Chapter # 3 Paragraph # 3 Study # 4
October 29, 2019
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
(118)
1901 ASV
16 And Simon he surnamed Peter;
17 And James the [
son] of Zebedee, and John the brother of James; and he surnamed them Boanerges, which is, The sons of thunder:
18 And Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the [
son] of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Canaanite,
19 And Judas Iscariot, which also betrayed him: and they went into an house.
- I. The "Group of Twelve".
- A. Those of special note.
- 1. Simon, renamed: Peter.
- a. If "Simon" is a hellenized form of "Simeon", as some say, it was first used by Leah to name her second son whom she called "Simeon" (derived from a verb "to hear") because "Yahweh hath heard that I [am] hated" so that He gave her this second son. Leah's "hope" was that "two" sons would turn her husband's heart toward her. "Reuben" came out of the idea that Yahweh had "looked" (eyes) and "Simeon" came out of the idea that Yahweh had "heard" (ears). These "two" had this in common: "my affliction" (Genesis 29:32) and "I [am] hated" (Genesis 29:31, 33). The name is rooted in the longing to "be somebody" in the eyes of her husband. Interestingly, this "Simeon" is described by his father, Jacob, as "an instrument of cruelty" (Genesis 49:5) and Moses skips over him without mention in the blessings of Deuteronomy 33. Some think this was caused by his "cruelty", but his brother-in-crime was just as cruel and was not skipped.
- b. Simon's father is identified multiple times in the Gospel of John as "Jonas" (Jonah; as both Matthew and Luke tell us in Matthew 12 and 16, and Luke 11:29-32). Jonah was notable for his hostility toward the Ninevites and disobedience toward God; attitudes rooted in his lack of compassion and "hatred". Simon had indicators of these traits of his father's name sake within himself. Jesus deliberately identifies "Simon" as "son of Jonah" in the three-fold "restoration" of him in the notable passage, John 21:15-17, where He gave him the charge to "go up to Nineveh" in the sense of exercising compassion upon Jesus' "sheep" who need a shepherd.
- c. That Jesus gave him a different "shall be" name indicates that He intended to change Simon into a highly significant "Peter" (Galatians 2:7) ... no longer rooted in "being hated", or "vainly hoping" that "love" would arise out of "productions". Peter was to become a "rock", significantly different from a "performance-oriented seeker of status". The poison was not completed eradicated as Simon gradually turned into Peter, as Galatians 2:11 and following indicates, but great progress was made as Acts 15:17 and following indicates.
- 1) The verb translated in the Authorized Version as "surnamed" and in the NASB as "gave" is, again, an error because of Mark's "literary design". The word is eretheken and it is used by Mark in 8/9 other texts (16:18 not being "Mark's" words). The translators of the Authorized Version use "lay" (in the phrases "lay hands upon") in six of the nine, giving the meaning of "placing upon" a person.
- 2) The rather obvious meaning in our text is Jesus "laid a name upon" Simon: Peter. And He also "laid a name upon" James and John: Sons of Thunder.
- d. That Jesus focused upon "Simon's" destiny (the sense of having a "name" laid upon him) as "Peter" at the beginning of the choices of the Twelve shows that Jesus "called those that He wanted" (not those who seemed to have certain admirable qualities suited to their status in Jesus' plans).
- 2. James and John having a "name" "laid upon them": Sons of Thunder.
- a. James had the distinction of being among the earliest martyrs of the Church (Acts 12:2) as had Stephen (Acts 7:59).
- b. John, alternatively, had the distinction of being the only one of the original twelve to not be martyred, living to a ripe old age and penning the Gospel of John and The Revelation of Jesus Christ as well as three letters found in the canon of the New Testament.
- c. But, the rather consistent use of "thunder" in the New Testament is found both in John 12:29 and in John's "Revelation of Jesus Christ" (nine other references to "thunder") to be "the thunderous declarations of words from God" regarding, especially, "prophetic words". This exactly fits the sense given in the original selection of James and John in 1:19 as "menders of nets" (i.e., "menders of doctrine" among men).
- c. The description as "sons of thunder" might have an illustration of meaning in Luke 9:54 where they wished to call down fire from heaven upon those insulting Jesus except for His rebuke in the statement that they did "not know what manner of spirit [they] were of". The "laying of names" upon these disciples by Jesus was not a characterization of their current personalities or actions, but of their future development as "disciples" following Jesus.
- B. The rest.
- 1. Andrew.
- 2. Philip.
- 3. Bartholomew.
- 4. Matthew.
- 5. Thomas.
- 6. James of Alphaeus.
- 7. Thaddaeus.
- 8. Simon, the Canaanite.
- * 9. Judas Iscariot, noted for betrayal.
