“Unknown Brethren”

1 Corinthians 15: 6: “After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep.” Who were the five hundred brethren? We have no idea. There are nowhere near five hundred brethren named in the entire New Testament. This is an occasion not mentioned in the Gospels, mentioned only here in very sketchy detail. How many other such unknown incidents there were in Jesus’ ministry, again, we have no idea. As St. John says, “There are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books which were written.” (John 21: 25) We have the ones we need.