These 12 Men Shaped Christianity—But Were They Real? (2024)

In the Bible, Jesus Christ names 12 apostles to spread his gospel, and the early Christian church owes its rapid rise to theirmissionary zeal.Yet, for most of the Twelve,there's scant evidence of theirexistenceoutside of the New Testament.

InApostle: Travels Amongthe Tombsofthe Twelve, authorTom Bissellsetsofftodiscover whether the Twelve Apostles were actualhistorical figures or merely characters in a fictional story.On the way, hewalkedfor500milesalong theCamino de Santiagopilgrim route innorthernSpain,visitedthe placewhereJudas Iscariotreportedlyhanged himself,and huntedin vain for amysteriousmonastery in Kyrgyzstanwhere the bones ofthe ApostleMattheware believed to be buried. It’s a journey full of false starts, dead ends,and unsolved riddles that leaves himas perplexed aswhen hebegan.(Discover whythe Virgin Mary is the world's most powerful woman.)

Speaking from Vancouver,Bissellexplains whyone of the inspirations for his book was the Monty PythonfilmLife of Brianand how his views of Christianity changed along the way.

If there had been aNew York Timesbest-seller list in the first century A.D.,which column should the New Testament have appeared in? Fiction or nonfiction?

I’m not sure if that is a distinction that would have made a lot of sense to anyone in thefirst century. There was no distinction between evangelistic propaganda and what the writers themselves believed to be true.From a modern viewpoint,it’s hard tosee theGospelsas unvarnished,truthful accounts.Thejournalistic impulsedidn’t existback then. People’s partisanbeliefsthat magic and divinity were at work in the worldwere overriding. Todaywe would call it creative non-fiction, with the emphasison “creative.”

You grew up a Catholic, but then had a crisis of faith. Wind the clock back and explain how that inspired you to write this book.

I did not have a crisis of faith so much asI just read a few books that made me realize, “Wow, none of this stuff is probably true inthe way that I thought it was.” Yet I remaineddeeply interestedin these stories inthe Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. But I have toconfess that the biggestinspirationfor this book was the filmLife of Brian—thatscene where Brian isrunning from the Romans,jumps out of a tower,and lands in the middle of a marketplacefull of all these gabbling prophetssaying nonsense, and so just starts reciting random stuff and attracts an audience. Afterhavinggrown up in Catholicschoolwatching all these sanitized,educational Christian films, that segment of the film painted to me a more vivid, realistic,and psychologically believable portrait of thefirst centurythananything I’d ever seen! [Laughs]

You say that, “Christianity’s special appeal is largely furnished by its claims of historical legitimacy….yet the existence of the faith’s most crucial eyewitnesses is uncertain.”

Acouple of the names recorded in the New Testament areprobablyactual people. There was probably a Peter anda John,definitelya James(the brother of Jesus),and probably a Thomas. Beyond that, there’s nothing historical that verifies their existence other than the gospels themselves. So I think they’re a mixture of fact and fiction.

One of the great mysteriesof early Christian history is thatwe know afair amount about Paul andwe knowthat James,the brother of Jesus, was arealperson.Yet neither of them is a member of the Twelve. Soyou have these12people who were thefirst followers of Jesus, yet there’s nothing about them in any secular source. Paul’s letters mention both Peter and John, though, which suggests they were historical figures and not just names.

You begin your search in Jerusalem for the final resting place ofJudas Iscariot, whomyou call the “electromagnet of wickedness.”Tell us aboutthatjourney—and whether you believe Judas was a real historicalcharacter.

That is a very thorny question.According to tradition,thoughscripture is not clear on this,Judashanged himself in aplace calledHakeldamain theHinnomValley, which is this rocky, desert-likevalley in the southern part ofJerusalem.When you go there,it really does feel like it’s a cursed place.That’s the power of these stories.You feelthe centuries of hatred and disgust for thisperson who betrayed Jesus.

As to whether Judas was real, I think it’s probably true that Jesus was betrayed by someone. Whether or not his name was Judas is a much more difficult question. I suspect the broadoutlinesof the Judas story, asthegospel writers outlined it, is probably fictional.In a lotof the other Jesusstories, the gospel writersseemto besinging from the same hymn sheet. But with Judas,I think they had muchless raw material to work with,so they alltreated it in their own way.Thissuggests to me that he was more a fictional character than actual person.

In 2006, a team of translators and scholars working for National Geographic published the so-called lost “Gospel of Judas.”Did this shed any further light on the subject?

