Faith First Media

The following is an excerpt from the book Does the Bible Have Contradictions? by Matthew Elton, copyright 2009 Matthew Elton.

Question:

Did Jesus appear to twelve disciples after his resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:5), or was it to eleven (Matthew 27:3-5; 28:16; Mark 16:14; Luke 24:9,33; Acts 1:9-26)?

Answer:

After Judas committed suicide, another disciple named Mathias took Judas’s place, but was not counted as the twelfth apostle because he had only take Judas’s place very recently, and not everyone considered him to be a true apostle. So Jesus appeared to twelve men, but they are called “The Eleven,” because Mathias is not counted. 1 Corinthians was written much later, and by that time, Mathias had been with the other apostles long enough to be considered the twelfth apostle. So when 1 Corinthians was written, the writer included Mathias as part of “The Twelve,” instead of excluding him and making it, “The Eleven.”