13 And he went up on the mountain, and called to him those whom he desired; and they came to him.
Verses thirteen to nineteen of chapter three is Mark’s rendition of the picking of the twelve apostles, the inner circle of Jesus’ followers. Jesus is most likely still in the region of Galilee, the Lake is surrounded with pastures, hills and mountains. Jesus goes upon hills and mountains typically before doing something important in his ministry and also just like Moses who on the mountain officialises the twelve tribes of Israel, Jesus appoints the new twelve.
14 And he appointed twelve, to be with him, and to be sent out to preach
He appoints twelve, who are to be “with him” and they are “to be sent out” to preach. The Greek word for “to be sent out” is apostello, it is from this word that Apostle is derived. The twelve that are picked are to be sent out to preach, this would be the same message that Jesus has been preaching himself. It seems some type of permission is required in order to preach the specific message of the Kingdom of God when it is done in an official way. Anyone can share news but only an official messenger could pass on actual proclamations of a king with authority. So in the picking out to preach Jesus shares his authority with the twelve along with other things
15 and have authority to cast out demons:
Beyond the scope of preaching authority of the Kingdom of God the twelve are also granted the authority to cast out demons. There were many exorcists around this time and exorcism was not unknown to the Hebrew people. The difference is that exorcists of the time required the exorcist to petition intercessors like the angels, patriarchs and they were not always successful whereas the exorcisms performed by Jesus are done by his own authority. This is what is being shared with the disciples though their abilities are constrained by their faith which will be exposed when they are unable to exorcise a possessed child.
16 Simon whom he surnamed Peter;
The list begins, although there are a few different middle orders of the Apostles when they listed the first and last are always the same. It always begins with Saint Peter, the primary apostle, the leader of the pack. Here Mark introduces him as “Simon whom he surnamed Peter;” Simon is the Latinised version of the Hebrew name Shim’on which would have been his “real” name. It means “hearing” or “he has heard”. He is the first by primacy to “hear the lord” which is quite interesting. He is surnamed “Peter” which is the Anglicised version of Petros which is the name he receives in the Greek text. This means “rock” or “stone”. This name change entails his new mission as the foundation stone of the Church.
17 James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James, whom he surnamed Bo-anerges, that is, sons of thunder;
Verse 17 contains the two sons of Zebedee, they are always grouped together because they are siblings and typically come after Simon as they are of the inner circle of the twelve. James is derived from the Hebrew Ya’aqov which is traditionally translated as “Jacob”. This means the “supplanter” or “holder of the heal”. It was a very common name as it was the birth name of Israel. Ironically he will be “supplanted” by James the Just as a pillar of the early church after he is martyred, he is the first of the twelve to suffer such a fate in Acts 12.
John the brother of James, his name is derived from the Hebrew Yochanan which means “Yahweh is gracious” or “Yahweh has shown favour” rather fitting as he is the beloved disciple that Jesus shows the most amount of affection toward. He is also the only one of the twelve to stay by Jesus at the crucifixion and not suffer martyrdom.
The two brothers are surnamed “Bo-anerges” and Mark gives us the translation which is “son of thunder”. This name possibly indicates their disposition of being impulsive which definitely comes across in their desire to rain fire down from heaven on Samaritans. It also speaks to their religious zeal. Bo-anerges is actually a Greek transliteration of an Aramaic phrase, every so often in the Gospels we get evidences of the original language of our Lord and this is one of those cases. B’nei Regesh means “Sons of Thunder” and it sounds awfully similar to the Greek that Mark writes out.
18 Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Cananaean,
Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus and Simon the Cananaean are listed next in verse 18.
Andrew is the brother of Simon Peter, Andrew’s name is curious, he is a blood relative of Simon so he is definitely a Jew but his name is Greek. Andrew is the Anglicised version of Andreas which means “Manly” or “Brave”. There was a similar sounding Hebrew name “Andrei” but typically when names are expressed in other languages in this time period its the meaning that is maintained, not the sound. Think Petros and Cephas, the meaning is the same, not the sound. Andrei does not mean the same as Andreas, the most likely candidate for Andrew’s Hebrew name would be Gibbor it means the same as Andreas and at least in one occurrence in the Hebrew Bible it is used as a name instead of just a description. Specifically it is the name of one of King David’s mighty men. Seeing David as a type of Christ I think this would be fitting but its purely speculation on my part.
Philip, similar to Andrew, his name is Greek Philippos, a very common name in the Hellenistic world and it means “Lover of Horses”. Philos means friend or lover and Hippos means Horse. Like Andrew there is no direct Hebrew or Aramaic equivalent. There are also no traditional Hebrew names that have the same meaning but there was a term that in Hebrew that had similar connotations, Parash. This Hebrew term means Horseman and if you were to write it out in Greek it would look somewhat similar but again, pure speculation.
