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 reapers are scarce.
Then He called His twelve disciples to Him, and gave them authority over foul spirits, so that they could drive them out, and so that they could cure any disease or ailment.
Then He called His twelve disciples to Him, and gave them authority over foul spirits, so that they could drive them out, and so that they could cure any disease or ailment.
Jesus sent these twelve out, after giving them the following charge: "Do not go to the heathen, or to any Samaritan town,
At that time Jesus walked one sabbath through the wheat fields, and His disciples became hungry, and began to pull the heads of wheat and eat them.
And with a gesture toward His disciples He said, "Here are my mother and my brothers.
Then John's disciples came and carried off his corpse, and buried him, and went and reported it to Jesus.
But He did not answer her a word. And His disciples came up and kept begging Him, "Send her away, for she keeps on screaming after us."
Then Jesus called His disciples to Him, and said, "My heart is moved with pity for the crowd, for it is now three days they have been staying with me, and they have nothing at all left to eat, and I fear they might give out on the way home."
Now John's disciples and the Pharisees were keeping a fast. So some people came and asked Him, "Why do John's disciples and the Pharisees' disciples practice fasting, but yours never do?"
Then Jesus and His disciples left Galilee and went to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way there He was asking His disciples, "Who do people say that I am?"
When day came, He called His disciples to Him, and selected from them twelve whom He also named apostles:
His disciples were asking Him what this story meant.
Just as He was approaching the city, going down the Mount of Olives, the whole throng of the disciples began to praise God exultantly and loudly for all the wonder-works that they had seen,
Yet you have continued to stand by me in my trials;
Again the next day John was standing with two of his disciples,
Now when the Lord learned that the Pharisees had heard that He was winning and baptizing more disciples than John --
So many of His disciples, when they heard it, said, "This teaching is hard to take in. Who can listen to it?"
As a result of this many of His disciples turned their backs on Him and stopped accompanying Him. So Jesus said to the Twelve, "You too do not want to go back, do you?"
After that He said to His disciples, "Let us go back to Judea."
But Judas Iscariot, one of His disciples, who was going to betray Him, said,
So some of His disciples said to one another, "What does He mean by telling us, 'In just a little while you will not see me, and yet in just a little while after you will see me again,' and 'Because I am going away to the Father'?"
His disciples said to Him, "Now you are talking plainly and not in allegory at all.