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     The accounts about Jesus life in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in the New Testament focus primarily upon His three years of ministry, death and resurrection from the dead.  During those last three years, Jesus selected 12 disciples who would become the apostles after He left the earth.  Of these 12 we are told nothing about their wives and children.  In these four writings we become familiar with Peter, James and John, who were Jesus inner circle.  We know they were fishermen and we are allowed a glimpse into their character, yet we know very little about them.  Of the other nine, we know even less.  We have an oral statement by Nathanael and Judas (not Iscariot).  Matthew was a tax collector and writer of his namesake gospel, but we know little more of him and nothing he said is recorded.  What we know of “doubting” Thomas is his demand for proof that Jesus was in fact Jesus.
     We are acquainted with Judas Iscariot, the infamous disciple who was a thief, stealing from the benevolence bag (John 12:6) and who betrayed Jesus on the night before Jesus trial and death.  Then in his anguish over the betrayal, he hung himself.  Andrew (a fisherman, who lived with his bother, Peter – Mark 1:16, 29) and Philip are mentioned by name as being present with Jesus at times.  Other than being named in the lists of the 12, the remaining four disciples are not even mentioned in the New Testament.  Why didn’t the Gospel writers give us details about the background, character, families and lives of the disciples, those who would be the foundation of the New Testament Church of Christ (Ephesians 2:19-20)?
     Further, the 28 chapters of the Book of Acts, spanning 30 years, continues the chronicle, not of Jesus’ ministry, but of the disciples’ (apostles’) activities after Jesus ascended into heaven.  The 11 remaining disciples are named in its introduction (Acts 1:13).  Matthias was selected as Judas’ replacement (Acts 1:21-26), but we know only his name and nothing of his work.  We are presented with the early persecution of John and Peter in chapters 2-5 (John is not mentioned again after chapter eight).  Peter’s activity is highlighted, but he suddenly drops out of the picture in chapter 15, where Paul’s work becomes the focus for the last 13 chapters.  James, John’s brother, who the Gospel show he was one of three of Jesus’ closest disciples, is not mentioned, except the cursory note of his death by Herod Antipas’ sword (Acts 12:1).  This book is commonly called Acts of the Apostles, yet we have no record of any activity of 10 apostles.  Nothing!  How do we account for such omission, such brevity?  We can only conclude that it is by design.  The focus was not meant to be upon the apostles, but upon Jesus and His mission (salvation of mankind) and the rapid spread of the early Church of Christ from Judea in Palestine to Rome.  Such brevity is not man’s approach, but God’s ... by inspiration.

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