Disciples and Apostles
The Disciples of Jesus are often (invalidly or conveniently or deliberately) ‘confused’ with the later Apostles of the Church.
The 12 Disciples of Jesus were with Jesus during at least the latter part of his rabbinical ministry, and were by his side at the Last Supper and at his crucifixion.
The Disciples were all Orthodox or neo-Orthodox Jewish. They venerated and observed Jewish Law. The Disciples were centered in Judea (the Galilee and Jerusalem areas in particular). They spoke Hebrew (not Greek). They were obviously not anti–Semitic.
The Apostles were the sundry leading Christian missionaries.
99 percent of the Apostles were not Jewish. The Apostles negated 90 percent of Jewish Law. The Apostles were centered in Asia Minor (the current day Greece, Turkey and Syria areas). They spoke Greek (and not Hebrew). Many of the Apostles after the death of (the Jewish) Paul including all the writers of the Canon Gospels, were anti–Semitic, some virulently.
Ongoing attempts by the Church to fudge the two groups – and synthesize a ‘continuum’ – are a distortion and involve a substantive fabrication of the historical record.
