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Regarding
the Bible Word "Apostle" |
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"Apostle"
is the English transliteration of the Koine Greek word apostellos, which
means literally "sent (one)" with the connotation "with an
assignment." Accordingly, the literal translation of John 1:6
(concerning John the Baptist) reads, "There was a man having been
sent with a mission (apestalmenos) from God, name to him John." Other
words are transliterated from the Greek to English as "sent,"
such as pempw and ekballw (see Mt 10:1, 9:38; Mark 5:12). But only one
word, apostellos, meaning "sent" or "sent one," has
the connotation of "sent out with a mission or assignment." It
is from apostellw (I send with an assignment) and the noun
apostelloV (a
sent-with-an-assignment-person) that the Christian church of the
"middle period" (say, 70-100 A.D.) derived the office of
Apostle. See Ephesians 4:11 below. Similarly, the servant (diakanoV) of
the "early period" church became the Deacon (same Greek word) of
the middle and later church (see I Tim 3:8). "Missionis"
is the Latin transliteration of apostellos, and literally means "sent
(one)" or "discharged (one)." It is the word used for
apostellos in the Latin Bible known as the Vulgate (from "vulgatus,"
common). St. Jerome was "sent with an assignment" by the Roman
Emperor (was it Constantine?) in the 4th century to translate the
scriptures into what had become the vernacular of the people. By that
time, Greek was beginning to fall out of use among the common people. It
is from this Latin word that we transliterate the words
"missions" and the office "Missionary." So,
in the literary sense, an apostle and a missionary are the same thing: one
sent with an assignment. If we read the present into the past (as we are
wont to do, unfortunately), we understand these to be two separate gifts
and callings (see Wagner's On the Crest of the Wave pp.65-7 for instance).
But technically and scripturally (using the earliest scriptural sources),
they were not to be diversified, nor were they to be offices, although
that is what they became within a generation or two after Jesus. To
briefly illustrate what I mean, we can compare two texts dealing with
apostles/missionaries. According to most scholars, I Thessalonians,
written by Paul, an apostle, is the earliest New Testament witness, dating
to as early as 50, in the "early church" period. Ephesians,
although attributed to Paul, was probably written by later followers of
Paul who wrote in his name (as was the custom of groups of disciples in
those days). Ephesians is dated to the "middle period," between
70 - 100 A.D. Paul states in Thessalonians that he has the right to order
the congregation to do something, because he was one of those sent by
Christ (apostoloi cistou), and had the authority to do so. On the One
more literary comparison must be made to demonstrate the prerequisite for
an apostolos. A prerequisite? Yes. Someone must be sending for a specific
reason, an important mission, or one is not an apostolos, but a pempos.
Furthermore, the authority of the sending agent is transferred to the one
sent for the purpose of fulfilling the mission. Thus the priests and
Levites mentioned in St. John 1 were apostles sent from the
"Jews," the sending agent, with authority to inquire of John,
"Who are you?" The Jews' authority evidently did extend to the
area of Bethany, and John gave these "apostles of the Jews"
an answer straight from scripture (1:23). Matthew
further amplifies John's apostleship by quoting the Septuagint (the Greek
scripture of his day), to refer to John's sending agent in 11:10:
"Behold, egw apostellw my messenger...." The
ego is the emphatic
"I," referring to Yahweh. Matthew has God himself
sending John on a mission! It is no wonder that, in Matthew 10:16 (and no
coincidence) that Matthew has Jesus sending his disciples out with the
same words, "Behold, egw apostellw you out...," thus identifying
once again who the disciples were apostles of, and through whose authority
they were to cast out demons and heal the sick. The egw (I) is really
superfluous (apostellw means "I send"), but is used for
emphasis. Yahweh
sends, so I send. This device is used many times to refer to the authority
of a sender. One of many examples from Mt 5:37,38: "You have heard it
that it was said (by Moses), 'an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.'
But egw legw...." I SAY...! Moses said at one time, but now I SAY! How
is it that Jesus' word has more authority that Moses? Jahweh/Jehovah said
to Moses, "Egw eimi," I AM! Jesus said to the Jews, "Before
Abraham was, egw eimi!" Thus Jesus equates himself with God, bearing
the authority of God, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been
given to me! Going, therefore, you 'disciple-ize' (maqhteusate) all the
nations...." The
sender of a disciple of Christ then is God through Christ. But the
apostle, in order to fulfill the definition, must be sent on a mission to
some specific place in order to complete the works of Christ (Luke 4:17). To
what place are you called? SCRIPTURE
REFERENCES MT
10:1 And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority
over unclean spirits, to cast them out (ekballein), and to heal every
disease and every infirmity." MT
10:16 "Behold, I send (egw apostellw) you out as sheep in the midst
of wolves." MT
11:10 "Behold, I send (ego apostellw) my messenger before thy face,
who shall prepare thy way before me." (quoting Septuagint) JN
1:19 And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent
apesteilan)
priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you?" Mk
5:12 And (the demons) begged (Jesus), "Send (pempson) us to the
swine, let us enter them." Lk
16:24 "and he called out, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send
(pempson) Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my
tongue....'" I
Th 2:6,7 ...nor did we seek glory from men, whether from you or from
others, though we might have made demands as apostles (apostoloi) of
Christ. Eph
4:11 And his gifts were that some should be apostles (apostolouV), some
prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, for the equipment
of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the building up of the
body of Christ.... Literally:
And he gave the ones (each of us, v. 7) on the one hand apostles,
and the ones prophets, the ones evangelists, and the ones shepherds even
teachers... |