The Apostles

Who Were the Apostles?

The Apostles were the witnesses commissioned by Jesus of Nazareth to carry his message to the world — men who had, in most cases, been present at the events they described, and whose testimony constitutes the foundational documents of the Christian church. Their writings — letters, histories, and apocalypse — form the bulk of the New Testament and represent the earliest literary record of the movement that would become Christianity.

The New Testament epistles attributed to the apostolic circle include the thirteen letters of Paul of Tarsus, the letters of Peter, James, John, and Jude, and the letter to the Hebrews (whose authorship remains disputed). Alongside these, the Acts of the Apostles provides a narrative account of the early church’s expansion from Jerusalem to Rome. These texts were written within living memory of the events they describe, in a world where eyewitnesses could still be consulted and false claims could be directly contested.

At their best — in Romans, Galatians, 1 Corinthians, Ephesians, 1 John — these writings represent some of the most theologically dense and rhetorically sophisticated prose in the ancient world. Paul’s argument in Romans is a sustained piece of theological reasoning without parallel in antiquity; 1 John’s meditation on love is among the most beautiful prose meditations in any language; the letter to the Hebrews weaves together typological exegesis, pastoral exhortation, and theological argument in a way that has fascinated readers for two millennia.

In Their Own Words

Selected Bibliography

• The Pauline Epistles — Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, et al.
• The General Epistles — James, 1–2 Peter, 1–3 John, Jude
• Acts of the Apostles — c. AD 80–85
• The Letter to the Hebrews — c. AD 60–90, authorship disputed