The Apostles

At a glance

The chapter heading text (KJV)

“And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease… Now the names of the twelve apostles are these; The first, Simon, who is called Peter… and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him.”

Matthew 10:1–4 KJV

Summary

This brief chapter turns from the crowd to the twelve men chosen to be sent to them, and Bonhoeffer makes the most of the list of names Matthew provides. He notes how little these men had in common by natural disposition or political conviction — Matthew the collaborationist tax collector and Simon the anti-Roman zealot are named side by side, representing opposite ends of first-century Jewish political life, alongside fishermen and, at the very end, the betrayer.

The point, for Bonhoeffer, is that nothing except Christ's own call accounts for this group's unity. No shared class, education, temperament or cause could have brought Matthew and Simon into cooperation; only the fact that the same voice called each of them individually, exactly as Levi was called in chapter 2, created a fellowship that transcended every division that would otherwise have kept them apart or set them against one another.

He also gives the gift they receive — power over unclean spirits and disease — a specific theological weight: it is not a personal spiritual achievement any of the Twelve earned, but power delegated entirely from Christ for the sake of the mission he is about to send them on. They do Christ's own work because he has equipped them to, not because they have independently developed the capacity.

Bonhoeffer closes on Judas, refusing either to explain him away or to let his presence undermine the pattern established for the other eleven. That someone called by the same voice, given the same commission, could still betray Christ stands, in his reading, as a permanent, sobering reminder that being named among the messengers is itself no guarantee of faithfulness — call and gift do not automatically secure the outcome; obedience, examined throughout the book so far, still has to follow.

Key points

• The Twelve share almost nothing by background or political conviction — a collaborationist tax collector and an anti-Roman zealot are named side by side.
• Bonhoeffer argues that only Christ's own call, not any natural affinity, accounts for this group's unity and cooperation.
• Their power over sickness and unclean spirits is delegated entirely from Christ for the mission's sake, not a personal spiritual achievement.
• Judas's inclusion in the list is read as a dark, permanent warning rather than an anomaly to be explained away.
• Being called and equipped is no automatic guarantee of faithfulness — obedience still has to follow the call, for every disciple, not only for Judas.

Related Scripture

• Mark 3:13–19
• Luke 6:12–16
• John 6:70–71
• 1 Corinthians 1:26–29

For reflection and discussion

1. Where have you experienced real, God-given unity with people you otherwise have almost nothing in common with?
2. Bonhoeffer treats Judas's presence among the Twelve as a sobering warning, not an anomaly. What does that suggest about how seriously to take your own ongoing need for obedience, even after a genuine call?
3. Is there a gift or capacity in your life that you have started to think of as your own achievement, rather than something delegated to you for a purpose beyond yourself?