{UAH} Bobby//Why Jesus's Apostles had English names

Bobby;

I accidentally deleted your original posting here, where someone had wondered why all the Apostles had English names, yet they were Middle Easterners!

There is a simple explanation.

Greek civilization spread throughout the Middle East, following the conquest of Alexander The Great in the 6th century b.c. 

Middle East adopted Greek language, culture and customs. Middle Easterners, including Jews, who took up Greek tradition came to be known as the Hellenists.

Of the 12 Apostles, only four- Mathew, Bartholomew and the two Judas - Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot - retained their Jewish names. 

Bartholomew is a Hebrew name for "son of Tolmai. He's also referred to, in the Book of John, as Nathaniel, which means "God's gift." Still later on, the Euro-Greek customs translated his name as Jonathan! 

So, Jonathan and Nathaniel mean the same thing.

Mathew's Hebrew name is Levi, as we learn in Mark and Luke. But Levi, too, took up the Greek name, Matayo, probably to obtain employment under the Roman government as Taxi Collector.

As a tax collector for the occupying Romans, Mathew must have been the moist despicable traitor to the Jewish people. 

The rest of the Apostles were Hellenists with Greek names that would later be translated into English. 

Judas simply means Jehovah leads", and James is Greek for Mikros, or less. That's  where we get the prefix micro.

Phillip is lover of horses. Simon is a pebble or stone, Peter is a boulder or a rock. Throughout the Gospel, Jesus would refer to Peter as Simon, to admonish him for some poor judgement, and would use Peter to approve something he did right!

 Andrew means "manly."This a fitting name for Andrew, because he was the first to called by Jesus to be an Apostle. 

And it was Andrew who brought his domineering brother, Peter, and the two brothers, John and James, to Jesus; yet Andrew had to take the back as his brother and his friends took the center stage in this inner circle of Apostles.

So, the Apostles did not have English names at birth; they acquired those names much later in life. Pretty much the same way we use Edward, Bob, Moses, etc, due to the influence of European Christianity.