Bartholomew, Bartholomaios in Greek is derived from the Aramaic Bar-Talmai which would mean “Son of Talmai”. The term “Bar” means “Son of” so when you see that elsewhere, you know what it means. No first name is given, he is simply known as the Son of Talmai, considering how common the same first names of people were it made sense to use other identifiers to split people other. For example, there are a lot of James’ and Mary’s so places or parental roots are used to distinguish them. Talmai means “furrowed” or “plowman” and if the name was a descriptor of the occupation of his father then he was Son of a Farmer essentially. Very humble beginnings.
Matthew is up next, the tax collector also known as Levi. Matthew appears to be his Greek name originally Matthaios and Levi is his Hebrew name. Levi means “Joined” or “attached” and Mattaios is actually a Greek version of the Hebrew name Mattityahu which means “Gift of Yahweh”. Considering Levi was a tribal name, his full name was likely Mattityahu of the Tribe of Levi, he Greco-fide his first name to sound more Greek because he was typically working with Romans who spoke that language. If he was of the tribe of Levi that would have meant he was of priestly lineage, this means his occupation as a tax collector was even more of a betrayal than it was perceived to be.
Doubting Thomas comes next, like many of the previous names his is very curious. Thomas is a Greek name, derived from the Aramaic Ta’oma which means “Twin”. He is sometimes referred to as the twin as well so he is being called a twin twice. In Greek names that end with an “a” are feminine names like “Petra” over “Petros”, you add the “s” at the end to make it masculine so you get Ta’omas or what we say today, Thomas. The Greek word Didymus is used which is the Greek term for Twin. Although his original Aramaic name meant Twin, it was actually a name probably given to him because he was a twin sibling, not because of the various conspiracy theories that abound over it that have zero evidence behind them. No other names are given for him in the New Testament.
James the Son of Alphaeus, as we have mentioned before, James is the translation choice for name traditionally translated at Jacob, Son of Alphaeus, his lineage is mentioned to distinguish him from the other James’ mentioned in the New Testament. Alphaeus might be derived from the Aramaic name Chalpai, which means “changing” or “succession”. He is also referred to as James the Less, to separate him from James the Just, and James the Greater.
Thaddaeus follows, which is Thaddaios in Greek, likely derived from the Aramaic “Taddai” which means “Heart” or “courageous”. Some manuscripts give him an alternate name of Jude which is a translator decision over the ominous name “Judas”. Sometimes called Judas Son of James. The name Judas comes from Ioudas in Greek, derived from the hebrew Yehudah which means “praised” or “thanksgiving” a very common name among the Hebrews and was the same name as Judah, the royal tribe. I mentioned the translator decision about his name, people were worried early on about people confusing Judas Thaddaeus with Judas Iscariot so a tradition was established to call him by Jude or just Thaddaeus to avoid this confusion but if you care for autistic accuracy, his name actually is Judas in the original text.
Simon the Cananaean or Simon the Zealot is the last of the “good” apostles on the list. His primary name, Simon, has already been explained. Cananaean should not be confused with Caananites or Caanan, it is actually derived from the Aramaic word Qan’ana which means, Zealot, the other name used for him. This could mean one of two things, or more likely it means both at the same time. This Simon was zealous for the love and Law of God and he was also a member of the militant rebel faction of Jews against Roman rule who were called the Zealots. They were essentially terrorists and their group would later instigate various attacks that caused the Romans to outright obliterate Jerusalem in 70 AD.
19 and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
Finally Judas Iscariot, the Apostle who betrays Jesus is listed lasted and is always listed last with commentary detailing why he is listed last. Because he betrays Jesus. Judas as we have said is the same name as Judah, derived from the Hebrew Yehudah, meaning “praised” or “thanksgiving”. Judas specifically is the Greek rendition of Judah, again as I mentioned with Thomas, an “a” or “ah” sound at the end of the name in Greek is feminine so an “s” sound is added to make it masculine in the Hellenistic world. His last name is widely debated, the most common theory is that Iscariot comes from the Hebrew Ish Qeriyot which means Man of Kerioth, Kerioth was a town in Judea so it could be a geographical distinction of origin. Another theory is that Iscariot comes from the Latin Sicarius meaning “dagger man” or “assassin”, this would associate Judas with a group of Jewish rebels who called themselves the “sicarii”, similar to the Zealots they were revolutionary terrorists against roman rule. The last theory, from some early church writers suggest that Iscariot meant “false one” or “liar” but that is based on Judas’ actions, not on linguistic evidence.
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