herod Agrippa, in the persecution of the church, in Lower Egypt. According to tradition, James, son of Alphaeus, was thrown down from the temple by the scribes and Pharisees; he was then stoned, and his brains dashed out with a fuller’s club which has flesh-tearing insets on the heavy end.

Jude, also known as Thaddaeus, is mentioned rarely in the New Testament. The Gospel of John mentions a disciple named “Judas, not Iscariot” (John 14:22). This is often accepted to be the same person as the apostle Jude, though some scholars see the identification as uncertain. In some Latin manuscripts of Matthew, he is called Judas the Zealot. After the ascension of Jesus, Jude was one of the first apostles to leave Jerusalem for a foreign country. In fact, it is believed that Jude was one of the first apostles to witness directly to a Gentile king. Jude is believed to have evangelized the area of Armenia associated with the city of Edessa, in the company perhaps of the apostle Bartholomew, and for a brief time, with the apostle Thomas. One may also believe that Jude spent years evangelizing in Syria and northern Persia. It is likely that he was martyred there and buried in Kara Kalisa near the Caspian Sea, about 40 miles from Tabriz, in modern-day Iran. According to the Armenian tradition, Saint Jude suffered martyrdom in AD 65.