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What became of the Twelve Apostles?
The New Testament, a portion of which is admitted to have been written as late as the latter part of the first century and nearly all of which was really written in the second century, is silent regarding them. Christian martyrology records their fates as follows:
St. Peter was crucified, at his own request head downward, and buried in the Vatican at Rome.
St. Andrew, after having been scourged seven times upon his naked body, was crucified by the proconsul of Achaia.
St. James was beheaded by Herod Antipas in Palestine.
St. John was “thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil” by Domitian, but God “delivered him.”
St. Philip was scourged and crucified or hanged by the magistrates of Hierapolis.
St. Bartholomew was put to death by a Roman governor in Armenia.
St. Matthew suffered martyrdom at Naddabar in Ethiopia.
St. Thomas was shot to death with arrows by the Brahmans in India.
St. James the Less was thrown from the pinnacle of the temple at Jerusalem and dispatched with a club where he fell.
St. Simon was “crucified and buried” in Britain.
St. Jude was “cruelly put to death” by the Magi of Persia.
St. Matthias, the successor of Judas Iscariot, if Christian tradition is to be credited, was put to death three times, crucified, stoned, and beheaded.
Nothing can be more incredible than these so-called traditions regarding the martyrdom of the Twelve Apostles, the most of them occurring in an empire where all religious sects enjoyed as perfect religious freedom as the different sects do in America today. Whatever opinion may be entertained respecting the existence of Jesus, the Twelve Apostles belong to the realm of mythology, and their alleged martyrdoms are pure inventions. Had these men really existed Christian history at least would contain some reliable notice of them, yet all the stories relating to them, like the story of Peter at Rome, and John at Ephesus, are self-evident fictions. In the significant words of the eminent Dutch theologians, Dr. Kuenen, Dr. Oort and Dr. Hooykaas, “All the Apostles disappear without a trace.”