Theos-Talk Archives (March 2009 Message tt00268)

Without 12 Apostles how much of the Gospels and story of the early 
Christian church remain as real actual history?

Wikipedia writes as follows on the 12 Apostles:

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They were, according to the Acts of the Apostles and Christian
tradition, disciples whom Jesus of Nazareth HAD CHOSEN, NAMED, and
TRAINED in order to send them on a specific mission: the
establishment of the Christian Church by evangelism and the spreading
of the "good news", after being sent the Holy Spirit as "helper"
(paraclete) in this task at Pentecost.... Traditionally, the Twelve
include Peter, Prince of the Apostles;... Andrew, James the Greater,
James the Lesser, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas,
Thaddeus, Simon, and Judas Iscariot. Judas had been one of the
Twelve, but he betrayed Jesus and killed himself....With Judas gone,
Matthias became one of the Twelve.... In the Synoptics, Mark names
the Twelve, Matthew follows Mark, and Luke substitutes Jude for
Mark's Thaddeus. John refers to the Twelve without naming them all,
adds the name Nathanael, and uses the term "beloved disciple"
(presumably for John). ... In the Synoptics, Jesus selects Peter,
James, and John to witness his divine Transfiguration and to be with
him when he prays at Gethsemane. In Mark, the Twelve are obtuse,
failing to understand the importance of Jesus' miracles and
parables.... The book of Acts recounts the deeds of the apostles in
the years after Jesus' crucifixion.
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ALSO NOTE THAT the apostles were some of the primary witnesses of
Jesus's resurrection and ascension.  See the list of the resurrection
appearances at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resurrection_appearances_of_Jesus#Appearances_reported_in_the_New_Testament

So if the 12 apostles were fictional and did not exist, then how much
of the rest of the Gospels are real, actual history.  

Try rewriting the story of Jesus' life without the apostles.  And if
the apostles didn't really exist, who carried on the Christian work
after Jesus supposedly died?

And if much of the Gospels as given are not history and are nothing
but fiction, the existence of Jesus as a real person becomes even
less tenable.

Food for thought.

Daniel