Q&A Home > A > Apostles

• "...He gave the priesthood to his saintly disciples and pure apostles when he breathed on them and told them receive the Holy Spirit whose sins you forgive they are forgiven and whose sins you retain they are retained." Does this refer in the Holy Bible to the twelve disciples or to the seventy or both? If it included the 70 disciples, then St. Philip would already have a priestly rank. Therefore, how can he be selected to become a deacon?
• How, when, and by who were the Apostles baptized?
• I was wondering about the apostles' baptism. When and where were they.baptized and who baptized them?
• It states in the Holy Bible, "And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, 'which,' He said, 'you have heard from Me; 5 for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.'" (Acts 1:4-5).   How would you respond to a Protestant if he says that since the Apostles were not Baptized with water, the Protestant view of water Baptism as only a symbol (not a sacrament) and not necessary for salvation is correct?
• The Holy Bible states, "Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance" (Acts 2:3-4). Is this passage referring to the Apostles' baptism and confirmation?
• Were the disciples seventy or seventy two?
• What else do we know about Nathanael other then what is said in the Holy Gospel according to St. John?
• What is the difference between the terms 'disciple' and 'apostle'? Who is entitled to the first and who to the second?
• What is your opinion of this:  

  "Yes, truly, the apostles were baptized, as Clement the Stromatist relates in the fifth book of the Hypotyposes. For, in explaining the apostolic statement, I thank God that I baptized none of you, he says, Christ is said to have baptized Peter alone, and Peter Andrew, and Andrew John, and they James and the rest." (From Fragments (Clement of Alexandria), Moschus: Spiritual Meadow, Book V. Chap. 176. http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0211.htm)

  Do you think this is historically accurate? Do you think this really happened? If so, when, before the Resurrection of Jesus, after it, before Pentecost, after it?
• "After this the Lord appointed seventy others" (Luke 10:1). But the Coptic Liturgy states, "Pray to the Lord on our behalf, our lords and fathers and apostles, and the 72 disciples that He may forgive us our sins." Please explain the difference.