Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, who was once a disciple of John the Baptist, started following the Lord after receiving an invitation from Him to be made fishers of men. In fact, John the Baptist identified Jesus as the Lamb of God that encouraged Andrew to follow the Lord. Secular sources tell us that after the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ, Andrew is said to have carried on his missionary work in Scythia among cannibals and died of stoning and crucifixion. (C.M. Kerr, ISBE, 1915).

Philip received a direct call from the Lord Jesus to follow Him. He in turn brought Nathaniel to the Lord and both followed Him and became His disciples. He was a realist and had expressed the insufficiency of the five loaves and two fishes to feed the five thousand which the Lord later multiplied to not only feed all of them sufficiently but also take twelve baskets of leftovers. Philip was crucified in Phrygia which was his mission field post the day of Pentecost. (C.M. Kerr, ISBE, 1915).

Bartholomew is said to have brought the gospel of Matthew to India and was cast into the sea to die as a martyr for the Lord. (C.M. Kerr, ISBE, 1915).

Matthew wrote the first of the four gospels where he depicted Jesus as the One who fulfilled the prophecies about the Christ that were spoken of by many Old Testament prophets. He was a tax collector who left his profession immediately after he got an invitation from the Lord to follow Him as His disciple. He was also called Levi. Tradition states that he preached for 15 years in Palestine and that after this he went to foreign nations, the Ethiopians, Macedonians, Syrians, Persians, Parthians, and Medea being mentioned. He is said to have died a natural death either in Ethiopia or in Macedonia. (G.H. Schodde, ISBE, 1915).

There is not much reliable information available about the others – James, Jude (Thaddeus), and Simon the Canaanite.

Apart from these twelve, there were the seventy (and another five hundred plus) who carried on the missionary work elsewhere that resulted in the whole world being reached by the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ even in the first century. Of these and other believers who were added to the church (three thousand on the day of Pentecost, a multitude later as mentioned in the 5th Chapter of Acts of the Apostles) in Jerusalem, in Judea, and then in Samaria (Philip, the evangelist is mentioned along with this place) and to the end of the world, many died of persecution. Some were stoned to death (as was the case of Stephen), some were thrown to the lions (Gladiator style), some were crucified, and some were burnt as nightlamps in the Roman streets. Despite all this torture of the believers, the Church kept growing. The Lord has been building His Church and the gates of hell have never prevailed against it so far and they never will!