WHERE DID THE ORIGINAL APOSTLES GO?

By Hermon Hoeh

U.S.A.

When  Paul  preached the Gospel at Rome, where was Peter? Why is the book of Acts strangely  silent  about the  original   12 apostles after their departure   from  the land of  Judea?  Here is one of history’s best-kept   secrets!

 

Why has the truth about  the  journeys of   the   original   12 apostles been hidden from public knowledge?

You read plainly of Paul’s travels through Cyprus, Asia Minor, Greece, Italy. But the movements of the original 12 apostles are a mystery. Why’? Did  it ever seem strange  to you that most of the  New  Testament following the  book of  Acts was written by Paul and not  by  Pe­ter?  Did   you  ever   wonder  why after  Peter initiated the preaching  of the   Gospel   to  the  gentiles at the house of   Cornelius   (Acts 10  and  11 ),  he  and  others  of the 12 apostles suddenly   vanished from view? And why only  Peter and   John   reappear  for   a fleeting moment in Jerusalem  at  the  inspired confercncc recorded  in Acts 15?

You read  after Acts 15  only of Paul’s ministry to the  gentiles. Why?   What   happened   to   the 12  apostles?

Let’s   understand.

There is a reason why  the  journeys of the 12 apostles have been cloaked   in  mystery  –     until  now .

Now   it  can   be told

You probably  have  been  told that Jesus chose the 12 disciples. ordained them  apostles,  sent them first, to preach to the Jews. When the Jews, as a nation, rejected that message. you probably have supposed that the apostles turned   to  the gentiles.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

It was  the apostle Paul,  called years  later   as   a  special apostle who  was  commissioned   to   bear the   Gospel   to  the  gentiles.

To Ananias, who was sent to baptize Paul, Christ gave this as­surance: “Go,  for  he” –  Saul, later  named  Paul –  “is  a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before gentiles, kings, and the children  of  Israel”  (Acts  9:15 ).

It was Paul, not any of the 12, who said, “From now on  I will  go to  the  Gentiles”  (Acts  18:6).

Jesus would not have  called Paul as a special apostle to carry the Gospel to the gentiles, if the original 12 had been commissioned to preach to the gentiles. Then   to whom –  and –  where were the 12 apostles  sent’?

Jesus’  commission  tells

Notice   the   surprising  answer in Matthew 10:5-6: “These twelve Jesus sent out and com­manded them, saying, ‘ Do not go into the way of the  Gentiles,  and do not enter a city of the Samar­itans. But go rather to the lost sheep  of  the  house  of  Israel.”

Jesus meant what He said!  He “commanded   them .”   The   12 were  forbidden  to  spread  the Gospel among the gentiles. It was Paul  who  was  commissioned   to that   work.   The  12  were to   go, instead , to the “lost sheep of the house  of  lsrael”   –   the   Lost  Ten Tribes.

Granted. Christ did send Peter to  the  home  of  Cornelius   (Acts 10 and 11) to open the Gospel to the gentiles , but Peter’s life mis­sion was to carry  the  Gospel  to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Peter merely opened the door, as the chief apostle, for the gentiles. It was Paul who went through  the  door  and  brought the Gospel to the nations. Granted. Peter, in his capacity of chief apostle, made one trip to the gentile Samaritans. But that  was not to bring the  Gospel  to  them. Philip had done that! Peter and John merely prayed for the Samaritans that they would receive the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:5, 14-17). Now we know to whom the 12 apostles were sent. They were not sent to the  gentiles,  but  to ” the lost sheep of the House  of  Israel.”  It  was  Paul  who  went   to the  gentiles.

Now to discover  where  Peter and others of  the 12  went  after they  left the  land  of Judea.

That has been one of the best­ kept secrets of  history.  If  the world had known the lands to which the 12  apostles  journeyed, the  House  of  Israel  would  never

have  been  lost from  view!  But God intended for a special pur­pose  which   few   understand  that the identity of the lost House of Israel should not be revealed until  this  pulsating  20th century.

