SEARCH FOR THE 12 APOSTLES #2

Search for the TWELVE Apostles

The World of the Apostles

by McBirnie Ph.D.

CHAPTER ONE

     A STRONG TIDE of optimism had begun to well up throughout

the vast reaches of the Roman Empire as the year 30 A.D. dawned.

Tiberius Caesar in his palace on Capri did not know it, but a new

force was being born that would one day inherit the empire. 

(Rome was inherited by the force of the false Christianity that

would rise to power after the first century - Keith Hunt)

 

     Under the iron grip of Augustus, the successor to Julius

Caesar, peace, even if the oppressive peace of a total conquest,

had come to be an accepted way of life for the people of the

Roman Empire.

The "Pax Romana"

     There were spots of local rebellion which grew hot from time

to time, but there was absolutely no doubt that Rome was the

saddle that was securely strapped on to Europe, North Africa and

Asia Minor. Augustus and his successor, Tiberius, sat long and

firmly in that saddle. Any client king who doubted it, or

rebellious province which had the temerity to challenge Caesar,

soon found out with bloodshed, just who rode the world. Further,

no one doubted that these affairs would continue, as indeed the

future state of the empire of the next three hundred years

confirmed. The prolongation of the Paz Romana brought prosperity,

trade, education, cultural and language homogeneity, and safe

travel; an ideal preparation for Christian apostles and

missionaries.

(Yes, ideal for a short time, per se. But enough time for the 12

apostles to reach the bulk of Israelites scattered and those

Israelites in Britain - Keith Hunt)

 

     There was one perpetually troublesome exception to the Pax

Romana, the land of Judea. There the Roman legions, as occupation

troops, constantly had to be on guard against an implacably

hostile population. The Herodian monarchs had ruled since the

days of the first Caesar only by the imposed power of Rome. 

They all understood, if their people did not, that Rome was there 

to stay and that the Pax Romana was undoubtedly the best of all

realistically possible conditions. The various Herods, one after

another, had sailed to Rome to visit the dazzling center of

power. There they saw the larger picture of the empire and could

more easily fit Judea into its small place. But the people they

ruled in Rome's name were provincial in the extreme and were able

to see no farther than their own borders. To the Israelites,

however just and fair they often tried to be, the Romans were

hated oppressors, idol-worshipping inferiors, outside the

covenant of God, and the proper objects of unceasing attempts 

at rebellion and assassination. The Roman's haughty contempt for

Jewish pride created a resentment that would inevitably lead to

slaughter and dispersion for the Jews. In the end only Rome could

win. But rationally or not, in no people in the world of that time 

did the passion for independence burn so fiercely as it did among 

the Jews. Most Jews cared little for the safety and prosperity they 

admittedly gained by being a part of a great cohesive empire.

     Their resentment, being nationalistic and ideological, grew

primarily as a reaction to the infernal pride of the Romans. To

the Jews, nothing Rome could do could possibly be right. To the

Romans, granted the right of empire, (which we moderns cannot 

of course grant) the choice was clear; keep Judea pacified or risk

the brush-fires of rebellion breaking out everywhere else. The

Romans sought to be as just as possible to make their empire

viable. But, just or not, Rome would rule whatever the people 

of Israel did or however they felt. The clash of wills between

Jerusalem and Rome was the most troublesome political fact 

of the first century. Eventually it could have but one tragic outcome

for Judea.

     The peace of Rome, disastrous and painful for the Jews,

nevertheless opened up a great share of the world to easy

penetration by the newly risen movement of Christianity. In 

every Roman city godly Jews were already dwelling. All Israelites,

whether from the tribe of Judah proper, or of the remnants of the

thirteen tribes, now came to be called "Jews." Judah was the

Royal tribe of David, and "Jew" is simply an abbreviation for

Judah. It had spearheaded the Return of the Exiles from Babylon,

and now again possessed the capital, Jerusalem. It was the

strongest and most persistent of the tribes and it was the keeper

of the Temple in Jerusalem which was the proper geographical

focal point of prayer, wherever in the world Israelites were

themselves located. So gradually the Israelites of all the tribes

who cared about preserving their own national identity, and their

ancient Mosaic traditions and religious faith, came to be called

"Jews."

(The "Jewish" Israelites yes, but the other Israelites [those of

the Ten tribes or House of Israel, taken captive by the Assyrian

empire - 745-718 B.C.] became so-called "lost" - in time they

even forgot themselves that they were Israelites. But we know

James knew they were scattered abroad, all TWELVE tribes. See

James 1:1 - Keith Hunt)

     Intermarriage between the people of the various tribes of Israel 

in the Diaspora doubtless helped bind all dispersed Israel

toward identification with Judah. Those who did not join this

spiritual and nationalistic movement were soon lost, not as whole

tribes, but as individuals, as intermarriage with Gentiles or the

attrition of death gradually exterminated or eliminated those who

were indifferent to their Israelitish heritage.

(McBirnie is very WRONG on this point, the Ten tribe House of

Israel was by-and-large in EUROPE and BRITAIN by the time the

apostles came on the scene - Keith Hunt)

     There was not just one single dispersion of the tribes of

Israel, though the process began in 725 B.C. 

