Matthew 10:2-4

These are the names. Four lists of the twelve are given: Matthew 10:2; Mark 3:16; Luke 6:14; Acts 1:13. The four lists are identical, with these exceptions: Luke does not include Judas Iscariot in Acts 1:13, since he was dead at that time. Both Matthew and Mark speak of the tenth disciple as Thaddaeus, while Luke calls him "Judas, the son of James." It was common to be called by more than one name. Simon the Patriot was a "zealot" (see note on Mark 15:7). Jesus named James and John "Boanerges Men of Thunder" (Mark 3:16). There are three pairs of brothers: Peter and Andrew; James and John; James (the son of Alphaeus [who was perhaps the Clopas of John 19:25]) and Thaddaeus (Judas the son of James). It is very difficult to "sort out" the variations in the names of Bible characters, since each person had more than one name, and, it was not unusual to give two children in the same family the same name. Mary (the mother of Jesus) seems to have had a sister named Mary, who was the mother of James the younger, Joses and Thaddaeus making them cousins of Jesus. All the apostles were Galileans, except Judas Iscariot. All came from the ranks of the common people.