“House  of  Israel” identified

From the sons of Jacob – surnamed Israel –  sprang 12 tribes. Under David they were united as one nation – Israel. After  the death of Solomon, David”s son, the 12 tribes were divided  into two nations. The tribe of Judah split off from the nation Israel in order to retain the king, whom Israel  had  rejected.  Benjamin went with Judah. The new nation thus  formed  with   its  capital at Jerusalem, was known as the “House of Judah.” Its people were called Jews.

The   northern  10  tribes, who rejected  Solomon’s  son,  became known as the House of Israel. Its capital, later, was Samaria. Whole books of’ the Old  Testa­ment arc devoted to the power struggles between Israel and Ju­dah.   The   first    lime    the    word ” Jews” appears in the Bible  you will discover the king of Israel,  allied with Syria, driving  the Jews from the Red Sea port  of Elath  (II  Kings 16:6-7).

The northern 10 tribes, the House of Israel, were overthrown and led into captivity  (721  B.C.) by the mighty Assyrian Empire. Its people were led into captivity beyond the Euphrates River and planted in Assyria  and  the cities of  the  Medes  around  Lake Urmia, southwest of the Caspian Sea.

The House of Israel never returned to the area. The nation became known in history  as  the Lost Ten Tribes. To  them  Jesus sent  the   12 apostles!

The  House  of  Judah  –  the Jewish people  –  remained in Palestine until the Babylonian in­vasions under  King  Nebuchad­nezzar more than 100 years later.  Judah  was  deported   to  Mesopotamia. Seventy  years  after  the rise of Babylon to a position  of world    power,    the    Jews   in  538 B.C. returned  to  the  original  land of  Israel.

In   history   they   now   became commonly known as ” Israel’ ” because they were  the  only  descendants   of   Jacob  or  Israel now  living  in  Israel.  The  10  tribes – the  House  of  Israel  –   became lost   in   the   land  of  their exile.

Jesus  “came   “to  His own” the House of  Judah,  the  Jews  – “and His own did  not  receive Him” (John 1:11).  Jesus  was  of the lineage  of  David,  of  the House of Judah. When His own people  the  Jews  rejected Him, He did not turn to the gen­tiles.  It  was  Paul   who  did. Instead, Jesus said to the gentile woman, “I am not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel”  (Matthew  15:24).
To fulfill, later, that divine mission  – for  Jesus   was soon slain on Golgotha to pay  for the sins of the world – He commissioned His original 12 disciples. They were commanded, “Go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

They did go, but history has lost sight of where they went. Their journeys have been shrouded   in  mystery  – until now!

What  New  Testament reveals

The history of the early New Testament Church is  preserved in the book of Acts. But have you ever noticed that Acts ends in the middle of the story? Luke  doesn’t even finish the life of  Paul after his  two  years’ imprisonment. Why?

Section of Roman road in the 

Eifel region, NW Germany

 The Appian Way, near Rome

 

 

Built by the ancient Romans, these roads are  typical  of  those  the apostles used in carrying the Gospel during the first century.

You will find the answer in Christ’s commission to Paul. Even before Paul was baptized, Christ had planned the future work  he was  to accomplish.

First, Paul was to teach the gentiles – which he did in Cyprus, Asia Minor and Greece. Second, he was to appear before kings – an  event  brought  about by a two-year imprisonment at Rome. At the end of  that  two­ year period, during which no accusers appeared, Paul would au­tomatically have been released according to Roman law. It is at this point that Luke strangely breaks off the story of Paul’s life. See  Acts 28:31.

But Paul’s third mission  was not yet accomplished. Christ had chosen Paul for a threefold purpose – “to bear [His]  name  be­fore Gentiles, kings, and the chil­dren of Israel” (Acts 9:15). There is the answer. He, too, was to end his work among the Lost Ten Tribes!

