Who Are The Disciples?

When we read of Jesus’ “disciples,” we naturally think of the Twelve. But that’s not nearly as clear as we try to make it. Many Bibles include the heading “the first disciples” for the episode in Matthew 4:18-22, but the text never uses the word. Peter, Andrew, James, and John are called to follow, and they do. But they are not called mathetes, and so when the word is finally used for the first time in Matthew 5:1, we aren’t sure whom it refers to. It could be the four called ones, or it could be the crowd.

The same ambiguity attaches to the word in the chapters following the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus has disciples with Him, and they ask questions (8:21), follow Him and sail with Him (8:23), eat with tax collectors and sinners (9:10), follow Him to the house of a synagogue official (9:19). But we don’t know who these are, how many there are. 

Not until chapter 10 do we learn that there are twelve of them (10:1), and that is shortly after Jesus cleanses a woman who has suffered from a flow of blood for twelve years (9:20). At that point, Jesus focuses his attention on the twelve.

As many scholars have pointed out, Jesus’ ministry involves a narrowing of focus: He begins by proclaiming the kingdom and its righteousness to all Israel. He meets with inflexible opposition, so He withdraws to form the nucleus of a new 12-patriarch Israel in the midst of Israel. The change of tactic is marked by the shift from unnumbered, unspecified disciples to “the Twelve” who follow Him and who are given the kingdom.