Andrew in the Gospels

The Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called appears only a handful of times across the four Gospels and the opening of Acts, yet each appearance is consistent in character. He is named in every list of the Twelve, he points out the boy with the loaves before the feeding of the five thousand, he brings the inquiring Greeks to Jesus, and he sits among the four who ask privately about the end of the age. Taken together these scenes yield a single, recognizable figure: Andrew the connector, who is forever bringing people and things to Christ.

Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Apostle)

Named in Every List of the Twelve

Andrew is one of only a small number of apostles whose name occurs in all four New Testament lists of the Twelve, and the way the lists position him is itself instructive. Matthew gives the most familiar arrangement: “The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother” (Matthew 10:2, RSV). Here Andrew stands second, immediately beside Peter and explicitly identified as “his brother,” so that the two pairs of brothers — Peter and Andrew, James and John — open the list together. Luke preserves the same fraternal pairing: “Simon, whom he named Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James and John” (Luke 6:14).

Mark and Acts, however, arrange the same names differently. Mark heads his list with “Simon whom he surnamed Peter,” then “James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James,” and only afterward “Andrew” (Mark 3:16–18). Acts does the same in still another order: “Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas” (Acts 1:13). In these two lists Andrew is pulled away from his brother’s side and placed after the trio of Peter, James, and John — the three who form the inner circle of the disciples. The variation is small but telling. Matthew and Luke order the Twelve by kinship, keeping the brothers in pairs; Mark and Acts order them by intimacy with Jesus, advancing the inner three and leaving Andrew just outside or just behind them (France, The Gospel of Mark, on Mark 3:16–19; Peterson, Andrew, Brother of Simon Peter). The four lists thus catch Andrew in precisely his ambiguous position: a brother of the chief apostle and a member of the wider Twelve, close to the inner group yet not quite of it.

The Boy with the Loaves and Fish

The single scene that most fully reveals Andrew’s character is the prelude to the feeding of the five thousand in the Fourth Gospel. When Jesus tests Philip — “How are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” (John 6:5) — it is Andrew who supplies the concrete fact that moves the story forward: “One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, ‘There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what are they among so many?’” (John 6:8–9). The note is wholly characteristic. Andrew does not solve the problem; he is candid that the resources seem absurdly small. But he is the one who has noticed the boy, the one who brings forward the little that is available and lays it before Jesus. The miracle proceeds from exactly what Andrew points out (John 6:10–13).

The detail is doubly significant because, once again, the evangelist defines Andrew as “Simon Peter’s brother” (John 6:8), the same relational tag that introduces him at John 1:40. And it establishes the pattern by which Orthodox tradition has read the whole of Andrew’s Gospel role: he is the bringer, the one who connects a person or a resource to the Lord. As he had earlier brought his brother Simon to Jesus (John 1:41–42), so here he brings the boy with the loaves (Brown, The Gospel According to John I–XII, on John 6:8–9; Peterson, Andrew, Brother of Simon Peter).

The Greeks Who Would See Jesus

The same role recurs, in a more solemn key, during Holy Week. “Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, ‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus.’ Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew went with Philip and they told Jesus” (John 12:20–22). The episode is a small chain of mediation, and Andrew is the link nearest to Christ. The Greeks do not approach Jesus directly; they come to Philip, and Philip, evidently uncertain how to handle the request, turns to Andrew, who then brings him along to the Lord. The arrival of the Gentile inquirers is what prompts Jesus to declare, “The hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified” (John 12:23) — so that Andrew’s act of introduction stands at the threshold of the Passion.

Several details bind this scene to the larger portrait. Both Andrew and Philip are from Bethsaida — the Fourth Gospel records that “Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter” (John 1:44) — and both bear thoroughly Greek names, Andreas and Philippos. It is fitting, and very likely deliberate on the evangelist’s part, that the two Bethsaidans with Greek names should be the ones to whom Greek-speaking inquirers turn. Raymond Brown observes that John presents a discernible “Bethsaida group” among the disciples and notes the recurring pairing of Philip and Andrew, who appear together both here and at the feeding of the five thousand (Brown, The Gospel According to John I–XII, on John 1:43–44 and John 12:20–22). In each case Philip raises or receives the matter and Andrew carries it to Jesus. Andrew is again, characteristically, the one who completes the introduction.

Among the Four on the Mount of Olives

There is one further scene in which Andrew steps closer to the center. In Mark’s account of the eschatological discourse, “as he sat on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately, ‘Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign when these things are all to be accomplished?’” (Mark 13:3–4). This is one of the rare moments in the Gospels when Andrew is admitted to the smallest circle. Ordinarily Mark reserves private access to Jesus for the three — Peter, James, and John. Here the three are joined by Andrew, and France notes that Mark adds his name precisely because the question that follows concerns the temple and the end, a matter put to Jesus by this slightly enlarged inner group (France, The Gospel of Mark, on Mark 13:3). The verse is the closest the Synoptic tradition brings Andrew to the heart of the disciple band, and it is fitting that even here his role is to ask rather than to lead.

The Shape of Andrew’s Absence

What the Gospels do not say about Andrew is as revealing as what they do. He is conspicuously absent from the scenes reserved for the inner three. He is not among Peter, James, and John at the raising of Jairus’s daughter (Mark 5:37), nor on the mount of the Transfiguration (Mark 9:2), nor in the depths of the garden of Gethsemane (Mark 14:33). The Marcan triad excludes him at exactly the moments of greatest intimacy and revelation. Andrew belongs to the Twelve and stands near the three — as Mark 13:3 shows — but he is not finally of their number (France, The Gospel of Mark; Peterson, Andrew, Brother of Simon Peter). And after the list of Acts 1:13 the New Testament falls wholly silent about him; he is never named again in the Book of Acts or the Epistles. The canonical witness gives Andrew a vivid but modest profile and then leaves the rest of his story to be sought from later sources.

The Connector Who Brings Men to Christ

Gathered up, the scattered notices compose a single coherent figure. At his calling Andrew finds his brother and “brought him to Jesus” (John 1:42). At the feeding he finds the boy and brings forward his loaves and fish (John 6:8–9). At the feast he goes with Philip and brings the Greeks (John 12:22). Three times, in three different settings, Andrew is the one who makes the introduction — bringing a person or a provision to the Lord. This is the portrait that Orthodox piety has loved and named: not the apostle of office or the spokesman of the band, but the First-Called who is forever connecting others to Christ. The recurring pairing with Philip, both of them Bethsaidans bearing Greek names, and the threefold motif of “bringing” give the Gospel Andrew a consistency that the brevity of his appearances does not diminish (Brown, The Gospel According to John I–XII; Peterson, Andrew, Brother of Simon Peter). It is precisely this evangelistic, connective character — the man who brings men to Jesus — that the title Prōtoklētos, “First-Called,” crowns.

References

The Holy Bible, Revised Standard Version. Cited: Matthew 4:18; Matthew 10:2; Mark 1:16; Mark 3:16–18; Mark 5:37; Mark 9:2; Mark 13:3–4; Mark 14:33; Luke 6:14; John 1:40–44; John 6:5–13; John 12:20–23; Acts 1:13.
Brown, Raymond E. The Gospel According to John (I–XII). Anchor Bible 29. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1966.
France, R. T. The Gospel of Mark: A Commentary on the Greek Text. New International Greek Testament Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2002.
Peterson, Peter M. Andrew, Brother of Simon Peter: His History and His Legends. Supplements to Novum Testamentum 1. Leiden: Brill, 1958.