(actually in 745 B.C. and ended 718 B.C. for the house of Israel

- Keith Hunt)

when Assyria carried off many people out of the Northern tribes.

Instead, there were successive waves of removal from Palestine

which scattered the Israelites everywhere. (Recently a colony of

Jews which has lived in Cochin, India, since 70 A.D. has come to

world attention, as emigration to the modern state of Israel has

finally depleted that section of Indian Jewry. This event reminds

us that people travelled much more widely in the first century

A.D. than is commonly realized, a fact that has a bearing on the

genuineness of the apostolate of St.Thomas in India during the

first century.)

(Yes SOME Israelites, probably from the Judah captivity by the

Babylon Empire - 604-586 B.c., were indeed over in the India area

of the world - Keith Hunt)

     The Biblical Research Handbook (Vol.2) provides a reminder

of the dispersion of the Jews in the pre-Christian era. As the

Apostles always went first to the Jews in their missions, this

passage is very illuminating:

"... Armenian and Georgian historians record that after the

destruction of the First Temple ... Nebuchadnezzar deported

numbers of Jewish captives to Armenia and the Caucasus. These

exiles were joined later by co-religionists from Medes and Judea

... at the end of the fourth century there were Armenian cities

possessing Jewish populations ranging from 10,000 to 30,000 ...

Monuments consisting of marble slabs bearing Greek inscriptions

and preserved in the Hermitage St.Petersburg, and in the museum

at Feodosia (Kaffa), show that Jews lived in the Crimea and along

the entire eastern coast of the Black Sea at the beginning of the

common era, and that they possessed well-organised communities

with synagogues. They were then already Hellenized, bearing such

Greek names as Hermis, Dionisiodorus and Heracles. In the reign

of Julius the Isaurian (175-210) the name 'Volamiros' was common

among the Jews of the Crimea. This was the origin of the Russian

name 'Vladimir' ... " (Bible Research Handbook, Vol.2, pages

unnumbered)

(Exactly! Proves what I just said above. The "Jewish" Israelites

were also scattered. But the MAIN part of the house of Israel

Israelites were in Europe and even Britain by the first century

A.D. - Keith Hunt)

     Greek culture had penetrated as far as France, then called

the land of the Gauls, by the middle of the first century B.C.

The various languages of each country were used locally of

course, but throughout the Roman Empire both Greek and Latin 

were widely and universally employed. This fact made it possible 

for Greek philosophy and culture to affect the Roman world

profoundly.

     Later it would provide common literary and linguistic

vehicles for the Christian gospel.

     The splendid Roman roads, many of which can still be seen

today, related the cities of all countries to each other. Over

those safe and straight highways and the increasingly viable sea

lanes came a busy interchange of goods and customs. These same

highways would soon be the paths of the propagation of the faith.

     Thus in the first century the Roman world, with all its

initial cruelties and harsh conditions, was changing and uniting

into the largest and most continually ruled empire the world has

ever known. In the Middle Ages the Mongol Empire briefly ruled 

a larger area, and perhaps more people, but it left no enduring

civilization since it was an empire of destruction which soon

faded back into the vast emptiness of Asia from which it had

come. Rome brought a culture which remained. Indeed, that 

culture still remains today and its influence is as strong as ever.

(Yes, indeed, so much so that it gave rise to the MYSTERY BABYLON

RELIGION of the Roman Catholic church which has planted its

theology and customs, practices, traditions, all over the world,

especially the Western world. The nations of Israel are today IN

Babylon, deceived by a false Babylon/Roman Christianity - Keith

Hunt)

     Rome had drawn much of her civilization from others; at

first from the mysterious Etruscans. But by the first century,

the Etruscans had been so completely swallowed up as to have

disappeared into history. We cannot read their language even now.

Egypt also had given much and would give more. But Egypt had lost

the civilization of the Pharaohs and had become Hellenized.

Greece itself was still the cultural and medical center of the

Roman Empire, but it had become little more than a province which

fed its influence into the bloodstream of the empire. Greece was

of course eventually to triumph over Rome and rise again, not in

Athens but in Constantinople. During the first century, however,

Rome was the greatest political fact in the world.

(And Rome was to be the MOST false influence on the world over

the next 2,000 years to today and still counting - Keith Hunt)

     This, then, was the world of Jesus and His Apostles. On the

narrow land bridge between three continents the people of Israel

had come and gone, and come again. The Greeks, and afterwards the

Romans, had conquered Palestine, but had never really subdued her

people. Rebellion continuously simmered. It frequently flared

with little provocation into revolution against Rome. If the

Herods could not put the rebellion down, the Romans could and

would. And when this happened, the Herodians lost face and paid

severe penalties to Caesar. For this reason the Herodians were

zealous to stamp out any sedition before it could be embarrassing

to them. It was on a charge of sedition that Jesus was tried and

in an illegal trial, which soon got out of hand, was falsely

condemned to death for blasphemy and treason, though the Roman

governor Pilate had declared Him innocent.

