Did Jesus Actually Have 12 Disciples?

Fact #5: Jesus Had Disciples

Photo by Ben Matheson on Unsplash

If you have been following along, we are journeying through a group of facts about Jesus that historians largely agree on, and which all of us, whether Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, Jew, or Atheist/Agnostic, should be able to agree on. You can catch up on the series with the links below.

**Fact#1: Jesus Existed**

**Fact #2: Jesus was Born in Nazareth**

**Fact #3: Jesus Had Siblings**

**Fact #4: Jesus Was Baptized by John the Baptist**

The most direct answer to the title question is that there is no consensus on whether Jesus had twelve disciples, but there is little debate that Jesus had disciples and followers, both men and women. Part of the trouble of identification is what exactly is meant by disciple and apostle, and who exactly are the “twelve” that are mentioned in Paul and the gospels. Our earliest mention of “the twelve” comes from Paul in his letter to the Corinthians, and his reference contains interesting historical curiosities. Whether this is pre-Pauline or not, it contains insight into early Christian categories used to differentiate Jesus' followers.

1 Corinthians 15:3–8

3 For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures 4 and that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.

Having already had the gospels inform our reading of this passage, we sort of automatically place the puzzle pieces together. However, if we only had this passage, what could we take from this report on Jesus’ appearances to his followers? Who are “the twelve”? Is Cephas a part of this group or separate? Is he the leader of the group and thus mentioned first? Was this a set number of Jesus followers, or was it a changeable group? James, the brother of Jesus, does not seem to be a part of “the twelve,” and there were more apostles besides “the twelve”, which means that the word apostle is not only designated for “the twelve.”

The synoptic gospels each have lists of twelve disciples with slightly different orderings and names, with an agreement of the inner circle: Peter, James (son of Zebedee), and John (son of Zebedee). There is also the complication of Judas Iscariot, who is mentioned in all the gospels, and only the book of Acts names a replacement. Interestingly, only Mark and John speak of “the twelve” (Mark 6:7, John 6:67 — my kids would have a field day with those references), while Matthew speaks of “the twelve disciples” (Matthew 10:1). Notice there is a lot of ambiguity between Paul and the gospels about who fits into which category.

As you can tell, I think there are a lot of fascinating historical questions that arise from this discussion, and how the characters of the gospels fit into these categories of disciples, apostles, or “the twelve”. For our purposes, we are going to focus on where the historical consensus is regarding the existence of disciples of Jesus. John Meier has a great article “The Circle of the Twelve: Did It Exist During Jesus’ Public Ministry”, where he defines the disciples as those who left their homes to follow Jesus during Jesus’ public ministry. Do scholars mostly agree that Jesus had disciples as defined by Meier? Yes.

The more specific historical debate about Jesus’ disciples is how one views Jesus. If he was a rabbi, there would likely be no women and a more teacher-pupil type relationship. A wisdom teacher may have a more loosely formed group without clear hierarchy. A prophet in the mold of Elijah may have more of a itinerant type of discipleship that keeps a permenant relationship between teacher and disciples.

For instance, John Dominic Crossan viewed Jesus as a non-apocalyptic wisdom teacher who had an egalitarian grouping of disciples. In other words, Crossan does not see a hierarchy within the followers of Jesus, and thus views a specific group of twelve men to be ahistorical. Others like John Meier, Gerd Thiessen, Annette Merz, and Dale Allison see much more of an apocalyptic prophet, and thus a calling of twelve, like the twelve tribes of Israel, makes sense historically.

All of these scholars agree that Jesus had followers during his lifetime, and probably a majority believe that Peter, James, and John formed an inner circle. Most scholars also believe that Jesus had women disciples, even if not part of the twelve disciples. However, further discussion of “the twelve” and who they represented, whether a fixed group or a shifting group, is disputed in biblical scholarship. This leaves us with our fifth historical fact about Jesus that is largely agreed upon…

Fact #5: Jesus Had Disciples (Both Men and Women)