Reference: Disciples
Hastings
In the ancient world every teacher had his company of disciples or learners. The Greek philosophers and the Jewish Rabbis had theirs, and John the Baptist had his (Mr 2:18 'the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees'; cf. Joh 1:35; Mt 14:12). In like manner Jesus had His disciples. The term had two applications, a wider and a narrower. It denoted (1) all who believed in Him, though they remained where He had found them, pursuing their former avocations, yet rendering no small service to His cause by confessing their allegiance and testifying to His grace (cf. Lu 6:13; 19:37; Joh 4:1; 6:60,66-67). (2) The inner circle of the Twelve, whom He called 'Apostles,' and whom He required to forsake their old lives and follow Him whithersoever He went, not merely that they might strengthen Him by their sympathy (cf. Lu 22:28), but that they might aid Him in His ministry (Mt 9:37; 10:1,5), and, above all, that they might be trained by dally intercourse and discipline to carry forward the work after He was gone. These were 'the disciples' par excellence (Mt 10:1; 12:1,49; 15:23,32; Mr 8:27; Lu 8:9; Joh 11:7; 12:4; 16:17,29). See also Apostles.
David Smith.
See Verses Found in Dictionary
Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest [is] plentiful, but the workers [are] few.
And summoning his twelve disciples, he gave them authority over unclean spirits, so that they could expel [them] and could heal every disease and every sickness.
And summoning his twelve disciples, he gave them authority over unclean spirits, so that they could expel [them] and could heal every disease and every sickness.
Jesus sent out these twelve, instructing them saying, "Do not go on the road to the Gentiles, and do not enter into a city of the Samaritans,
At that time Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath. And his disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck off heads of grain and eat [them].
And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, "Behold my mother and my brothers!
And his disciples came [and] took away the corpse and buried it, and went [and] told Jesus.
But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came up [and] asked him, saying, "Send her away, because she is crying out after us!"
And Jesus summoned his disciples [and] said, "I have compassion on the crowd, because they have remained with me three days already and do not have anything to eat, and I do not want to send them away hungry lest they give out on the way."
And John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting, and they came and said to him, "{Why} do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?"
And Jesus and his disciples went out to the villages of Caesarea Philippi, and on the way he asked his disciples, saying to them, "Who do people say [that] I am?"
And when day came, he summoned his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he also named apostles:
And his disciples asked him what this parable meant.
Now [as] he was drawing near by this time to the descent from the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of the disciples began rejoicing to praise God with a loud voice for all the miracles that they had seen,
"And you are the ones who have remained with me in my trials,
On the next day again John was standing [there], and two of his disciples,
Now when Jesus knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John
Thus many of his disciples, [when they] heard [it], said, "This saying is hard! Who can understand it?"
For this [reason] many of his disciples {drew back} and were not walking with him any longer. So Jesus said to the twelve, "You do not want to go away also, [do you]?"
Then after this he said to the disciples, "Let us go to Judea again."
But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was going to betray him) said,
So some of his disciples said to one another, "What is this that he is saying to us, 'A little [while] and you will not see me, and again a little [while] and you will see me,' and 'Because I am going away to the Father'?"
His disciples said, "Behold, now you are speaking {plainly} and are telling [us] no figurative saying!