The gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke offer us a synoptic list of the 12 original disciples of Jesus Christ. The Gospel of John is an exception to this pattern though. It does not provide an ordered list of the disciples’ names; however, it does make mention of “the twelve” in John 6:67, which helps us to understand that the 12 names mentioned in the previous gospel accounts are aligned with John’s account.
If you take any time to look at the names listed in the first three Gospels in the New Testament, you will encounter some inconsistencies that will likely require further study to make sense of. One example will connect us to the topic of this blog post, which is, who is the other Judas amongst the 12 original disciples? I reference him as being the “other Judas” because I’m willing to bet that when the name Judas is mentioned in reference to scripture, Judas Iscariot is the first person that comes to mind. But there isn’t much confusion about who that Judas was or what he did, partially because the words “traitor” and “betrayed” follow the mentions of his name. The Judas we’re focusing on is sometimes followed by the description of “the brother of James” – at least as it appears in Luke 6:16. So what’s confusing about who this Judas was?
For one, this Judas is not mentioned in every one of those previously referenced synoptic lists that can be found in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. There is, however, another name that shows up in the lists in both Matthew and Mark. In Matthew 10:3, a disciple named Lebbaeus is mentioned and as we continue to read in that verse, we see that Lebbaeus had a surname, which was Thaddaeus. We can then read in Mark 3:18 that there was a disciple who was simply named Thaddeus. So, with confidence we can know that Lebbaeus and Thaddeus were the same person. This takes us back to Luke 6:16, where we do not see either Lebbaeus or Thaddeus mentioned in Luke’s list of the 12 disciples, but instead we see “Judas the brother of James” mentioned for the first time, being one of the only names that stands out as being different from the other gospels.
This takes me to my first major observation: Judas the brother of James, Lebbaeus, and Thaddeus are the same person.
Before moving on to talking about a key characteristic of this particular disciple, I think there is one more point worth mentioning that helps us to gain a better understanding of Judas. To do that, we have to look at the book of Jude, and specifically at Jude 1:1, which starts with this:
Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called:
We see again the phrasing of words “brother of James” as the author of this letter identifies himself, shortly after stating himself as “Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ”. Based upon everything else that we’ve already studied out, there is a great amount of circumstantial evidence that leads us to believe that Judas (brother of James) is the author of the book of Jude. Especially after considering that Jude is a form of the name Judas and Judah, which all have the same biblical definition of, he shall be praised.
This takes me to my second major observation: There is much more to Judas and his ministry than meets the eye!
If you take any time to look into this particular disciple’s life and ministry, you’ll find out that not much is said about him throughout the four gospel accounts. There are actually only five mentions of him in the four gospels and one other in Acts 1. Based off the circumstantial evidence though, it can be said that Judas was the author of the book of Jude and was used by God to provide wisdom and guidance by contributing to the very words of God.
Now that we’ve gained a better understanding of who Judas was and where he shows up in scripture, let’s look at a situation from the Gospel of John that helps us to understand his character as one of the original 12 disciples of Jesus Christ. We are only going to look at this one example because quite frankly outside of it, there is not much else to investigate that doesn’t require us to rely on the circumstantial evidence that I’ve already covered. But for the sake of simplicity and practically, moving forward we will focus on a question that we see Judas ask Jesus directly in John 14:22, which reads:
Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?
Here we have the one scenario where we see this Judas speak out, and it is simply to ask Jesus a question. To paraphrase it, he asks why Jesus revealed himself to the disciples, but not unto the rest of the world.
To make sense of this question we do have to understand the context of the chapter. To summarize what has prompted it, Jesus had been explaining, preparing, and comforting the disciples in regard to his departure. This scene takes place after the last supper and after Judas Iscariot left the rest of the disciples to sell Jesus out to those who had been seeking to punish him.
The question itself was a response to verses 19-21, in which Jesus shares the news that the world is going to see him no more, but the disciples did see him and that because he lived, they would live also. Remembering that the disciples did not have the benefit of hindsight in the same way we do (in knowing what is going to come for Jesus as we read the gospels), a lot of their questions begin to make more sense. Likely, we would be asking many of the same questions!
So, when Judas asks this question to his master, he is approaching Jesus from a place of selflessness. This is not a self-focused question, or a question based in admiration of a privilege he perceived himself having in comparison to others. He was asking why others – “the world” – would not be able to meet him as the disciples had. Thaddaeus had those who did not know Jesus Christ in mind when he asked this question. From the one mention of Judas speaking, we see that Thaddaeus had a desire to see others have the same opportunity that he had. He wanted people to know Jesus Christ because he had a heart for those who were without a relationship with the Savior.
The name Thaddaeus in scripture is defined as meaning large hearted and courageous. The name Lebbaeus in scripture is defined as meaning a man of heart. Both name’s meanings are well-suited definitions for someone who appears to have had a large heart for the same people that we know our God has a large heart for – the lost. This is significant because not every one of the 12 disciples thought this way at this point in their ministry. And not every disciple of Jesus Christ in the modern world, when faced with difficult news, immediately has concerns for those who do not know Jesus Christ. Perhaps this is the lesson to be learned from Judas, the brother of James.
One question that should come to mind for a believer of Jesus Christ is, do we have hearts for the same thing God has a heart for or do our hearts lead us toward self-preservation?
This takes me to my third major observation: Judas had the right heart as a follower of Jesus Christ.
Colossians 3:2 tells us to set our affection on things above and not on things on the earth. Because Thaddaeus had developed a heart for the same things that Jesus had a heart for, while some of the disciples were caught up in this moment focusing on themselves and their own situations, Thaddaeus was asking questions about the eternal opportunity that he didn’t realize all would someday have the chance to obtain.
Judas the brother of James is another example of a disciple that didn’t have the spotlight during the gospel accounts, but when all eyes were on him, his actions reflected the light of Jesus Christ. This is a valuable concept for anyone that claims to be a disciple of Jesus: we don’t have to be the loudest or the smartest person in our ministries in order to reflect the true nature of our Lord. The truth is, if any of us took what we learned about Thaddaeus’ heart behind his question in John 14:22, we would be enabled to better glorify Jesus Christ with our lives.
Nick Hatton is a part of the discipleship team at Midtown Baptist Temple in Kansas City, MO.