Youngest Apostle

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irishcolleen45

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Who was the youngest apostle? Today at Mass the priest said John and Peter were around the same age. I thought Peter was much older than John and that John was the youngest apostle. Maybe I have those ideas because of the various paintings of the apostles I’ve seen.
 
I have always understood it to be John as the youngest. Perhaps the Priest meant they were the same generation?
 
irishcolleen45 said:
Today at Mass the priest said John and Peter were around the same age.
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Certainly in sacred art it has always, or for many centuries, been the convention to depict Peter as the oldest of the apostles, with gray hair and beard, and John as the youngest, a beardless youth. However, I have just taken a quick look at one or two books and can find no biographical information about either of them that would enable anyone to say anything much about their respective dates of birth.

In Matt 10:2 Peter is called “the first” but surely that cannot be equated with “eldest.” Peter regularly functions as the spokesman of the Twelve, addressing Jesus on behalf of the group (e.g. Matt 14:28, 15:15, 18:21, 26:35, Mark 8:29, 9:5, 10:28, John 6:68), but once again, that doesn’t prove anything about his age.

I look forward to seeing on this thread whatever relevant information others may manage to find.
 
I don’t think he meant the same generation. Maybe I should just send him (the priest, not St John. 😁) a email to clarify what he meant.
 
Peter had to be on the older side (relatively) since he was married. He wasn’t a teenager or super young adult.
 
Plus wasn’t Peter a partner with John’s and James’ father, Zebedee? Well, let me see what the priest says.
 
I had to ask the priest if it was OK to use the info in the email.

The priest said that St. Gregory of Naziansus opines that they were relatively the same age, so they should have run at the same speed to the Tomb. The priest realizes that other people disagree with that assessment.
In art, Peter is shown older to reflect he was spiritually wiser than the others.
Interesting.
 
Peter had had the time to get married (ie, he had a mother-in-law, although his wife may have been dead), and to be running a fishing company with his buddies. So even if we’re not talking a lot older, we’re probably talking at least a few years older.

(And young guys can go gray early, especially if they have a lot of red hairs on their head. Although it’s pretty clear that pictures and ancient descriptions of St. Peter draw on how he looked in Rome as its bishop when he was killed, just as pictures and descriptions of St. Paul don’t usually show the balding missionary version of him. Pictures of St. John almost always show him as he was in Jesus’ time, just as pictures of the martyr St. Apollonia always show her as a pretty young girl in Heaven, instead of a really old wrinkly martyr lady. Art has its reasons, and you have to know what they are.)

All of the Apostles were clearly in their prime. You don’t pick old guys to go traipsing around the countryside as disciples. The fishermen would have been the most fit at first; but after 3 years of ministry and walking the roads, all the disciples and Apostles would have been good walkers and runners!

But if John pulled out ahead – well, I always took that as realistic detail. There’s always one guy in every group who’s just a little faster.
 
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St Peter was married, and some suggest already widowed. Jesus heals St Peter’s mother in law at Capernaum, and there’s oddly no mention of St Peter’s wife.
 
Plus, John and James’s father Zebedee was in the boat with them when Jesus called them to follow them. I imagine both of them as young men, James in his mid twenties, and John at most three years younger. I think of them as people similar to David’s nephews Joab and Abishai. 😈
 
Hi, Colleen!

Sadly, many do seem to have the need for “discovery” (I found this out when others didn’t) and the need to “innovate” (the archetype of new words/views/formulas)… which sometimes catches even the Clergy and Religious… what was the source he used to demonstrate this new “formula?”

Maran atha!

Angel
 
Hi, James!

These are the types of clues that can lead us to the understanding that Peter was older… though there’s scant, if any, personal notations, we can know for sure that the Zebedee’s brothers were working in/for their father’s business, as opposed to Simon who is said to have been working with his brother:
18 As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 19 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” 20 At once they left their nets and followed him.
21 Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, 22 and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. (St. Matthew 4)
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Just from this scene we can deduce/ascertain that the Zebedee’s brothers were indeed at least a few years younger than Peter. In most old industries the son/s would inherit the business from the father/grandfather at his retirement or death–only in a military campaign would seasoned men would yield to their younger (and presumed inexperienced son/s) as the physical demands of the frontlines required the most fit and capable to be at the front–still there are always exceptions. 🙂

Maran atha!

Angel
 
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