Bartholomew

BARTHOLOMEW (Gk. Bartholomaios, Aram. Bar-Talmai, “Son of Talmai"): One of the twelve Apostles, mentioned in Matt. x, 3; Mark iii, 18; Luke vi, 14; Acts i, 13. Nothing is told in the New Testament of his work as an apostle. According to Eusebius (Hist. eccl., v, 10) and Jerome (De vir. ill., xxxvi), he preached the Gospel in India—that is, in what is called India to-day, not, as some have argued, Arabia Felix. Other Asiatic countries have been named as the scenes of his labors, especially Armenia, where he is said to have been flayed alive and crucified with his head down. Legend narrates that his body was miraculously conveyed to the island of Lipari, and thence to Benevento. His feast-day is usually the 24th of August; at Rome, however, it is celebrated on the 25th. An old and wide-spread theory (though Augustine, for example, did not accept it) identifies Bartholomew with Nathanael of Cana in Galilee (John i, 45-51; xxi, 2). That John counted Nathanael as an apostle is probable because in the former of these passages he represents him as joining the company of Jesus with the earlier and later apostles, and in the latter passage he mentions him in the company of apostles. In support of the theory, it is noticed that in the lists of the apostles in the synoptic Gospels (though not in the Acts) he is mentioned next to Philip, while Nathanael was brought to Jesus by Philip; and John nowhere mentions Bartholomew, while the synoptists do not mention Nathanael. But, on the other hand, it is remarkable that the synoptists do not give the other name for Bartholomew, if he is the same, while John speaks of Nathanael as if the reader would know at once who he was.

K. Schmidt.