Are philip the apostle and philip the evangelist the same person

Philip the Apostle was one of the 12 main disciples of Jesus Christ. The other two Philips are both sons of King Herod the Great. The Apostle Philip is only mentioned a handful of times in the New Testament —seven times in the gospels and once in Acts.

Story of philip in the bible

Four of those mentions are just lists of the apostles. Church tradition identifies Philip as the missionary to Greece, Syria, and Phrygia, but even early on, Philip the Apostle was frequently confused with Philip the Evangelist also known as Philip the Deacon , which makes it hard to distinguish which details describe which Philip. Add to that the legendary accounts from the Acts of Philip and Letter from Peter to Philip , and it becomes difficult to separate fact from fiction, too.

Still, there are some things we can learn about Philip the Apostle from the Bible, and we can glean a few insights from the early church as well. But the Gospel of John and the early church fill in some blanks and help us understand a little more about who he was. While there are some variations in the order the apostles appear and even the names they went by, Philip is listed in all of them.

This means Philip was one of the people who was closest to Jesus, and that he spent about three years living with him, witnessing his miracles, and hearing his teachings. This may seem like a trivial detail, but later, when Jesus and the disciples come to Jerusalem, some Greek men from Bethsaida want to see Jesus—and they come to Philip John In Church History Eusebius quotes Papias of Hierapolis—a contemporary of the apostles—as saying that Philip was living in Hierapolis with his daughters.

Papias also refers to the Philip in Acts 21 as an apostle, and that title was usually but not always reserved for the Twelve. Eusebius also quotes Polycrates of Ephesus, a bishop who lived during the second century, as saying:. Among these are Philip, one of the twelve apostles, who sleeps in Hierapolis, and his two aged virgin daughters, and another daughter who lived in the Holy Spirit and now rests at Ephesus.

Luke writes:. Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom.