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Questions & Answers

Names

Faith Q&A › Metropolitan Youssef › The Church › Names

The question

What are the names of the 72/70 apostles. What are the names of the few we do know?

The answer

The number of the apostles is more likely to be seventy-two, but was rounded to seventy as it was customary to round numbers to the nearest tenth. Through the hagiography of many, we learned the names of some of the first apostles, but not all. Perhaps the Lord intended to not reveal their names at that time but rather to focus on their bishopric mission and referred to them as "laborers" (cf. Luke 10). The Church recognizes some of the original seventy-two apostles as individuals mentioned in the New Testament accounts of the Holy Gospel and in some of the Epistles as the following: St. Mark the Evangelist, St. Luke the Evangelist, St. Barnabas, St. Silas, St. Ananias (Acts), St. Titus, St. Philemon, St. Timothy, St. Jason (Acts) St. Rufus (Son of the Cyrenian that helped carry the cross of Christ), St. Aquila (Acts). Search the Synaxarion for some of the others.

Answered by His Eminence Metropolitan Youssef (opens in a new tab)

Questions answered by His Eminence Metropolitan Youssef (opens in a new tab) of the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States. Question 2574 on the Diocese’s Q&A site. Questions and answers © Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States. All rights reserved.