The Master’s Men: Character Sketches of the Disciples

by William Barclay

From the preface: “The aim of this book is to assemble all that the New Testament tells of the twelve apostles, and to add to that the information the most interesting and significant traditions and legends about them which have come down to us. I am far from claiming that these traditions and legends have any claims to being history; but they have their importance, for the stories which circulate about a man tell us a great deal about that man, even when they are not factually true.”

And that, quite simply, summarizes this book. All the Bible tells us about the various apostles and some of the traditions that surround the aposltes. Each apostle gets his own chapter, save Matthias and Paul. James, the brother of Jesus also gets a chapter. Bartholomew and Nathanael also receive their own chapter, on the off chance that they’re not one-and-the-same.

The chapters are short, very readable, and serve the purpose they aim to serve—that is to say, sketches. You will not find long, detailed studies of any of the apostles in this book. If that is what you are looking for, you would do better to look elsewhere. If, however, you’ve never studied the apostles at all and would like to know more about them and what the early church historians and oral traditions reveal about what happened to them after the Bible—all in 124 pages—you’d probably enjoy this little volume.