Luke was not permitted by Christ to include in Acts the final journeys of Paul’s life. It would have revealed the whereabouts of the  children  of Israel.

It  was not then God’s time  to make that known. But the mo­ment has now come, in this cli­mactic “time of the end,” to pull back the shroud of history and reveal where the original 12 apos­tles went.

Now turn to the book  of James. To whom is the  book addressed? Read it: “James, a ser­vant of God and of the Lord Je­sus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad: greeting”   (James  1: 1).

You probably never noticed that before. This book is not addressed to the gentiles. It is not addressed  exclusively  to Judah  – the Jews. It is addressed to all 12 tribes. To the House of  Judah and  to  the  House of Israel – the Lost Ten Tribes.

Have you ever noticed that the letter of James, like the book of Acts, ends abruptly, without the normal salutations? Read it  – James 5:20.

Compare it with  Paul’s epistles. In the original inspired Greek New Testament every one of Paul’s letters ends with an “Amen.” Every one of the four gospels ends with an “Amen.” The book of Revelation ends with an “Amen.”

This  little  word  Amen,  of Hebrew derivation, signifies completion. In the New King  James (most modern versions are incor­rect, and in several instances leave off the proper ending found in the official printed Greek text) every one of the New Testament books  ends  with  an  “Amen” except three – Acts, James and III John.  In these three, and these three only, the word ” Amen” is not in the inspired original Greek. It is purposely missing. Why?

Three  missing words

Each missing “Amen” is a spe­cial sign. It indicates God wants us to understand that certain knowledge was not to be made known  to the world –     until now , when the Gospel is being sent around the world as a final wit­ness before the end of this age. God purposely excluded from the book of Acts the final chap­ers in the history of the early true   Church.   If   they   had been included, the identity and where­ abouts of Israel and of the true Church would have been re­vealed. It was part of God’s plan that the House  of Israel should lose its identity and think itself gentile.

If the book of James had ended with the ordinary salutation, the nations of Israel would have been disclosed. Paul often ends his letters with names of places and people. See the last verses of Ro­mans, Colossians  and  Hebrews, for example. This is the very part missing, purposely, from James. And why is the short  letter of III John missing an “Amen” ? God did not permit John to make known, in plain language, the full nature of a conspiracy by which some sought to gain control  of local congregations, expel those truly converted and loyal to the apostle John and make Christian­ity acceptable to the  majority  of the   Roman   Empire  (see  III John 9 and 10).

That  is  why John cut  his letter short. The missing ” Amen” is  to tell  us  to  look  elsewhere  in  the Bible for the answer. The con­spiracy  is  described,  if  you  have eyes  to  see.  in  Revelation  17,  Acts 8  and many  other  chapters of  the  Bible .

But return, for  a moment, to the  letter  of  James.

Wars reveal where

From James 4:1 we learn that wars were being waged  among the lost tribes of  Israel.  “Where do wars and fights come from among  you?”       asks James.

What wars were these? No wars existed among the Jews until the outbreak, several years later,  of   the   revolt   against the Romans. These wars absolutely identify   the  lost   House  of Israel – the lands to which  the  apostles journeyed .

James   wrote   his   book   about A.D. 60  (he  was  martyred  two years  later,  according  to   Josephus).  The  world   was  temporarily  at  peace  –   cowed  by  the  fear of  Roman  military   might.   Just prior to A. D. 60 only  two areas of the world were  torn  by  wars  and civil  fightings.  When  you   dis­cover which areas these were,  you will have located  where  the  Lost Ten   Tribes,   addressed    by  James,were then living. All one need do is search military history for the period immediately before and up to the year A.D. 60. The  results will shock you! Those two lands were the British Isles and the Parthian Empire.

But these were not the  only lands to  which  the  exiled House of Israel journeyed. Turn in your Bible  to  I Peter.

To  whom  did  Peter write?

