How did the 12 disciples of Christ die?

Answer 1

A:Apart from James, son of Zebedee (brother of John), and Judas Iscariot, The Bible does not tell us how any of the disciples died.

Acts 12:1-2 says that James was put to death by sword by the order of Herod.

Matthew 27:5 says that Judas threw down the silver in the Temple and went and hanged himself. The priests took the blood money and bought the potter's field, which they called the field of blood. Acts 1:18 has a different story, that Judas bought a field with the reward of iniquity, and fell headlong, bursting asunder and all his bowels gushed out. Because of this, the field was called the field of blood. In other words, neither Matthew nor Luke knew how Judas Iscariot died, but Matthew seems to have got his story from the Book of Zechariah.

Various traditions have grown up around the supposed deaths of other disciples, but there is no evidence that supports those traditions. Here are some of these:

Peter - widely believed to have been either beheaded or crucified (upside down) in Rome.

Matthew - arrested in Ethiopia and there nailed to the ground with short spears and beheaded.

John - John faced martyrdom when he was boiled in a huge basin of boiling oil during a wave of persecution in Rome. However, he was miraculously delivered from death. John was then sentenced to the mines on the prison island of Patmos. He wrote his prophetic Book of Revelation on Patmos. The Apostle John was later freed and returned to what is now modern-day Turkey. He died as an old man, the only apostle to die peacefully.

James, the brother of Jesus (not officially an apostle) - thrown over a hundred feet down from the southeast pinnacle of the Temple when he refused to deny his faith in Christ. When they discovered that he survived the fall, his enemies beat him to death with a club. This was the same pinnacle where Satan had taken Jesus during the temptation.

Bartholomew, also know as Nathanael - a missionary to Asia, he witnessed in present-day Turkey and was martyred for his preaching in Armenia, when he was flayed to death by a whip.

Andrew - was crucified on an x-shaped cross in Greece.

Thomas - stabbed with a spear in India during one of his missionary trips to establish the church there.

Matthias (the apostle chosen to replace the traitor Judas Iscariot) - stoned and then beheaded.

Paul - tortured and then beheaded by the evil Emperor Nero at Rome in A.D. 67.

There are traditions regarding the other apostles as well, but none with any reliable historical or traditional support.

St. James (son of Zebedee) was beheaded by King Herod in Palestine.

St. Philip was crucified.

St. James the Less (son of Aphaeus) was thrown from the pinnacle of the temple at Jerusalem and dispatched with a club where he fell, or crucified or stoned.

St. Simon was crucified.

St. Jude was "cruelly put to death" by the Magi of Persia, or crucified.

It is not so important how the apostles died. What is important is the fact that they were all willing to die for their faith. If Jesus had not been resurrected, the disciples would have known. No one will die for something he knows is a lie. The fact that all of the apostles were willing to die horrible deaths, refusing to renounce their faith in Christ - is tremendous evidence that they had truly witnessed the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

A:We do not know how any of the disciples died. Even Judas, the only disciple whose death is mentioned in the Bible seems to have died in two quite different ways:

• In Matthew's Gospel, Judas returned the money to the priests and then hanged himself. They bought a piece of land for the burial of Gentiles.
• In Acts of the Apostles, Judas did not return the money, bought himself some land with the money, but fell down headlong and died.

Many traditions grew up in the second and third centuries about the glorious and noble deaths of the disciples, but none seems to be based on fact. If even the biblical record, written within a hundred years of the supposed event, contains contradictions about the death of Judas, then these traditions should be considered as no more than pious preachings, designed to enhance the status of the disciples.
A:
Roman Catholics believe they were all martyred excepted for John who died a natural death.

Answer 2

According to tradition and historical records:

• Peter was crucified upside down
• Andrew was crucified on an X-shaped cross
• James (son of Zebedee) was beheaded
• John died of natural causes
• Philip was crucified
• Bartholomew was flayed alive and then beheaded
• Matthew was stabbed to death
• Thomas was speared to death
• James (son of Alphaeus) was stoned to death
• Thaddaeus was killed with arrows
• Simon the Zealot was crucified
• Judas Iscariot hanged himself

Answer 3

Although many fanciful traditions about the deaths of the apostles grew up over the centuries, we do not really know how any of them died, but tradition says that the apostle John died of natural causes as an old man. However, we do not really know how John died.

