Apostle Name List Discrepancies

Question:

How do you explain that the disciple Thadaeus (Matth.10, Mark 3) is also called James (Luke 6) sometimes??

Response:

There are four lists of the disciples: Matthew 10, Mark 3, Luke 6 and Acts 1.  When the lists are compared side-by-side we see that Matthew and Mark list “Thaddaeus” which Luke and Acts omit.  Luke and Acts list “Judas the son of James” which Matthew and Mark omit.  What we can conclude from this is that “Thaddaeus” and “Judas” refer to the same person. 

Perhaps this man, having a name in common with the betrayer of Jesus, preferred to go by Thaddaeus after Jesus was raised from the dead.  But Luke, when writing his gospel and the book of Acts, chose to use his alternate name “Judas”.