When it comes to games involving teams other than the team I am loyal to, 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, really skinny, who got mocked much, even by some girls. That may have been the reason I often 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.
Taking History
of Christianity at CCU with the fantastic Dr. Megan DeVore, I enjoyed the class since it was great, but it was a ton of work. In addition to three papers, we 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 the scholarship here is totally lacking,
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.”
(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.”
(Numerous modern scholars attempt to refute the historical statements that the gospel of
Matthew was originally written in Hebrew. Now we do not have any original manuscripts, however Eusebius quotes several different sources who say Matthew wrote his gospel
in Hebrew. Sadly, many modern scholars flat out ignore early Christian writers. I do add that what Eusebius termed as "Hebrew" might have been Aramaic.)
Armenia is the country most associated with
Bartholomew, which was larger around that time period. 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…” 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).
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. 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.”
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. 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!
