Apostolos #45

Apostolos comes from a verb meaning “to send” and means someone sent as a delegate or ambassador. In ordinary Greek it could refer to a fleet or an envoy, and the New Testament keeps that sense while giving it a specific weight: the one sending is Christ, and the message is the gospel.

Biblical Usage

Luke records that Jesus called his disciples and chose twelve, “whom also he named apostles” (Luke 6:13). After Judas’s death, Peter says the replacement must be someone who had accompanied them from the baptism of John until the ascension and could serve as a witness to the resurrection (Acts 1:21-22), and the lot fell on Matthias (Acts 1:26). Paul insists that he is an apostle “not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ” (Galatians 1:1), having seen the risen Lord, though he calls himself the least of the apostles because he had persecuted the church (1 Corinthians 15:8-9). Hebrews 3:1 uses the title of Jesus himself, calling him “the Apostle and High Priest of our profession.”

The word is not always limited to the Twelve and Paul. Acts 14:14 calls Barnabas and Paul apostles, and Paul refers to the “messengers of the churches” using the plural of this same word (2 Corinthians 8:23). In Romans 16:7 he greets Andronicus and Junia as “of note among the apostles,” and interpreters disagree over whether this means they were themselves apostles or were simply well regarded by them.

Theological Significance

The apostles’ witness to Jesus’s life and resurrection is the basis for the New Testament and for the claim of churches to continuity with the first generation. Catholic, Orthodox, and some Anglican traditions understand bishops as successors of the apostles, while many Protestant traditions hold that the office was unique and closed, with the apostolic role continuing through the New Testament writings. Some Pentecostal and charismatic groups recognise living apostles. All these readings depend on how narrow or broad the word’s New Testament use is judged to be.