Mark 3:13-19
Twelve Names
13Then Jesus went up on the mountain and called for those He wanted, and they came to Him.
14He appointed twelve of them, whom He designated as apostles, to accompany Him, to be sent out to preach,
15and to have authority to drive out demons.
16These are the twelve He appointed: Simon (whom He named Peter),
17James son of Zebedee and his brother John (whom He named Boanerges, meaning “Sons of Thunder”),
18Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot,
19and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus.
Berean Standard Bible
He leaves the crowd at the water and goes up a mountain. The choosing that happens there is done one way only.
Then Jesus went up on the mountain and called for those He wanted, and they came to Him.
Nobody applied. Nobody was ranked, and nobody shoved to the front of a line and got picked for the effort. Mark gives no reasons for the choosing, and he does not appear to think the reasons are ours to have.
Twelve is not a loose number in a Jewish book. Israel was twelve tribes, so picking exactly twelve had said something before anybody had learned a single one of their names.
He appointed twelve of them, whom He designated as apostles, to accompany Him, to be sent out to preach, and to have authority to drive out demons.
Being with him stands first in that sentence, ahead of the preaching and ahead of the authority. It is not a warm-up. It is not the training you get through before the real work begins. It is the first thing these men are for, and everything after it in the list runs downhill from there.
Then the names, which make a strange list to build anything on.
Simon, whom he renamed Peter. Mark hands us the meaning of one of the new names and not the other: Boanerges, Sons of Thunder, given to James and John. Nobody gives brothers a name like that for being calm.
Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, and Simon called the Zealot, which means he had come out of a movement that wanted Rome thrown out by force. Sit that man down to supper beside a former tax collector who had made his living working for Rome, and see how the evening goes.
Then the last name, and what Mark fastens onto it.
and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus.
He says it while he is still doing the introductions, before this man has done anything at all in the account. He does not hold it back, so from the moment the list is finished a reader already knows how the last name on it turns out. Jesus went up that mountain, called the ones he wanted, and one of the ones he wanted was that one.
How We Know
Four lists of the Twelve survive in the New Testament: here, Matthew 10:2-4, Luke 6:14-16, and Acts 1:13 with Judas absent. Set them side by side and the pattern is striking. The same names apart from one, always with Peter first and Judas Iscariot last, always in the same three groups of four, with the first name of each group fixed.
The differences are at the edges. Mark and Matthew have Thaddaeus where Luke and Acts have Judas son of James.
A list this stable in structure, with a small unresolved variation preserved rather than harmonized, strongly supports a fixed tradition being handed on rather than composed independently four times.
Questions
1 How did these twelve end up being the twelve?
AnswerHe called the ones he wanted, and they came. There is no application, no list of qualifications, and no explanation of why it was these men. Mark does not give the reason, and it is better not to invent one for him.
2 Mark gives three things they were appointed for, and he gives them in an order. What comes first?
AnswerTo be with him. The preaching and the authority come after that. Being with him is not the training you do before the job starts. It is the first thing they were appointed for.
3 Is there somebody you would find hard to work beside every day, without either of you having done anything wrong? Simon the Zealot and Matthew the tax collector were both on this list. Why is that surprising?
AnswerZealots wanted Rome thrown out by force. Tax collectors made their living working for Rome. Those two men stood on opposite sides of the same argument, and Jesus put them in one group of twelve without asking either of them to change first.
4 Mark tells us who Judas is the moment he says his name. What does that do to the way we read the list?
AnswerIt takes away any chance of being surprised later. It also means that when Jesus called the ones he wanted, this one was among them. Mark writes it down and offers no comment at all.
What This Means for Us
He wanted them with him before he wanted them useful, and most of us keep that order the other way round. We measure ourselves by what we get done for God, and we treat time with him as preparation for the part that counts. This passage has it first. Everything else grows out of that or it does not grow.
There is a quieter thing here too. He built his twelve out of men who should not have been able to share a table, and he did not sort them out first.
So two things, both small. Spend time with God this week in which nothing gets accomplished. And be kind to somebody here you find difficult, without waiting for them to change.
Prayer
Father, thank you for wanting people before you needed them for anything. We keep trying to be useful when you have asked us to be close. Slow us down. And put us at tables with people we would not have chosen, the way you did. Amen.