In sports, if my team is playing, I root for
them, in the good times and in the bad times.
This comes to mind since this evening the Colorado Christian University women’s basketball team is
playing in the RMAC championship, after starting out 0-8, and I am proud of
them. I have always been loyal to my
team. When it comes to games involving
other teams, my entire life I have had a tendency to root for the
underdog. Maybe it is because I grew up
in a rough neighborhood as a skinny kid who got mocked much, even by some girls,
(I was really skinny), and thus I always felt I was the underdog. Therefore, when I was a young Christian, I
started developing an interest in Bartholomew, Thaddaeus, and James “the
lesser” or “the smaller.” They seemed to
be the underdog apostles.
In my History
of Christianity class at CCU with the fantastic Dr. Megan DeVore, in addition to three papers, (that class was great but a ton of work), I had to do a
class presentation on an early Christian.
I chose Bartholomew!
Bartholomew is the mystery apostle. Beside the four Scripture apostle lists in
Matthew 10:2-4, Mark 3:16-18, Luke 6:14-16, and Acts 1:13, he is not mentioned
anywhere else in the Bible, thus from Scripture we do not know a single thing
he said.
Some scholars claim he is the same person as
Nathaniel, but this is based purely on association. Bartholomew is always listed with Philip, and
Philip introduced Nathaniel to Jesus, so they make an association
assumption. I think this is utterly unscholarly,
and there is zero evidence they are the same person.
Panthaenus was a teacher around 180 A.D. at
the now famous school in Alexandria, Egypt, where Christian instruction was
part of the education. Clement of
Alexandria was one of his students, a man who would later head the school and
who left us some historical nuggets.
Eusebius said Panthaenus’ reputation as a philosopher was top notch, and
he went on the say, “…[Panthaenus] is said to have displayed such ardor and so
zealous a disposition respecting the divine word, that he was constituted a
herald of the gospel of Christ to the nations of the East and advanced even as
far as India.”[1] (Alexander, during his obsessive world
conquering, opened a city laden route to India.
Yet the term ‘India’ as used here probably had broader boundaries in the
ancient world, so Panthaenus may have gone to an area west of the current
borders.)
And what did Panthaenus encounter in India
according to Eusebius? “And the report
was that he there found his own arrival preceded by some who were acquainted
with the Gospel of Matthew, to whom Bartholomew, one of the apostles, had
preached and had left them the Gospel of Matthew in Hebrew, which was also
preserved until this time.”[2] (Numerous modern scholars refute the gospel of
Matthew being originally written in Hebrew. But they do not have any original manuscripts,
and Eusebius quotes several different sources who say Matthew wrote his gospel
in Hebrew, though if the information is accurate, which I lean toward, what he
termed “Hebrew” was likely Aramaic.)
Armenia is the country most associated with
Bartholomew, which was larger around that time period.[3] It included some of modern day Iran, and Dr.
McBirnie traveled to Iran four times in the 1960’s and the early 1970’s. In his second book on the apostles he said,
“In modern Iran, Christian leaders agree as to the first century ministry of
Bartholomew…”[4] Dr. McBirnie quotes Aziz Atiya who stated Bartholomew
was the second “illuminator” of Armenia after 60 A.D., the first being
Thaddaeus, and that his shrine still stands at Alpac (Bashkale).[5]
The evidence for the martyrdom of some of the lesser known apostles is less documented, yet there are strong oral traditions in the Middle East, and for westerners who need it on paper, we have an early reliable statement about the apostles in general being martyred. This statement is special for me! Polycarp was a man who had been “instructed by the apostles,” and who had been picked as the overseer in Smyrna by apostles.[6] This is what he said: “…Paul himself, and the rest of the apostles. [This do] in the assurance that all these have not run in vain, but in faith and righteousness, and that they are [now] in their due place in the presence of the Lord, with whom also they suffered. For they loved not this present world, but Him who died for us, and for our sake was raised again by God from the dead.”[7]
The evidence for the martyrdom of some of the lesser known apostles is less documented, yet there are strong oral traditions in the Middle East, and for westerners who need it on paper, we have an early reliable statement about the apostles in general being martyred. This statement is special for me! Polycarp was a man who had been “instructed by the apostles,” and who had been picked as the overseer in Smyrna by apostles.[6] This is what he said: “…Paul himself, and the rest of the apostles. [This do] in the assurance that all these have not run in vain, but in faith and righteousness, and that they are [now] in their due place in the presence of the Lord, with whom also they suffered. For they loved not this present world, but Him who died for us, and for our sake was raised again by God from the dead.”[7]
The tradition is that Bartholomew was cut really bad, and then crucified in Albanus (Derbent).
Hunter
Irvine
How appropriate for a behind the scenes
apostle to give a unique video for a song by Sherri Youngward. She is a special Christian artist who has
been ministering since the late 1990’s, yet her ministry has been a bit off the
beaten Christian music path. She never
moved to Nashville for starters. When I
was the Youth Minister at a church in Wheat Ridge, Colorado, in 1999, our
youth group sponsored her at our church, apparently the first concert our
little church had had in about 50 years.
Everyone in my church agreed it was a huge blessing for us all. There were two parents who did not like me as
the Youth Minister, yet after that night, they were always nice to me from then
on! She is a woman doing much for the
kingdom of God, as Bartholomew did.
God bless you
Sherri!
I think this video is super cool!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DOqhFtx8RY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DOqhFtx8RY
[1] Eusebius, Eusebius’
Ecclesiastical History, trans. C.F. Cruse
(Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson, 1998), 166.
[2] Eusebius, Eusebius’
Ecclesiastical History, trans. C.F. Cruse
(Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson, 1998), 166.
[3] Smith’s Bible
Dictionary (Philadelphia: A.J. Holman Company, 1901), [front insert].
[4] William McBirnie, The
Search for the Twelve Apostles
(Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, 1973), 132.
[5] William McBirnie, The
Search for the Twelve Apostles
(Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, 1973), 133.
[6] Eusebius, Eusebius’
Ecclesiastical History, trans. C.F. Cruse
(Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson, 1998), 121.
[7] Alexander Roberts and
James Donaldson, eds., The Ante-Nicene
Fathers: The Writings of the Fathers Down to A.D.
325
(1867; digital repr., Albany, Oregon: SAGE Software, 1996), 1:78.
(1867; digital repr., Albany, Oregon: SAGE Software, 1996), 1:78.
