page_title: Apostles
section_title: Calling by Jesus
hierarchical_section_title: Apostles / Biblical narratives / Calling by Jesus
caption_attribution_description: Fishing for souls: allegory of the jealousy between the various religious denominations during the Twelve Years Truce (1609-1621) between the Dutch Republic and Spain. A river landscape with large numbers of people standing on either side of the river. In the river are several rowing boats. In the sky a rainbow is visible. The group of people on the left side are protestants with their patrons, the prices of Orange, Maurice and Frederick Henry, Frederick V of the Palatinate, James I of England and a youthful Louis XIII of France with his mother, Marie de' Medici. The rowing boat on the foreground contains protestant 'fishermen' with fishing nets marked with the words Fides, Spes and Charitas (Faith, Hope and Love). The group of people on the right are catholics with their patrons, Albert and Isabella, general Ambrosio Spinola and the pope being carried by cardinals. In the catholic boat priest are 'fishing', while being overseen by a bishop.
context_page_description: In Christian theology and ecclesiology, apostles, particularly the Twelve Apostles, were the primary disciples of Jesus according to the New Testament. In addition to Christian theology, Islamic theology also acknowledges the apostles in the Quran. During the life and ministry of Jesus in the 1st century AD, the apostles were his closest followers and became the primary teachers of the gospel message of Jesus.
  While Christian tradition often refers to the apostles as being twelve in number, different gospel writers give different names for the same individual, and apostles mentioned in one gospel are not mentioned in others. There is also an Eastern Christian tradition derived from the Gospel of Luke of there having been as many as 70 apostles during the time of Jesus' ministry. Paul is often referred to as an apostle because in the narrative of Acts, he was directly taught and commissioned by a vision of Christ during his journey to Damascus. The commissioning of the Twelve Apostles during the ministry of Jesus is recorded in the Synoptic Gospels. After his resurrection, Jesus sent eleven of them by the Great Commission to spread his teachings to all nations.
context_section_description: The three Synoptic Gospels record the circumstances in which some of the disciples were recruited, Matthew only describing the recruitment of Simon, Andrew, James, and John. All three Synoptic Gospels state that these four were recruited fairly soon after Jesus returned from being tempted by the devil.
  Despite Jesus only briefly requesting that they join him, they are all described as immediately consenting, and abandoning their nets to do so. The immediacy of their consent has been viewed as an example of divine power, although this is not stated in the text. The more ordinary explanation is that Jesus was friends with them beforehand, as implied by the Gospel of John, which states that  Peter (Simon) and Andrew were disciples of John the Baptist, and started following Jesus as soon as Jesus had been baptized.
  Albright and Mann extrapolate from Simon's and Andrew's abandonment of their nets that Matthew is emphasizing the importance of renunciation by converting to Christianity, since fishing was profitable, although required large start-up costs, and abandoning everything would have been an important sacrifice. Regardless, Simon and Andrew's abandonment of what were effectively their most important worldly possessions has been taken as a model by later Christian ascetics.
  Matthew describes Jesus meeting James and John, also fishermen and brothers, very shortly after recruiting Simon and Andrew. Matthew and Mark identify James and John as sons of Zebedee. Luke adds to Matthew and Mark that James and John worked as a team with Simon and Andrew. Matthew states that at the time of the encounter, James and John were repairing their nets, but readily joined Jesus without hesitation.
  This parallels the accounts of Mark and Luke, but Matthew implies that the men have also abandoned their father (since he is present in the boat they abandon behind them), and Carter feels this should be interpreted to mean that Matthew's view of Jesus is one of a figure rejecting the traditional patriarchal structure of society, where the father had command over his children; most scholars, however, just interpret it to mean that Matthew intended these two to be seen as even more devoted than the other pair, or that Jesus expected the imminent coming of the kingdom.
  The Synoptic Gospels go on to describe that later in Jesus' ministry he noticed a tax collector in his booth. The tax collector, called Matthew in Matthew 9:9, Levi in Mark 2:14 and Luke 5:27, is asked by Jesus to become one of his disciples. Matthew/Levi is stated to have accepted and then invited Jesus for a meal with his friends. Tax collectors were seen as villains in Jewish society, and the Pharisees are described as asking Jesus why he is having a meal with such disreputable people. The reply Jesus gave is now well known: "it is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."
caption: Adriaen van de Venne's Fishers of Men. Oil on panel, 1614
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