     Of course, sedition was only the ostensible reason why Jesus

was condemned. As the Apostles saw clearly then, and history's

long judgment has since con firmed, the greatest reason for his

condemnation was the fact that Jesus had lanced through the

swollen hypocrisy of the Jewish political and ceremonial religion

and the religious bureaucracy of professional priests, Pharisees

and Sadducees. So all the main Jewish leaders, including the

official party of the Herodians called by that name, consented to

or sought his death.

     When men gain high places and hold them precariously, they

often stoop to fatal compromises. When they do so in a

semi-religious state they also have a bad conscience. When they

are exposed and their real motives are laid bare, they tend to

strike back with fangs bared and venom dripping. Jesus aptly

called them, "A generation of vipers", and for this most of all

they lay in wait, coiled, and then struck Him down. Their charges

against Him were blasphemy and sedition. Thus Rome was induced 

to join with Jerusalem to crucify the Son of God.

     His Apostles, after the resurrection, enjoyed a great

resurgence of popularity in Judea. The guilt for the death of

Jesus lay on the public conscience and the Apostles assured those

who would repent that this guilt, and all other sinful guilt, had

been atoned for by the true Lamb of God. Thousands professed

conversion to Christ soon after the resurrection, and day after

day were added to the growing Jerusalem church.

     Soon no public or private building could contain their

assembly. Steps were taken by the authorities to discourage the

Apostles lest again Israel be troubled. But this time there was

no stopping them.

     Despite martyrdoms, such as those of Stephen and James the

brother of John, and the imprisonment of Peter, the church grew,

spilled out over Judea, Samaria and the whole of Palestine. Then

it leaped to Antioch in Syria which, during the first century,

was the third city of the Roman Empire and the true crossroads 

of east and west. 

     From Antioch the newly named "Christians" sent forth as

missionaries, Barnabas, who had come from Jerusalem to shepherd

the vigorous church in Antioch, and Saul of Tarsus, whom Barnabas

had befriended in Jerusalem and had called from Tarsus to aid him

in Antioch. Their missionary destination was Barnabas nearby

island home of Cyprus, and their targets were first the Jews, and

then the Gentiles. They journeyed, after notable triumphs on

Cyprus, to the mainland of Asia Minor which Saul (now called

Paul) apparently felt was ripe for the Christian message. The

experience of these two eager Apostles, first at Antioch and now

in Cyprus and Asia Minor, had confirmed that the gospel had

indeed been intended for all and could be well received by the

Gentiles as well as the Jews. Thus a milestone in Christian

history was passed. The process had begun which would tear

Christianity loose from its Jewish exclusiveness and make it an

universal movement for all men.

     Paul and Barnabas did not break the first ground to extend

Christianity to the Gentiles. That had been done on the day of

Pentecost when people from many parts of the Roman world had

heard the message, shortly after the ascension of Jesus. But in

the Jerusalem church, conversions of the Gentiles were rare and

incidental.

     The Twelve Apostles, now reduced by the death of James to

eleven, had remained in Jerusalem or at least in Palestine. It

seemed they could not bring themselves to the world apostolate

which Jesus had commanded. Soon however, Jewish persecution 

would force some of them out. The nation of Israel was still not

willing to accept Jesus as the Christ. Soon the Twelve would also

have to turn to the Gentiles. Paul and Barnabas had successfully

shown the way. From this time forth the Apostles would go first

to the Jews and then, if rejected, turn to the Gentiles. The book

of Acts is the record of how Christianity was thus moved by both

example and persecution, out of Jerusalem into the rest of the

Roman world with a universal message to both Jews and Gentiles.

While Rome herself was even more hostile to Christianity than was

Jerusalem, many Jews and Gentiles everywhere received the new

faith. 

     Within the life time of the Apostles the gospel of Christ

had spread over the long Roman roads, as well as by the sea, to

such far o$ places as Gaul and Britain to the northwest,

Alexandria and Carthage on the coast of Africa to the south,

Scythia and Armenia (now the Soviet Union) to the north and

Persia and India to the east. In the course of this initial

outburst of Christian fervor, the Twelve Apostles, and many

others also called apostles, carried the Christian message to

great extremes of distance and into perilous lands both near and

far, even beyond the Roman Empire. There they died, but their

message and the churches they founded survived them.

     Early in its progress Christianity recorded histories and

legends which tell of the high adventures the Apostles had in the

initial years of Christian expansion. The Apostles themselves

apparently did not seem aware that their mission was historic so

they kept few records which have remained. Such records as we

have, apart from the Scriptures, are not without flaw and often

lean towards the fanciful. Yet so much more is to be learned

about the Apostles than the general Christian public knows, or

has ever been written by the scholars in a single history, to

this end this account of the lives of the Twelve Apostles will

serve to illuminate the earliest days of the Christian mission.

     Hopefully it may help to recover the Apostles as real

people.

                            ..................

Actually there is more written records, 

and traditions [traditions are often based on the 

ground of fact] of the 12 apostles and their 

travels than McBirnie realized, and certainly 

the popular so-called "scholarship" of the 

Catholic and Protestant world of Christian 

religion. 

Keith Hunt

                                     

To be continued

Entered on my Website November 2007