Answer 4

AnswerApart from Judas Iscariot, the Bible does not tell us how or where any of the disciples died.

Matthew 27:5 says that Judas threw down the silver in the Temple and went and hanged himself. The priests took the blood money and bought the potter's field, which they called the field of blood. Acts 1:18 has a different story, that Judas bought a field with the reward of iniquity, and fell headlong, bursting asunder and all his bowels gushed out. Because of this, the field was called the field of blood. In other words, neither Matthew nor Luke knew how Judas Iscariot died, but Matthew seems to have got his story from the Book of Zechariah. The Acts account says that he died by misadventure in the field that he bought, but in Matthew's account, he could have committed suicide anywhere.

Various imaginative traditions have grown up around the supposed deaths of other disciples, but there is no evidence that supports those traditions. So, for example, Peter is widely believed to have been either beheaded or crucified (upside down) in Rome. However, Clement of Rome, writing around 95 CE (1 Clement), spoke in general terms about the life and death of Peter but appears to have been unaware that he had even visited Rome. Thomas might have died in India, but another tradition says that he might have died in Parthia.

Answer 5

Another answer from our community:

according to the writings of hippolytus, a roman historian, only the following disciples died a martyr's death: peter, Andrew, James son of alphaeus, Philip, bartholomew, thomas, and James son of zebedee. this leaves out john, whom we know died of natural causes from these same writings of hippolytus. we know Judas hanged himself according to Matthew 27:5. so we are left with the question of how Matthew, thaddeus, and Simon the zealot died. hippolytus says they "fell asleep" as he says of john, indicating they died of natural causes.

According to tradition:

- Simon Peter was crucified upside down.

- Philip was also crucified upside down.

- Batholomew was flayed alive and then crucified upside down.

- Andrew was crucified on an X-shaped cross.

- James (son of Zebedee) was executed by sword.

- James (son of Alphaeus) was crucified and the body sawed to pieces.

- John died of natural causes.

- Matthew was possibly murdered.

- Simon the Canaanite was executed by saw.

- Judas Thomas was executed by spear.

- Judas Iscariot hanged himself.

- The details of the death of Jude (Thaddaeus) are unknown.

What became of the Twelve Apostles?

The New Testament, a portion of which is admitted to have been written as late as the latter part of the first century and nearly all of which was really written in the second century, is silent regarding them. Christian martyrology records their fates as follows:

• St. Peter was crucified, at his own request head downward, and buried in the Vatican at Rome.

• St. Andrew, after having been scourged seven times upon his naked body, was crucified by the proconsul of Achaia.

• St. James was beheaded by Herod Antipas in Palestine.

• St. John was "thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil" by Domitian, but God "delivered him."

• St. Philip was scourged and crucified or hanged by the magistrates of Hierapolis.

• St. Bartholomew was put to death by a Roman governor in Armenia.

• St. Matthew suffered martyrdom at Naddabar in Ethiopia.

• St. Thomas was shot to death with arrows by the Brahmans in India.

• St. James the Less was thrown from the pinnacle of the temple at Jerusalem and dispatched with a club where he fell.

• St. Simon was "crucified and buried" in Britain.

• St. Jude was "cruelly put to death" by the Magi of Persia.

• St. Matthias, the successor of Judas Iscariot, if Christian tradition is to be credited, was put to death three times, crucified, stoned, and beheaded.

Acts of the Apostles mentions the imprisonment and miraculous release of Peter, but does not say anything about his subsequent death, even though the book was written around the end of the century, long after Peter would have died. A second-century tradition was that he was beheaded, while a later tradition was that Peter was crucified upside down. In fact, the Story in Acts is dubious at best, and the later traditions have no evidence to support them. Another second-century tradition is that Paul was executed in Rome, on the orders of Nero. The death of James by stoning is attested by the first-century Jewish historian, Josephus, and is considered likely to have been historically true.

At the time of Tertullian and Clement of Alexandria, martyrdom was confined to St. Peter, St. Paul, and St. James, although only the death of James was supported by some form of real evidence. Over the course of time, the rest of the disciples were gradually discovered by the more recent Greeks to have been martyred, but always in some remote country beyond the Roman Empire, where proof to the contrary could never be ascertained. Apart from these traditions, we have no evidence for the fates of the disciples.

