Where Did the 12 Apostles Go?  Where did the twel apostles go? >> Huh? Let's see. >> All right, let's see it. >> After Jesus's resurrection, the twel apostles scattered across the ancient world to spread his message. Peter went to Antioch, then Rome, crucified upside down. >> The tradition of Peter being crucified upside down comes from a late 2n century apocryphal text called the Acts of Peter, which is otherwise entirely rejected by most Christians. Now we do have other late 2nd century traditions about Peter being martyed. Uh but the earliest references we have to Peter's death don't explicitly mention martyrdom. For instance, in 1 Clement 5, there is a reference to Peter having gone through many labors or sufferings and thus having testified, he went to his appointed place of glory, which many have interpreted as martyrdom, which is certainly well within the realm of plausibility, but it's not exactly clear. But the notion that Peter was crucified upside down comes from well over a century after he would have died and comes from a text whose historicity is otherwise entirely rejected by most Christians. >> Andrew traveled to Cyia and Greece crucified in Patras. >> The tradition of Andrew being crucified also comes from a late 2nd or early 3rd century apocryphal text called the acts of Andrew. Again the historicity of which is entirely rejected by the overwhelming majority of Christians apart from the tradition about the nature of his death which again comes from well over a century after his actual death and does not actually firmly establish anything about his death. So, as with the majority of the examples we're going to see, these traditions about how these folks were martyed come from long after their deaths and are overwhelmingly parts of non-historical apocryphal narratives. >> James the Greater preached in Spain, martyed by sword in Jerusalem. >> Traditions about James the Greater preaching in Spain don't come from anywhere near the Bible. They actually originate in traditions from 6th and 7th century CE Spain. And according to the New Testament, specifically the book of Acts 12, James was executed by Herod agria likely in the early 40s CE. So there wouldn't really have been time for him to travel to Spain to preach. >> John stayed in Ephesus, exiled to Patmos, died naturally. This account relies on the identification of the beloved disciple John with John the author of revelation which is pretty widely rejected by scholars today and is based on nothing more than tradition that originates in the mid 2nd century CE and conflicts with all the data we have related to the Greek of revelation compared to the Greek of the gospel of John. They were definitely not written by the same author. And also the Gospel of John was not written by someone named John. That is also a post-biblical tradition. >> Okay. >> Philip went to Friia in Asia Minor, crucified upside down. >> Much like some of the other figures on this list, traditions about Philip's crucifixion originate in apocryphal texts that are widely rejected by the overwhelming majority of Christians. Apart from these traditions about how the apostles died, our earliest discussion about the death of Philip comes from a writer named Pelicrates of Ephesus writing toward the end of the 2nd century CE. And all he says is that Philip died and was buried in a certain location. >> Bartholomew reached Armenia and India flayed and beheaded. >> Our earliest references to a tradition of Bartholomew being martyed come from a late fourth or early fifth century CE. apocryphal text called the acts of Bartholomew and it is widely rejected as ahistorical by the overwhelming majority of Christians again apart from the tradition about his martyrdom according to Ucius there was a late second century author who discusses Bartholomew going to India so that is also a late tradition but much earlier attested than the tradition of Bartholomew's martyrdom >> Thomas preached in Persia and India pierced by spears >> the tradition of Thomas's martyrdom comes from the early 3rd century apocryphal acts of Thomas. Again, it is rejected as a historical by the overwhelming majority of Christians, apart from the tradition about his martyrdom. >> Matthew spread the gospel in Ethiopia, stabbed to death. >> Traditions about Matthew's preaching and martyrdom are also inconsistent and late. Some placing him in Ethiopia, others in Persia. But the 3rd century apocryphal acts of Matthew is where we get the tradition of his martyrdom. >> James the less stayed in Jerusalem thrown from the temple. >> Now here there is the issue of the fact that later Christians conflated James the less the son of Alphus with James the brother of Jesus. James the brother of Jesus has probably the best historical argument for martyrdom. uh his death is actually mentioned in Josephus. But James the less as James the son of Alfus doesn't have any martyrdom traditions until starting in the fourth and fifth centuries CE. >> Thaddius Jude traveled to Syria and Mesopotamia martyed in Beirut. >> Traditions about the martyrdom of Thaddius or Jude originate in 3rd and 4th century CE apocryphal texts. >> Simon the Zealot preached in North Africa killed in Persia. Again, the earliest references to Simon the Zealot being martyed come from apocryphal texts that were written in the 3rd, fourth, and fifth centuries CE and then get elaborated on in later medieval tradition. >> Matias, who replaced Judas, went to the Caspian region, stoned and beheaded. >> The earliest reference to a