To whom did Peter address his letters?

Here it is: “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia” (I Peter 1 :1.  Autho­rized Version).

These were not gentiles. Peter was not the apostle to the gentiles (Galatians 2:8) . Paul was. Peter was chief apostle to the lost sheep of  the  House  of Israel.

Notice the  word  ” strangers. ” It does not mean gentiles. The original Greek is parepidemos. It means “a resident foreigner,” lit­erally, “an alien alongside.” It refers not  to gentiles,  but  to non-gentiles who  dwelt  among  gentiles.  as  foreigners  and   aliens.

Peter was addressing part  of the lost 10 tribes who dwelt among the gentiles as aliens or strangers. He was not writing pri­marily to the Jewish people. He would not have  addressed  them as “strangers,” for he was himself a Jew.

Now notice the regions to which Peter addressed his letter. You may have to look at a  Bible map to locate them. They are all located in the northern half of Asia Minor, modern   Turkey. These lands lay immediately  west of  the  Parthian Empire.

Paul did not preach in these districts. Paul spent his years  in Asia Minor in the southern,  or Greek half. “And so  I  have  made it my aim.” said  Paul, “to  preach the Gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build on an­ other man’s foundation” (Ro­mans 15:20).  Paul  did  not  preach in the areas where  Peter and oth­ers of the original 12 apostles had carried the Gospel.

Nowhere in your New Testament can you find Paul preaching in Pontus or Cappadocia or Bithynia. These regions were under the jurisdiction of Peter and certain  of  the  12.

Paul did spread the  Gospel  in the province of Asia – but only in the southern half, in the districts around Ephesus. Paul was ex­pressly forbidden to preach in Mysia, the northern district of the Roman province of Asia (Acts 16:7-8). Those were the regions in which the lost sheep of the  House of Israel dwelt as strangers among the  gentiles!

Paul did preach. on his first journey. in southern Galatia, in the cities of Iconium, Lystra and Derbe (Acts 14). But nowhere in the New Testament do you find Paul journeying into northern Galatia – the area  to  which  Pe­ter addresses his letter to the  tribes  of Israel.

Remnant of Ten Tribes on shores  of  Black Sea

Notice the historic proof confirming  Peter’s letters –  that a remnant  of  the  House of Israel was settled on the shores of the Black Sea in northern Asia  Mi­nor in early New Testament times.

Greek writers, in the time of Christ, recognized that the  regions of northern Asia Minor were non­ Greek (except for a few Greek trading colonies in the port cities). New peoples, the Greeks tell us, were living in northern Asia Minor in New Testament times. Here  is the surprising account of Diodorus of Sicily:

”Many conquered peoples were removed to other homes, and two of these became very great colonies: the one was composed of Assyrians and was removed to the land between Paphlagonia and Pontus and the other was drawn from Media and planted along the Tanais [the River Don in ancient Scythia – the modern Ukraine, north of the Black Sea in southern Russia]” (Book II, §43).

Notice the areas from which these colonies  came  – Assyria and Media. The very areas to which the House of Israel was taken captive! “So Israel was car­ried away from their own land to Assyria, as it is to this day” (II Kings 17:23). “The king of As­syria took Samaria and carried Israel away to Assyria  and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the  River  of  Gozan,  and in the cities of the Medes”‘ (verse 6).

The House of Israel dwelt in captivity as aliens or strangers among the Assyrians. When the Assyrians were later removed from their homeland toward northern Asia Minor, part of the House  of  Israel migrated  with them. We find them still there in New Testament times.

To these people – the lost sheep of   the   House  of  Israel  –  the strangers (I Peter 1 : 1 ) –  the apostle Peter addresses his first letter. We shall see later when and where these “lost sheep” mi­grated from  Asia  Minor  to Northwest  Europe.

Now to draw back  the curtain of history and see where each of the original 12 apostles preached. You’II  be amazed!

(To   be continued)