How Many Apostles Did Jesus Have? (HINT: More Than 12!)

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily match my own. - Dr. Bart D. Ehrman

How many apostles did Jesus have? This question reminds me of one of the most important lessons I learned during my graduate studies: Terms and concepts aren’t fixed entities; they are deeply tied to context and can shift in meaning over time and across cultures. 

Consider, for example, the swastika. In the context of Nazi Germany, it has become an enduring symbol of death, evil, and destruction. Yet in Hinduism, where it originated thousands of years earlier, the swastika signifies auspiciousness, good fortune, and the cosmic order.

Similarly, when we explore the names of the apostles, we’ll find that the concept of apostleship in early Christianity is far broader and more complex than many assume today.

Most people, when they hear the term “apostles,” immediately think of the disciples (Peter, James, John, and the others) who famously accompanied Jesus during his ministry. That association is understandable. The group of the Twelve held tremendous importance in the historical memory of Jesus' earliest followers and remains central to Christian tradition today.

However, if we approach the historical evidence carefully, we discover that apostleship in the 1st century wasn’t confined to this familiar group. The names of the apostles extend well beyond the Twelve, encompassing figures who never set foot among Jesus' original group, and whose roles and significance were shaped by evolving needs and perspectives within the early church.

Several excellent articles on this blog have already examined Jesus’ apostles and their crucial place in the development of early Christianity. These studies have offered valuable insights into the names of the apostles, their place within Jesus’ movement, and the stories and legends about their deaths. 

In this article, however, I want to highlight another key dimension: How the historical context of early Christianity allowed a broader application of the “apostle” category to men and women who were neither among the original Twelve nor necessarily part of Jesus’ earthly ministry.

As we’ll see, understanding how early Christians used the term "apostle" sheds light not only on the diversity of the movement but also on the fluid and dynamic ways in which authority and leadership were negotiated in its formative years.

How Many Apostles Did Jesus Have? Starting With the Etymology

The term “apostle” has its roots in the Greek language, where it originally functioned not as a noun but as an adjective. It derives from the verb apostellō (ἀποστέλλω), meaning “to send off” or “to dispatch.” From this verb came the adjective apostolos (ἀπόστολος), signifying someone who was “sent” or “dispatched” for a particular purpose.

Only later did apostolos come to be used as a substantive noun, designating a “messenger,” “emissary,” or “delegate.” In its core meaning, an apostle was someone entrusted with a mission on behalf of another, carrying authority as a representative of the one who had sent them.

Before the emergence of Christianity, the term apostolos was attested only sparingly in Greek literature. According to the Liddell-Scott-Jones Lexicon (LSJ), apostolos appears rarely and is typically used in secular contexts to denote an envoy or a bearer of a message.

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A notable example occurs in Herodotus (Histories 1.21), where the term describes emissaries dispatched by Cyrus the Great. In such pre-Christian usage, apostolos carried no specific religious connotations. Rather, it simply referred to individuals commissioned for diplomatic or communicative tasks.

However, as Ceslas Spicq has emphasized in Notes de lexicographie néo-testamentaire (Notes on New Testament Lexicography), none of these Greco-Roman meanings (whether casual or juridical) can account for the profound theological depth that apostolos acquires in the New Testament. 

Christian usage, particularly in Paul, presupposes a Semitic background, rooted in the Jewish institution of the shaliaḥ (שליח), an authorized representative whose acts legally bound the sender. It was within this Jewish conceptual framework that the early followers of Jesus reinterpreted and deepened the meaning of apostleship.

So, with the rise of the Jesus movement, apostolos acquired a distinctive theological weight. As New Testament scholar Francis Agnew notes:

In other words, far from being confined to a single generation or group, the notion of apostleship was pervasive across early Christian writings. It was a central term used by authors in diverse settings to describe those who had been commissioned to carry the message of Christ.

Understanding this background helps frame the larger question that drives our investigation: How many apostles did Jesus have?

As we’ll see in the next section, the New Testament’s application of the term extends beyond the familiar circle of the Twelve, reflecting the fluid and expanding nature of early Christian leadership and identity.

Beyond the Twelve: Other Early Apostles

During Jesus' public ministry, the term “apostle” (apostolos) likely didn’t carry the precise, formal meaning it would later acquire. As John P. Meier, in his book A Marginal Jew, has argued, "apostle" wasn’t a fixed title but rather a functional designation for individuals temporarily commissioned for a task.

The Gospels occasionally describe the Twelve being “sent out” (apostellein) by Jesus (e.g., Mark 6:30), but the focus is on their immediate mission: Preaching repentance, healing, and casting out demons, rather than establishing a permanent office.

The Twelve were primarily called “disciples” (mathētai), meaning learners or followers. The use of "apostle" to designate a stable office emerged only after Easter, when the early Jesus followers became convinced of his resurrection and the need to spread the message of the coming of the Kingdom of God.

In the post-resurrection period, the meaning of “apostle” broadened significantly. It no longer referred simply to the original Twelve but extended to a wider circle of individuals who had, in various ways, been entrusted with proclaiming the risen Christ.

Paul of Tarsus, though not one of the Twelve and indeed a former persecutor of the Church, famously insists on his apostolic status: “Paul, an apostle, not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father” (Galatians 1:1).

