--- title: "Biblical Figures" category: "other" description: "Studies of particular people in Scripture." draft: false date_created: 2026-08-08 date_modified: 2026-10-02 ai_provider_models: - anthropic/claude-opus-5 - anthropic/claude-opus-5.5 - anthropic/claude-sonnet-5 --- # Biblical Figures Studies of particular people in Scripture — the twelve disciples, the patriarchs, the prophets, the kings. Filing a study here is a decision about what it is *most* about. A study of Melchizedek's priesthood is [Christology](https://the-way.lewy.au/jesus/melchizedek-priesthood/), because its subject is the office Christ holds rather than the man who briefly held it first. A study belongs here when the person is the subject, not the illustration.
- __The Twelve: Disciples and Apostles__ --- The four lists of the Twelve compared position by position: the fixed groups of four hiding inside them, why the number had to be twelve, and the difference between a disciple and an apostle. [:octicons-arrow-right-24: Read](https://the-way.lewy.au/biblical-figures/twelve-apostles/) - __Simon Peter__ --- The fisherman Jesus renamed at first meeting: what 'Cephas' meant before Peter had done anything to deserve it, and why he heads all four lists of the Twelve. [:octicons-arrow-right-24: Read](https://the-way.lewy.au/biblical-figures/peter/) - __Andrew__ --- The apostle who is introduced three times and is bringing someone to Jesus on each occasion — including the boy with the loaves and the Greeks who came asking. [:octicons-arrow-right-24: Read](https://the-way.lewy.au/biblical-figures/andrew/) - __James son of Zebedee__ --- One of the inner three, nicknamed Son of Thunder, and the only apostle whose death Scripture actually records. [:octicons-arrow-right-24: Read](https://the-way.lewy.au/biblical-figures/james-son-of-zebedee/) - __John son of Zebedee__ --- The Son of Thunder who never names himself, the apostle given care of Jesus' mother from the cross, and the one who wrote most of the New Testament's closing vision. [:octicons-arrow-right-24: Read](https://the-way.lewy.au/biblical-figures/john/) - __Philip__ --- The apostle Jesus tested with an impossible catering question, who answered by doing the arithmetic — and who the Greeks approached when they wanted to see Jesus. [:octicons-arrow-right-24: Read](https://the-way.lewy.au/biblical-figures/philip/) - __Bartholomew (Nathanael)__ --- An apostle whose name is a patronymic, not a personal name — and the cumulative case, laid out honestly, for identifying him with Nathanael of Cana. [:octicons-arrow-right-24: Read](https://the-way.lewy.au/biblical-figures/bartholomew/) - __Thomas__ --- The apostle who volunteered to die with Jesus, admitted he did not know the way, and made the highest confession of deity in the Gospels — all before anyone called him a doubter. [:octicons-arrow-right-24: Read](https://the-way.lewy.au/biblical-figures/thomas/) - __Matthew (Levi)__ --- The tax collector who left the booth mid-shift, threw a party for his disreputable colleagues, and then wrote himself into his own Gospel with the job title still attached. [:octicons-arrow-right-24: Read](https://the-way.lewy.au/biblical-figures/matthew/) - __James son of Alphaeus__ --- An apostle who heads a group of four in all four lists and never speaks, acts, or is described — and why the identifications commonly proposed for him do not hold up. [:octicons-arrow-right-24: Read](https://the-way.lewy.au/biblical-figures/james-son-of-alphaeus/) - __Thaddaeus (Judas son of James)__ --- The apostle with two names and one recorded question — asked in the upper room, and answered with a promise about where God intends to live. [:octicons-arrow-right-24: Read](https://the-way.lewy.au/biblical-figures/thaddaeus/) - __Simon the Zealot__ --- The apostle whose only description is a political label — and why 'Simon the Canaanite' in older translations is a mistranslation worth correcting. [:octicons-arrow-right-24: Read](https://the-way.lewy.au/biblical-figures/simon-the-zealot/) - __Judas Iscariot__ --- The apostle who is last in every list: what his name probably means, what the money box reveals, and how to handle the two accounts of his death honestly. [:octicons-arrow-right-24: Read](https://the-way.lewy.au/biblical-figures/judas-iscariot/) - __Paul: Apostle to the Gentiles__ --- The man who persecuted the church became the one Jesus sent specifically to the Gentiles -- what Scripture actually claims about the connection between his conversion and theirs, and where it stops short of calling him a type. [:octicons-arrow-right-24: Read](https://the-way.lewy.au/biblical-figures/paul/)