The Gospel of Judas was an artifact ofSethianChristianity,a very confrontational form of non-mainstream Christianity in thesecondcentury. They believed Judas walked a slightly different path than the conventional Judas. Their Judas is simultaneously an object of condemnation and also illumination. They believed in a completely different God from the proto-orthodox Christians of their time. TheSethian Christianshated the apostolic authority model that other Christians followed.There were a lot of really diverse forms of Christianity floating around in the first two hundredyears ofthefaith.And some of them were really odd.

Kyrgyzstanis not a place most of us associate with Bible stories. But you wenttherelooking forthe tomb ofMatthew.Tell us about your trip—and whether you found it.

Today,central Asia does not seem to bethe most Christian-accommodatingpart of the world,butuntil the Middle Agesthere werea large number of Christians.They were not Roman or Greek Christians. They wereMiddle Eastern Christians, whokept migrating eastward.

According to a medieval map from Spain,Matthew’s relics were buried in aplace called the Monastery of Armenian Brotherhood, which was believed to beon the shore ofLakeIssyk-Kul,this beautifulbody of water in the middle oftheKyrgyzstanMountains. A Russian archaeologist claimed to have found it in 2006,soIwent offto searchfor it. Isoondiscoveredthat there had never been an Armenianmonastery there,onlya19th-century Russian monastery.But it was one of myfavoritejourneys because it was really hard to find and was one of the most enchanting places I have ever been, even though myquest to find StMatthew'srelics came to an anti-climactic end.[Laughs]

You callthe ApostleJamesa “particularly elusive character.” In 2002, anossuarysurfaced inIsrael, which appeared to confirm his identity.Is there any truth to it?

We know James, the brother of Jesus,was a real person.He’s mentioned byFlaviusJosephus,afirst-century Jewish historian. Some people saythat the ossuary is real but the inscription,which says"James, the Brother of Jesus"in Aramaic, is not.No one hasfound his body,buthe wasclearlyawell-known figure in thefirstcentury, whoturns up an awful lot in early Christian writing. The factthatJosephus and others regardedthe Roman destruction ofJerusalem asdivine revenge for the death ofJames, who was killedcircaA.D66right before theJewish revoltagainst Rome, tells you everything you need to know about how significant hewas.

I’ve not seen the ossuary andI’m not a trained archaeologist, but I’m perfectly willing to believe thatJamescould have had a secreted away tomb,with an ossuary. His followers wouldalmost certainlyhave givenhim a significant burial site. But the problem with Jamesis that heconfounds everything orthodox Christians acceptaboutthevirginbirth. If he wereJesus’solder brother, that’s a big problem right therebecause Mary was supposed to be a virgin.I suspect James was real,that there is agood chance he was the older brotherofJesus,and that he was the most important figure infirst-century Christianity after Jesus.Butthe virgin birthdoes not makeaheck of alot of sense. Theknown laws of theuniversedon’t typically stop working.[Laughs]

Did your journey end up convincing you of the historical veracity of the Apostles? Or just make you even more confused?

It didn’t makeme either, really. One of my pet peeves is this notion thatsimplyto believe in something is good. I have a real hard time accepting that because what if you believe in something monstrous?A lot of the beliefs that come out ofthemonotheistic Abrahamic religionsare quiteupsetting from a modern perspective. The way they treat women, the way children are viewed,the way authority is viewed—thesedon’t have much of a place in today’s secular society.

ButI became much less hostile to Christianity over the course of this book.Anyone who enjoys opera orfilm or fiction doesn’thave alot of call to question meaning drawn from religion.The search for meaning inwordsor images, these longingswehave to be convinced,moved,or inspired byworks of the imagination—all have way more in common with each other than not.The stories of theTwelve Apostles are a huge part of how theWestern world decided to teach itself whatis meant by community and story-tellingand bytruth, friendship,and loyalty.

I realized that getting mad at religious people for believing what they believe isa bitlike getting mad at a rainstorm for making things wet. A better position is to try to find a place wherewe can allagree onthe importance of meaning derived from literatureor works of the imagination. I know itwould insult most Christians to consider the New Testament as a work of the imagination.ButI don’t meanthat in the sense that it’sall fake, but ratherin the sense of drawing consolation from another person’s attempt to order the universe.Maybethatit’s just a story is the best thing it can be.

This interview was edited for length and clarity.

Simon Worrall curatesBook Talk. Follow him onTwitteror atsimonworrallauthor.com.