Anonymous apostles

Bartholomew is one of the ones we don't know anything about. Named in lists of the 12. Named as a witness to the Ascension. Tends to be mentioned alongside Philip. Tradition from about the 9th century associates him with Nathanael, who's mentioned only in John's Gospel and not in the others. Maybe Nathanael was also called Bartholomew - Bartholomew's a patronymic anyway, meaning 'son of Tolmay/Ptolemy'. Nathanael is the one Jesus sees sitting under the fig tree in chapter 1 of John.

Why do we assume that we should know anything about him? If we're not to know anything about him, what is he in the story for?

He's a witness.

Invisible church. Augustine. Anonymous Christians. Rahner. But that's about people not visibly part of the church. What about people visibly part of the church whom we don't know anything about?

Iona Community, WWB evening liturgy B:

Here in the company
of the neighbour whom we know
and the stranger in our midst,
and the self from whom we turn,
we ask to love as Jesus loved.
Make this the and time, good Lord,
when heaven and earth merge into one,
and we in word and flesh can grasp
that in Christ
there is neither Jew nor Gentile,
neither male nor female:
all are one in Jesus Christ
and for this we praise you.
Amen.

Witness. Apostle. Person sent. Person called.

Discovering the depths of ourselves
the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 1 Cor. 2.10

Not talking to people in buzz groups