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MatinsSimon
The apostle Simon, is called “the Zealot”. The Zealots a patriotic resistance movement grew as a Jewish revolt against the Romans, but that was 30-40 years after the time of the events in the Gospels. He may have been involved with an early version of this group. Talmudic references refer to a group of avenging priests in the Temple at the time as being "zealots", or maybe he was very zealous in his faith. Simon may have been a cousin of Jesus, the son of Alpheus and Mary Cleophas, brother of James the Less and Judas Thaddeus.
Judas
The apostle Jude (Judas), is identified by Luke as “James’ son” (Luke 6:16; Acts 1:13). The author of the letter of Jude describes himself as “Judas, brother of James”, which probably means he is another brother of Jesus. So, although Jude the apostle is frequently identified as the author of the letter, this is not certain. More confusing still, Mark and Matthew in their lists of apostles never mention Jude, but include the name of Thaddaeus (or Lebbaeus). Later tradition solved the problem by regarding Thaddaeus as Jude’s surname.
In the apocryphal, "Arabic Infancy Gospel" a boy named Simon is bitten by a snake; he is healed by Jesus, who told the child "you shall be my disciple". The mention ends with the phrase "this is Simon the Cananite (meaning - Zealot), of whom mention is made in the Gospel."
According to John’s Gospel, at the Last Supper Jude asks Jesus why he is to reveal himself to them and not to the world (John 14:22), a question that introduces some comments from Jesus about the coming of the Spirit.
Beyond the mention of their names in the lists of apostles in the New Testament (Matthew 10:2-4; Mark 3:16-19; Luke 6:13-16; Acts 1:13,14), we know little about these two apostles. We hear nothing of them after Pentecost apart from the tradition of their joint work and martyrdom in Persia. and even that is not beyond dispute. Another tradition says that Simon, and possibly Jude, died peacefully in Edessa.
