I was just reminding myself of these lyrics, and found there's a more recent recording of Dwight Diller singing this song, with the vocal easier to hear than on his earlier CD, on Bandcamp:

Dwight Diller: Put Your Hand to the Plow

In this take he sings the following lines:

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John
All them apostles are dead and gone...

Chance McCoy also sings this verse. I still love the way Dwight does it, though.