Philip

Like Peter and Andrew, Philip was also a native ofBethsaida. Originally one of John the Baptist’s disciples, he was with the Baptist when Jesus was identified as the Lamb of God. After being himself called to follow Christ as a disciple, Philip went and found his friend, Nathaniel. 

            Philip was asked by Jesus where they could get enough food to feed the multitudes. He also was approached by some non-believers in Jerusalem who wanted to meet with Christ. Little more is known about Philip, but the overall impression he gives is as a somewhat shy, sober-minded individual.

             According to tradition, Philip preached the gospel inPhrygia and was martyred there, tied with ropes to a cross and tortured until he died. His body was buried there in Hierapolis.

John

A fisherman by trade, John was the son of Zebedee and Salome and the brother of James the Greater. According to tradition he became a disciple of John the Baptist before being called by Christ, along with his brother, Peter, and Andrew.

Among the disciples John had a prominent position. Peter, James, and he were the only witnesses of the raising of Jairus’ daughter, the Transfiguration, and the agony in Gethsemane. Only he and Peter were sent into the city to make preparations for the Last Supper, and at the supper he was seated next to Christ. It is also commonly accepted that John was the “other disciple” who with Peter followed Christ after the arrest into the palace of the high priest. John alone was at the foot of the cross with the mother of Jesus and other women, and John took Mary into his care as commanded by Jesus. After the Resurrection John and Peter were the first of the disciples to run to the grave, and John was the first to believe that Jesus had truly risen. When Jesus later appeared at the Lake of Genesareth, John was the first to recognize his master standing on the shore. His relationship with Jesus was always close, seen clearly in the title by which he was accustomed to indicate himself, “the disciple whom Jesus loved.”

Early Christian writers testify that John lived in Ephesus in the last decades of the first century. Justin Martyr refers to John living in that city, and Irenaeus declared that John wrote his gospel there. Tertullian tells that John was thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil before the Porta Latina at Rome but miraculously escaped injury. And Eusebius and others state that John was banished to Patmos during the reign of the Emperor Domitian which lasted from 81-96 AD. Saint John is said to have died of old age in Ephesus around AD 100.