Andrew

Andrew was Simon Peter’s brother. Like his brother, he was a fisherman.

**Fun fact:** Andrew’s name is *Andreas* in Greek, and it’s most often translated as “manly.” It comes from the root word *aner* or *andros,* meaning “man.”

## In the Gospels

According to the Gospel of John, Andrew was the FIRST disciple Jesus called, and while Peter gets all the credit for recognizing Jesus as the Messiah (Mattew 16:13–20), Andrew not only brought Peter to Jesus, but he *told him Jesus was the Messiah*.

In John’s gospel, it’s pretty clear where Peter first got the idea that Jesus was the Messiah:

But that’s kind of the story of Andrew’s life. Whenever he and Peter are mentioned together, Andrew is *always* mentioned second, and he’s referred to as Peter’s brother—but Peter is never referred to as *Andrew’s* brother, indicating that Andrew was either younger or less important.

Before he was called by Jesus Christ, Andrew was actually a disciple of Jesus’ cousin, John the Baptist:

Interestingly, the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) don’t give us this account of Andrew’s calling. Instead, they suggest Andrew was called at the same time as Peter, James, and John, when they were either fishing or cleaning their nets. (Luke never actually mentions Andrew being there, though.) Many would say this represents an obvious contradiction in the Bible, but it’s also possible for both of these accounts to be true. (One just had to happen first.)

In John’s account of the feeding of the 5,000 (John 6:1–15), Andrew is the disciple who finds the boy with five loaves of bread and two fish. Apparently John was the only gospel writer who cared enough to give him a shout-out for that.

Later, when a group of Greeks wanted to see Jesus, they came to Philip, and for whatever reason, Philip deferred the decision to Andrew.

In Mark 13, Peter, James, John, and Andrew share a private moment with Jesus and ask him about the destruction of the temple (Mark 13:3–4). Since Peter, James, and John are clearly Jesus’ closest disciples, this suggests Andrew was pretty important to Jesus, too. This, plus the fact that Philip wanted Andrew to decide what to do about the Greeks in John 12, could indicate that Andrew held a position of leadership among the disciples.

## Apocryphal Works and Legend

The Bible doesn’t tell us much else about Andrew. And while there’s plenty of church tradition to fill in details about his life and ministry, much of it is rooted in legends and apocryphal texts that were written about him later. However, Eusebius of Caesarea, the father of church history tells us that Origen (a scholar from the second and third century) claimed Andrew was sent to Scythia (an ancient region in central Eurasia).

In the noncanonical Acts of Andrew, Andrew later goes on to raise the dead, magically defeat entire armies, escaping wild animals, and rescuing a fellow apostle from cannibals.

According to *Acts of Andrew* (an apocryphal text), he hung on his X-shaped cross for three days, preaching the entire time.

## Death

Tradition claims Andrew was crucified in the Greek city of Patras around 60 AD, and that like Peter, he didn’t consider himself worthy of dying the same way as Jesus. Instead, he was bound to an X shaped cross, which became a symbol known as Saint Andrew’s Cross. According to *Acts of Andrew* (an apocryphal text), he hung there for three days, preaching the entire time.