> > From: > Mark Roberts > frank theriault wrote: > >> > >> >I'm way up at the top of a long thread, so forgive me if I'm repeating >> >what someone else has said, but: >> > >> >When I was a kid, we were told that Friday the 13th was unlucky >> >because Judas was the 13th apostle (and hence the number 13 is >> >generally unlucky) and Friday in particular because that was the day >> >Christ was crucified (I went to a Catholic school). >> > > 13 has been regarded as unlucky since long before Christianity. Many > cultures have regarded 12 as a "perfect" number and 13, one off from > perfection (as well as being prime, which always makes a number stand > out for good or bad), as suspect. > > It's more likely that the number of apostles and the number at the last > supper were chosen *because of* these ancient beliefs. Not to mention that Judas wasn't the 13th Apostle.
He was, depending upon how you reckon it, either first or eleventh. First because he was Jesus's follower before Jesus recruited Simon (aka Peter "the Rock") and his brother Andrew to be "fishers of men", and eleventh because others eventually superseded him in the hierarchy, and the name of the twelfth is unclear, being in various versions of the gospels called Jude, Thaddeous or Judas, brother of James, to distinguish him from Judas Iscariot. Matthias was the 13th disciple, recruited by the remaining eleven after the crucification to replace Judas Iscariot. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
