How the Apostles Died & The Death of Jesus

Matthew – Suffered martyrdom by sword in Ethiopia.

Mark – Died in Alexandria, Egypt, after being dragged by horses through the streets until he was dead.

Luke – Was hanged in Greece as a result of his tremendous preaching to the lost.

John – Faced martyrdom when he was boiled in a huge basin of boiling oil during a wave of persecution in Rome. However, he was miraculously delivered from death. John was then sentenced to the mines on the prison island of Patmos. He wrote his prophetic Book of Revelation on Patmos. The apostle John was later freed and returned to serve as Bishop of Edessa in what is modern day Turkey. He died as an old man, the only apostle to actually die peacefully.

Peter – Was crucified upside down on an X-shaped cross. According to church tradition, it was because he told his tormentors that he felt unworthy to die in the same way that Jesus Christ had died.

James – This leader of the church in Jerusalem was thrown over a hundred feet down from the southeast pinnacle of the Temple when he refused to deny his faith in Christ. When they discovered that he had survived the fall, his enemies beat him to death with a club. This was the same pinnacle where Satan had taken Jesus during His temptation.

James the Great – Son of Zebedee, was a fisherman by trade when Jesus called him to a lifetime of ministry. As a strong leader of the church, he was ultimately beheaded at Jerusalem. The Roman officer who guarded him, defended his faith at his trial. Later, the officer walked beside James to the place of execution. Overcome by conviction, the officer declared his new faith to the judge and knelt beside James to accept beheading as a Christian.

Bartholomew – Also known as Nathaniel, he was a missionary to Asia. He witnessed for our Lord in what is present-day Turkey. He was martyred for his preaching in Armenia, where he was flayed to death by a whip.

Andrew – Was crucified on an X-shaped cross in Patras, Greece. After being whipped severely by 7 soldiers, they tied his body to the cross with cords to prolong his agony. His followers reported that, when he was led toward the cross, he saluted it in these words: “I have long desired and expected this happy hour. The cross has been consecrated by the body of Christ hanging on it.” He continued to preach to his tormentors from that cross for two days until he died.

Thomas – Was stabbed with a spear while in India on one of his missionary trips to establish the church there on that continent.

Jude – Was killed with arrows when he refused to deny his faith in Christ.

Matthias – The apostle chosen to replace the traitor, Judas Iscariot, was stoned and then beheaded,

Paul – Was tortured and then beheaded by the evil Emperor Nero at Rome in A.D. 67. Paul endured a lengthy imprisonment, which allowed him to write his many epistles to the churches he had formed throughout the Roman Empire. These letters, which taught many of the foundational doctrines of Christianity, form a large portion of the New Testament.

Perhaps this is a reminder to us. That our sufferings here are indeed minor compared to the intense persecution and cold cruelty faced by the apostles and disciples during their times for the sake of the Faith.

The (Scientific) Death of Jesus
At the age of 33, Jesus was condemned to death. At the time, crucifixion was the “worst” death. Only the worst criminals were condemned to be crucified. Yet, it was even more dreadful for Jesus, unlike other criminals condemned to death by crucifixion. Jesus was to be nailed to the cross by His hands and feet. Each nail was 6 to 8 inches long. The nails were driven into His wrists, not into His palms as is commonly portrayed. There’s a tendon in the wrist that extends to the shoulder. The Roman guards knew that when the nails were being hammered into the wrist, that tendon would tear and break, forcing Jesus to use His back muscles to support Himself so that he could breathe. Both of His feet were nailed together. Thus He was forced to support Himself on the single nail that impaled His feet to the cross. Jesus could not support Himself with His legs because of the pain. So He was forced to alternate between arching His back then using His legs just to continue to breathe. Imagine the struggle, the pain, the suffering, the courage. Jesus endured this reality for over 3 hours! Can you imagine this kind of suffering? A few minutes before He died, Jesus stopped bleeding. He was simply pouring water from His wounds. From common images, we see wounds to His hands and feet and even the spear wound to His side — But do we really realize His wounds were actually made in His body? A hammer driving large nails through the wrist, the feet overlapped and an even larger nail hammered through the arches, then a Roman guard piercing His side with a spear. But before the nails and the spear, Jesus was whipped and beaten. The whipping was so severe that it tore the flesh from His body. The beating so horrific, that His face was torn and His beard ripped from His face. The crown of thorns cut deeply into His scalp. Most men would not have survived this torture. He had no more blood to bleed out; only water poured from His wounds. The human adult body contains about 3.5 liters (just less than a gallon) of blood. Jesus poured all 3.5 liters of His blood; He had 3 nails hammered into His members; a crown of thorns on His head, and, beyond that, a Roman who stabbed a spear into His chest. All that without mentioning the humiliation he suffered after carrying His own cross for almost 2 kilometers, while the crowd spat in His face and threw stones. Jesus had to endure this experience, to open the gates of Heaven, so that you can have free access to God and so that your sins could be washed away; all of them, with no exceptions! JESUS CHRIST DIED FOR YOU! YES, FOR YOU!