Clues:

1W     MARTHA was the sister of Mary and the brother of Lazarus.

2S     PAUL persecuted the church until Jesus dramatically appeared to him.
          He wrote much of the New Testament.

3W     PILATE was the Roman governor who sentenced Jesus to death.

4E     HEROD was a King when Jesus was born.   He gave the orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its
          vicinity who were two years old or younger.

5S     THOMAS was one of the twelve disciples.
          He said, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands …, I will not believe."

6S     PHILIP was one of the lesser known apostles, but he and Peter were the only ones whose names
          started with the letter P.

7E     JAMES and his brother John were known as the Sons of Zebedee.

8E     JOSEPH was Jesus’ adoptive father.

9W     JOHN (THE BAPTIST) was the prophet who prepared the Jews for Jesus’ ministry.
          He baptized people in the Jordan River.

10S     PETER was one of the 12 disciples.   He denied knowing Jesus three times during Jesus’ trial.

11N     LAZARUS was a friend of Jesus.   He died but Jesus raised him back to life after four days.

12N     JESUS was the promised Messiah and the Son of God.

13S     BARNABAS was one of Paul’s missionary partners and accompanied Paul on his first missionary journey.

14W     STEPHEN was the first Christian martyr.   He was stoned to death by the Jewish authorities.

15N     JUDAS was the disciple who betrayed Jesus.

16N     MARY was the mother of Jesus.

17N     BARTHOLOMEW was one of the lesser known of the twelve Apostles, but he had the longest name.