James the son of Alphaeus was beaten to death with a club, Matthew was killed with a Halberd, Simon was crucified, Peter was crucified upside down, Bartholomew beaten, skinned alive and beheaded, Andrewwas crucified on a cross shaped like the letter "x" with 2 ends buried deep in the ground, Philip was crucified, James the son of Zebedee was beheaded, had a spear thrust through him, John died at a very old age of natural causes.

According to the writings of Hippolytus, a roman historian, only the following disciples died a martyr's death: peter, Andrew, James son of alphaeus, Philip, bartholomew, thomas, and James son of zebedee. this leaves out john, whom we know died of natural causes from these same writings of hippolytus. we know Judas hanged himself according to Matthew 27:5. so we are left with the question of how Matthew, thaddeus, and Simon the zealot died. hippolytus says they "fell asleep" as he says of john, indicating they died of natural causes.

• Judas hanged himself
• James Bar Zebedee was beheaded - "put to the sword".
• Phillip was martyred at Heliopolis, but it is not specified exactly how he died.
• Matthew - some stories say he was impaled with a halberd in Ethiopia, but there is no evidence to verify this. Little is really known of what happened to him.
• Andrew was crucified at Patras in Achaia. Later traditions describe him as having been crucified in a spread-eagled position, and it is from this that Scotland derived its St. Andrew's cross.
• Matthias (Judas' substitute) - there is no evidence of what happened to him. Some stories say he may have been stoned and/or beheaded in Jerusalem, but this is pure speculation.
• Peter was crucified upside down - he requested this, saying that he was unworthy to die in the same manner as his Lord.
• Jude a.k.a. Thaddaeus, tends to be confused with stories of Jude, one of the brothers of Jesus. He may have been crucified in Edessa - or he may have been martyred with Simon the Zealot.
• Bartholomew/Nathanael was beaten, possibly skinned alive, and crucified in either India or at Baku, north of the Caspian Sea.
• Simon the Zealot - tradition states he was crucified in Britain or hacked to death, but again there is no evidence to verify this.
• Thomas (the doubter) was impaled with a spear.
• John the brother of James bar Zebedee was banished to Patmos, and later recalled to Rome. He died of old age and natural causes.
• James, son of Alphaeus, was apparently martyred in Egypt - actual details unknown.

Others who suffered death, but were apostles, and not actually any of the 12 disciples include:

• Stephen, the first Christian martyr, was stoned to death
• Luke, the Doctor Who travelled with Paul, may have been hanged from an olive tree in Greece, but there is no evidence to verify this.
• Paul was beheaded in Rome following many years of imprisonment.
• Mark, also known as John-Mark, was dragged to death by the citizens of Alexandria.
• James Bar Joseph was possibly beaten, stoned, and bludgeoned to death with a club.

Answer 6

Peter was crucified

Andrew was crucified

James was killed by the sword

John died a natural death

Philip was crucified

Bartholomew was crucified

Thomas was killed by the spear

Matthew was killed by the sword

James was crucified

Thaddaeus was killed by arrows

Simon was crucified

Answer 7

Apart from Judas Iscariot, the Bible does not tell us how any of the disciples died.

Matthew 27:5 says that Judas threw down the silver in the Temple and went and hanged himself. The priests took the blood money and bought the potter's field, which they called the field of blood. Acts 1:18 has a different story, that Judas bought a field with the reward of iniquity, and fell headlong, bursting asunder and all his bowels gushed out. Because of this, the field was called the field of blood. In other words, neither Matthew nor Luke knew how Judas Iscariot died, but Matthew seems to have got his story from the Book of Zechariah.

Various traditions have grown up around the supposed deaths of other disciples, but there is no evidence that supports those traditions. So, for example, Peter is widely believed to have been either beheaded or crucified (upside down) in Rome. Another story is that Matthew was allocated to evangelise Ethiopia and there he was arrested while he stood teaching in his church and was nailed to the ground with short spears and beheaded.

Answer 8

He was either beheaded or crucified upside down.

Answer 9

Peter one of the 12 disciple's died just like Jesus, on a cross but Peter thought that he was not worthy to die the same way as Jesus so he was hung on the cross upside down.

Answer 10

Most of the apostles died as martyrs, many were put on the cross or beheaded, but john died on the island of Patmos in old age.