answersLogoWhite

0

Most of them were hard working fisherman who love and revered God in their Hebrew faith.

Answer

Contrary to the above, we know for sure that only two of the twelve disciples were fishermen, and another two sons of a fisherman.

Simon (later renamed Peter) and Andrew his brother were rough, tough fishermen before meeting Jesus. We also know that Peter was a married man as we are told that Jesus healed his mother-in-law - but we are not told the name of Peter's wife.

James and his brother John were sons of Zebedee - a fisherman. in the days when life expectancy was only around 45. this meant that if Zebedee was still an active fisherman, and, therefore, still young, James and John would be no more than teenagers when they met Jesus. They probably would not have had a career at that time, although it is probable that they would have followed in their father's footsteps and become fishermen themselves.

Matthew (Levi) was a hated tax collector. Tax collectors were hated as they were in cahoots with the Roman occupying army and collected money for them. They often swindled their own countrymen to make a lot more money than they were paid by the Romans. On hearing Jesus call to him 'Follow me' we are told that Matthew left his booth there and then and followed him, never to return to his evil ways.

Simon the Zealot, from Canaan, as his name implies, was a political activist who wanted to see the Romans out of Judaea. Other than that little is recorded in the gospels about him.

Judas Iscariot was the 'keeper of the purse' (ie the treasurer) of the 12 disciples. Some have inferred from this that he had a previous life to do with accountancy, but there is no evidence in the gospels of this.

Thomas was called 'didymis' meaning 'a twin'. Therefore he had a twin brother somewhere but he is not recorded in the gospels.

As for ther other disciples, Philip, James the son of Alpheus, Bartholemew and Thaddeus we are not told about them before they met Jesus. Nor are we told anything about Matthias, the apostle chosen to replace Judas Iscariot after his suicide out of remorse for betraying Jesus.

The only other 'apostle', Paul, was not one of the 12 but is still regarded as an apostle as he met the risen Christ on the Damascus Road, and founded many churches across the Roman Empire. Paul was born in Tarsus, on the south coast of Turkey and was both a Jew and a Roman citizen. He was a tent-maker by trade. Paul was also trained in Jewish law by the great teacher Gamaliel and became a high-ranking Jewish official and Pharisee in Jerusalem. before his conversion to follow Christ, he was a persecutor of Christians, and we are told that he (using the Jewish version of his name 'Saul') was present when Stephen, the first Christian martyr, was stoned to death for his faith, and looked on with approval.

Apart from Paul, who was highly educated, the others would have had a basic education in the Mosaic Law and in their Hebrew faith. This does not mean to say that they were unintelligent - those who went on to write Biblical books (like the letters of Peter and John, and the gospels of Matthew and John) showed a high degree of intelligence - but they would not have had the sort of education that we would take for granted today. nevertheless, Jesus saw qualities in all of these people that many others missed - qualities that, with the help of the Holy Spirit, turned them from a motley crew into the greatest evangelistic team that the world has ever known.

User Avatar

Wiki User

13y ago

What else can I help you with?