CARPUS AND ALPHAEUS

In the Orthodox liturgical calendar, Saints Alphaeus and Carpus are called Apostles of the Seventy. According to the Gospel of Luke: “The Lord chose seventy disciples and sent them two by two before His face into every city and place where He Himself wanted to go, and said to them: The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; “Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into his harvest” (Luke 10:1-2). Since a complete list of the seventy disciples has not been preserved, the Church counted among them the closest apostolic disciples and early Christian preachers.

The number of 12 Apostles testified to the continuity of the Old and New Testaments, and 70 Disciples recalled the translation of the Bible into Greek by seventy interpreters - the famous Septuagint. It prophetically pointed to the preaching of the gospel to all nations and served as a semantic link between the People of Israel and the Salvation of the Gospel for the Gentiles. The early Church attached great importance to this. It is no coincidence that two of the four Gospels were written by Mark and Luke, who were Apostles of the Seventy.

St Alpheus was the father of the holy Apostles James and Matthew. According to ancient tradition, having learned from his sons about the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead, he believed and proclaimed the Resurrection in Palestinian villages, for which he suffered from his fellow tribesmen.

St Carpus, whose Greek name is translated as “fruit,” is evidenced in the Second Epistle to Timothy. “When you go, bring the cloak that I left in Troas with Carpus, and books, especially leather books” (2 Tim. 4:13). In these words, addressed to his disciple Timothy, Paul, who was in Rome during his second imprisonment (66–67), asked for a cloak, in Russian translation “phelonion,” to be delivered to him. Let us note that despite the terminological similarity, this thing had no liturgical use.

There, Paul asks Timothy to “make sure to come” before winter (2 Tim. 2:21). The cold weather was approaching, but Pavel, obviously, had no other warm clothing. He also asks to bring him books, that is, the Holy Scriptures of the Bible. Rather, at the time of his arrest by the Roman authorities, Paul was in the house of Carp, and therefore was forced to go and leave everything he needed there. The phrase “New Testament”, as applied to a written text, for the first time in history began to be used specifically in relation to the Epistles of Paul.

Inspired by the example of the Apostle Paul, Сarpus preached the Gospel. Not far from Troad, the modern Biga peninsula in northwestern Asia Minor and the Aegean Sea, ancient Troy once stood. According to one legend, Carpus, like Alpheus, was killed by his fellow tribesmen for preaching that unbelief makes people accomplices in the Crucifixion of Christ - the Messiah, the Anointed One and the Son of God. According to another legend, he ended his days peacefully at the head of the Christian community.

Such discrepancy between versions should not be confusing. The first Christians lived in anticipation of the imminent Return of the Lord, which in theological language is called the Second Coming. Apart from the Scriptures, created at the behest of the Spirit of God, they did not care about preserving information after themselves.

In the Creed the Church is called “Apostolic”. A brief precious testimony from Scripture and Tradition about the Apostles Alphaeus and Carpus helps us come closer to understanding what this property of the Church means.

Like Alpheus and Carpus, the Apostles confessed the death of the Lord and proclaimed His Resurrection. The apostles were extremely poor. This is evidenced by Paul’s request to Timothy to bring him his only cloak before the cold weather sets in. The apostles constantly studied the Scriptures and based their preaching on them. Paul, in prison, asked to hurry and bring him the Books of the Bible. Finally, the Apostles followed the path of previous preachers. Believing what James and Matthew said, Alpheus proclaimed the Resurrection, and Carpus, after Paul was arrested and taken to Rome, continued his preaching. They not only wished to complete what was left unaccomplished by those who had finished their preaching as martyrs, but they deliberately exposed themselves to danger for the work of the gospel. It turns out that the word Apostolic in the Creed means not only the succession of ordination, but also courage, poverty, biblical faith, and the constant proclamation that Christ is Risen.