Paul's letters contain the highest concentration of the term apostolos in the New Testament, demonstrating his commitment to defending his calling. Likewise, in Romans 16:7, Paul refers to Andronicus and Junia, “who are prominent among the apostles” (more on that in the Appendix).

Barnabas, too, is called an apostle alongside Paul in Acts 14:14, after their missionary efforts in the cities of Lystra and Derbe. Even the group of seventy (or seventy-two) disciples mentioned in Luke 10 and the 120 followers gathered in Acts 1:15 hint at a broader reservoir of commissioned witnesses.

Although not all were explicitly termed “apostles,” they formed part of a dynamic movement that understood mission and testimony as central to Christian identity.

But what precisely qualified someone to be considered an apostle? The early Jesus movement, particularly in its Pauline expressions, seemed to require two key credentials:

#1 – A commissioning by Jesus, often understood to involve some revelatory encounter
#2 – A mandate to proclaim the gospel publicly

Paul appeals to his vision of the risen Lord (Galatians 1:11-12) as the basis of his apostleship, while emphasizing that his mission was divinely authorized rather than institutionally granted.

Similarly, Acts 1:21-22 specifies that Judas’ replacement (Matthias) among the Twelve had to be someone who had accompanied Jesus from the beginning and could bear witness to the resurrection. 

In short, apostleship entailed being sent by Jesus with a public, authoritative mission to proclaim his message.

As Ceslas Spicq explains, reflecting on the famous list in 1 Corinthians 15:5-8:

This observation highlights Paul’s early observation that apostleship extended beyond the rigid circle of the Twelve and included a broader, Spirit-endowed ministry validated by encounter with the risen Lord and missionary service. 

However, the concept of apostleship in the early Church was far from uniform. Different authors and communities held varying understandings of what it meant to be an apostle, leading at times to conflict and sharp polemics. Later Gospel writers provide clear examples of this diversity.

The author of Luke’s Gospel, for instance, closely identified the disciples of Jesus during his earthly ministry with the Twelve, effectively creating the category of the “Twelve Apostles.” In Luke’s conception, apostleship was restricted to those who had accompanied Jesus from the beginning and witnessed his resurrection.

This framework had significant implications: It excluded figures such as Paul from being recognized as apostles in the full sense. 

For Luke, the Twelve Apostles emerged as the foundational leaders of the Jerusalem church, while missionaries and later emissaries, even if crucial to the movement’s expansion, were generally not called apostles.

However, Paul, as already noted, had a different notion in mind. Hans D. Betz explains:

Thus, when asking “How many apostles did Jesus have?” it becomes clear that any simple numerical answer is insufficient. While the number twelve (probably going back to the historical Jesus) was symbolically crucial (representing the twelve tribes of Israel and the renewed people of God), the category of apostle soon expanded beyond this foundational group.

As the early Christian movement spread and adapted to new contexts, the meaning of apostleship evolved to include a wide range of figures: Not only the institutional Twelve but also charismatic leaders, missionaries, church founders, and witnesses to the resurrection.

However, it would be a mistake to imagine that all early Christians agreed on a single definition of what it meant to be an apostle. On the contrary, sharp differences emerged, crafting the future of the nascent movement.

In the end, the question “How many apostles did Jesus have” invites us to look beyond static lists toward the living and often contested tradition of the early Church. Apostleship was not simply a matter of formal membership in an exclusive group; it was a vibrant, evolving response to the experience of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.

Appendix: A Female as an Apostle: Resistance and Rejections in the Early Church

Instead of a formal conclusion you might be expecting, I decided to switch things up a little bit here. In this final section, I want to briefly highlight one of the more intriguing developments in the history of biblical interpretation, what might best be called the Curious Case of Junia.

It offers a striking example of how cultural (patriarchal) assumptions, rather than neutral analysis, sometimes shaped how early Christian figures were remembered, or forgotten.

In Romans 16:7, Paul sends greetings to Andronicus and Junia (probably a married couple), praising them as “prominent among the apostles.” For nearly a thousand years, no one in the Church seems to have doubted that Junia was a woman and an apostle.

Early commentators such as Origen, John Chrysostom, and others all assumed she was female. Chrysostom even marveled at her achievement, writing, “Oh, how great is the devotion of this woman, that she should be counted worthy of the title of apostle!”

However, the story takes a surprising turn much later in history. As Eldon Epp shows in his book Junia: The First Woman Apostle, it was only in the later medieval period, especially with the influence of Martin Luther’s translation and later critical editions, that Junia was transformed into a man.

Motivated by the belief that a woman could not possibly have held the title of apostle, scholars and translators began to subtly alter the tradition. Some introduced the idea of a male “Junias,” even though such a name is unattested in any Greek or Latin texts of the period. 

Critical Greek editions of the New Testament, starting with Eberhard Nestle’s 1927 edition (an influential scholarly reconstruction of the Greek text used for Bible translations), began to favor the masculine reading without substantial manuscript evidence, and some English translations followed suit.

Today, careful examination of the textual and historical evidence has largely reversed this error. As Epp and many others have demonstrated, the objective data (early manuscripts, early Church commentary, and Roman naming practices) consistently point toward Junia being a woman, recognized as an apostle by Paul himself.

In recovering her rightful place, scholars remind us of an important lesson: Our interpretations of the past are often shaped by the assumptions of our own time. But when we return honestly to the sources, voices once muted can speak again.