The Education of the Apostles.
By W. N. Glenn
THE Jews were wont to stigmatize the disciples of Jesus as a low, ignorant class of people, and especially were their slurs directed against the twelve who became apostles. This was to be expected of the haughty Scribes and Pharisees of that day; but that such reproach should be maintained by Christians of the present age, whose knowledge of Christ comes mainly through the instrumentality of those twelve individuals, is indeed surprising. Many to this day believe that the apostles were illiterate men, and their only authority for the belief is founded in the ridicule of the Jewish rulers and bigots. And some even conclude from this that ignorance is a prime qualification for the ministry of the gospel. It should be remembered that all Galileans—rich and poor, learned and unlearned—were held in very low esteem by the Judeans. They deemed it impossible that any prophet, much less the Messiah and his immediate followers, should come out of Galilee. We have no evidence, excepting Jewish prejudice, that the twelve were not intelligent men, and possessed of at least the ordinary education of their day, when the Lord called them. But be that as it may, by the time they were sent forth to preach, their education probably excelled that of any men upon the earth. Aside from having been under the immediate tutorship of the Great Teacher from Heaven for over three years, they were, on the day of Pentecost, endowed with a knowledge of languages such as no others ever possessed, either before or since, and which could not be obtained, even today, in the highest universities of the world. There were at Jerusalem at this time, men "out of every nation under heaven," and according to the confession of all these, the apostles were able to speak the language of every one of them. Add to this their knowledge of the Scriptures, their gifts of healing and of prophecy, and their endowments in every respect were certainly of the highest order. A moment's consideration of these things will clear the Master of the imputation of sending out a lot of ignorant graduates from his school to teach the doctrines of his kingdom. And those thoughtless individuals who despise education as a qualification for the ministry would do well to ponder this example impressed by the Saviour upon his followers. Ignorance alone qualifies one for nothing save to be a dupe of Satan.