The Twelve Defenders of the Faith
A good question was asked in
response to my last post about the Defenders (maybe I should talk about comic
books some more…). Before I answer it,
let me say that I don’t mean to denigrate the Defenders as a b-team comic. B-team in this particular context just means
that they aren’t the most well-known of heroes in the comic universe (here
particular to the Marvel Comic universe).
Being on a b-team is still pretty good.
There were some b-teams that brought some relatively obscure people up
from the minor leagues, to be sure (I am here thinking of characters like Dr.
Druid or Rocket Racoon – talk about coming from obscurity…Rocket was in the old
Hulk comics first long before he was a Guardian of the Galaxy. Speaking of which, a really odd ball cameo in
the Guardian movies is that of Howard the Duck, who had a terrible movie back in 1986).
There are some c and d listers as well, but sometimes a character like that can be a major player without ever holding their own popular series (in DC Comics I think of Dr. Fate, who plays important roles, but hasn’t really ever caught on in his own comic). Or they can be characters who make a small contribution to a larger narrative like Wundarr the Aquarian (I wonder if there is some kind of link to the later Hanna-Barbera cartoon “Thundarr the Barbarian” that was on air in the 1980s. Hmmm...) in the Project Pegasus story line of Marvel Two-in-One.
This gets me to the question at
hand: are there any Biblical comparisons to be made, particularly with the
Twelve disciples?
Perhaps so.
The Twelve are often thought of
in a monolithic grouping, which might explain how hard pressed we are to name
more than four or five of them. Would we
characterize them as a “team” like the Defenders, coming together for a common
cause, or to face a common challenge?
There is certainly a parallel
in the idea of diverse people coming together around a common cause. We know from tradition that James and John
were fishermen and that Matthew was a tax collector and that Judas had red
hair.
I think you might be waiting
for me to say “just kidding” about that last one, but I’m not. There is a tradition that Judas Iscariot was
a red-head. Let me digress a moment.
One of the long-standing
traditions surrounding Judas is that he was a red-headed man. Since there is no direct mention or
description of Judas or his hair in the Bible, where does this come from? Harald Ingholt, in his work “The Surname of
Judas Iscariot”[1] states that the word
Iscariot cannot be a geographical term and suggests that the word means
“reddish-brown” or “ruddy.” This could
be a reflection of complexion, or a hint at prominent hair color. Therefore, as C. S. Mann concludes, what we
have in the name Iscariot could well be a nickname, as in “Judas the red-head.”[2]
That is, unfortunately, not the only way to translate the name
Iscariot. There are several others that
include the idea that Iscariot denotes his hometown while others argue it comes
from the Sicarri, which was a group of zealous assassins that fought against
Rome.
The point here is that the group was a diverse one.
Focusing on the list of the Twelve found in the Gospel of Mark, we find that the author is suggesting that there is a development of some kind of inner circle, separate from the larger crowds that follow Jesus. They were set apart, according to Mark 3:14 to learn from Jesus and then to go out to preach and to have authority to cast out demons.
While we may not be clear as to
the group from which Jesus draws the Twelve (disciples, crowds, or some
combination thereof), the text wishes to make clear that the calling was
entirely of Jesus’ initiative. It should
not be surprising that the first four followers of Mark 1 are among those
listed. But these are not merely chosen
as students. There is the suggestion of
them being more akin to apprentices[3]
who will continue on in Jesus’ footsteps apart from him.
That list of Twelve is as
follows (according to the Gospel of Mark):
1. Simon
(Peter)
2. James
(son of Zebedee)
3. John,
brother of James (presumably James son of Zebedee)
4. Andrew
5. Philip
6. Bartholomew
7. Matthew
8. Thomas
9. James
(son of Alphaeus)
10. Thaddaeus
11. Simon
(the Cananaean)
12. Judas
Iscariot
I am going to skip down to
Andrew through Simon the Cananaean. None of these 8 are mentioned again in
the Gospel of Mark. One or two of them
don’t even make the lists in other Gospels.
But Thomas, though never mentioned again in Mark does have a pretty important role in the Gospel of John, not so
much for doubting, but for declaring Jesus “my Lord and my God” (which we tend
to miss when all we focus on is the doubting bit).
One of the most important
discoveries from the Nag Hammadi texts in 1945 was the Gospel of Thomas, in
which Thomas, not Peter, seems to have a far more important role. Not to get into that text, but what it points
to is that after the death and resurrection of Jesus, the disciples and/or
apostles (there is debate as to whether or not the two terms are to be applied
to the same group of people) went out according to traditions and started
founding churches.
They also developed their own
traditions and stories that make for some fascinating reading! So in one sense, this group of Twelve is,
going back to the comic book metaphor, like the Avengers or the Justice League
who gather around a central ideology and then go out to star in their own solo
comics, some which are more popular (Thomas and John especially) while others
tend to vanish into obscurity (James the son of Alphaeus and Thaddaeus). Still others are present, but for reasons
that aren’t because of their heroics (Judas).
What we seem to encounter with this list in the Gospel of Mark is a list of names that had a level of significance beyond that which the author knew (the author doesn’t seem to know what Boanerges means even though he translates it, nor does he explain the significance of “the Cananaean” which has ties to a political group of Zealots).
But the point the author of
Mark wants to drive home is that this
group was the Twelve and were
therefore set apart, even if some of them were b-team material at best. Only Peter, James, and John seem to get the
A-list treatment, but that really comes to the fore in Acts, not so much in the
Gospels.
The biggest difference here is
that, unlike the current Defenders show on Netflix, the Gospels present the
Twelve in some ways before we have
the solo stores. Netflix and Marvel
Cinematic Universe has done their work with the back stories first before
pulling together the teams, which really pays off. The Gospels give us the team (which falls
apart pretty fast in Mark) before we hear of their exploits later on.
So who says you can’t find
something to relate to in the Bible?
Just start talking about comics and BOOM! We have a great way to talk about the
Gospels. So as Stan Lee would say in
closing, “Excelsior!”
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