martyrdom for Matias comes from the acts of Andrew and Matias, an apocryphal text composed in the 3rd or 4th centuries CE. And the historicity of that text is widely rejected by Christians apart from this tradition about this martyrdom. >> Wow. >> Their message reshaped the world and their paths still echo through history. >> Here's the overwhelming reality. Friends, >> let's be clear. The majority of what we heard was overwhelmingly not reality, but much later traditions that were created by people writing apocryphal texts that the majority of Christians entirely reject anyway. Nobody lays down their life like that, all those different ways to die for a lie that they made up. Now listen, I know a lot of people have laid down their life for something that they've believed in the past because we can believe something after the fact and believe it so much that we would lay our life down for it. But nobody, they themselves make up a lie and then give their life like that. I don't know anybody who is suggesting that Jesus's 12 apostles made up the lie of his resurrection. And as we've already seen, we don't really have any good evidence that the majority of these men died by martyrdom. So the notion that they all went to their deaths proclaiming the resurrection of Jesus is a tradition that is not supported by good data. The notion that it was a lie that they made up is also not something that I know people are asserting. Certainly there are people out there who have asserted that. But as far as the scholars who are actually challenging the historicity of the resurrection and challenging the historicity of these traditions are not saying, "Oh yeah, they just made up a lie." They are saying they probably sincerely believed that Jesus was resurrected. But there is an enormous difference between sincerely believing something that's not true and making up a lie. Either way, however, there are many examples of people going to their deaths. Again, we don't have good data indicating that the majority of these men actually were martyed for their beliefs. But we do have examples throughout history and down to today of people who were willing to go to their deaths for things that they believed that were not true. and sometimes even for things that they imagine to be true or fabricated as true because they valued that claim and the benefits of that claim more than they valued their safety. And while people might say, "Well, that doesn't make any sense. That's not human nature." It's exactly human nature. People frequently will sacrifice their lives for something that they believe is greater than them. Whether it's family or a loved one or community or their identity, their nation, their ethnicity, whatever. There are a lot of different things that people can perceive to be of greater importance than themselves that they will sacrifice their own lives to protect or to advance. Sometimes it's even just their legacy, their memory within a community or the contribution that it might make to their loved ones around them for them to give up their lives. There are a lot of different reasons that people risk and sacrifice their lives and to try to reduce it all down to this notion that, oh well, you're claiming they made up a lie and then went to their deaths for that lie. That's a straw man fallacy. And it also wildly misunderstands human nature and the nature of martyrdom and the nature of self-sacrifice and so many other things about human nature and human cognition. Here's the reality. No, this is not the reality. This is a claim that is not supported by any data being propped up by the accumulation of a number of other claims that are not supported by any data. >> Jesus rose from the grave. All of these guys minus two, Judas who took his own life and John who died on Patmos. The other 10 and many more have literally laid their life down for the message of this risen savior. And throughout history, countless people have laid their lives down for the messages of Islam and of Mormonism and of Buddhism and even of nationalism on the parts of explicitly secular and even atheist groups. People give their lives for a lot of different reasons. And the notion that the giving of one's life indicates that they must have known something to be incontrovertibly true and therefore their death constitutes evidence of the truthfulness of those claims is is just nonsense. That's not logic. That's just rhetoric. Let me tell you friend, there has been nobody like this in history. Nobody upon which the entire calendar of the entire world revolves around but Jesus. He is more than a man. He's God in the flesh. He stepped out of heaven to reconcile humanity to himself. They believed it because they saw him with their own eyes. They felt him. They heard from him. They were convinced that he had risen from the grave proving who he was. So my question for you today after seeing this video that maybe you didn't just stumble across on social media but maybe God wanted you to see is the most important question that ever could be asked. Who do you say that Jesus is? I believe that he's the savior of the world. What do you think? I think you should learn to think more critically about the claims that you come across rather than just excitedly and uncritically repeating them to the internet for no other reason than that they set off the tuning fork in the loins of your own dogmatism. And the fit for this video has been Get Low by my Monades nuts., Where Did the 12 Apostles Go?, YouTube, 01kgnp9cysff6s8y46j1jkb8k8.