The Twelve Apostles of Jesus (song by Calum Carlyle)

Here is a song that i wrote to help you remember the names of Jesus' apostles. It was inspired by an excellent episode of the excellent podcast "Data Over Dogma", where they discuss this subject in full. Here's the link: • Apostlepalooza!
Below you can see the full lyrics. I would love for this song to be taken up by Sunday schools and churches, or anyone else, but please remember that it is copyright 2024 to me (Calum Carlyle) so if you are performing it at an event or recording it, please report that appropriately to whatever royalties collection organisation operates in your jurisdiction (eg: ASCAP, PRS, MCPS etc).
Lyrics:
How do we remember the names of the twelve apostles of Jesus?
Yes, how do we remember the names of the twelve apostles of Jesus?
Well, there was Simon, who was also Peter, who was probably Cephas as well
And Andrew, his brother, they were fishers of men, which they both thought was really swell
There were James and John the sons of Zebedee, the so called “sons of thunder”
There was “doubting Thomas”, Bartholomew and Philip, who else is left, I wonder?
Well there was Matthew the tax collector who might have been the son of Alpheus (or Clophas)
And James, who might have been the son of Alpheus too
And also there was Levi, who most think was the same guy as Matthew
Oh how did all of those nicknames ever accrue?
‘Cos there was Judas the zealot, or Thaddeus or Lebbaeus, he was the brother or the son of James
This was a different Judas from Judas Iscariot, this guy had a lot of names
And that reminds me Thomas from before is called Didymus in the gospel of John
We’ve still got a few we need to get through so let’s just carry on
So there was Simon who was also a zealot, and Nathanael of Cana as well
And Judas Iscariot completes the list, although that comes to fifteen not twelve
Now you might think we should stop right there but Judas was replaced by Matthias
And Paul the Apostle comes out of nowhere, almost as an act of defiance
And there was Barnabas in Acts and also James the Just, and Andronicus and Junia too
In Galatians and Romans respectively, but now we’re really through
So now you know the names of the twelve apostles of Jesus!
Yes now you know the names of the twelve apostles of Jesus!
And that’s how we remember the names of the twelve apostles of Jesus
And that’s how we remember the names of the twelve apostles of Jesus