Stello is the verb `to send', so an apostle is one `sent from

* WE would acknowledge our indebtedness to Miss Ada Habershon's Concordance to

the Names and Titles of the Lord of Glory,which was published by James Nisbet in

Apostello is used of the `sending forth' of the twelve (Matt. 10:5), of

John the Baptist (Mark 1:2; John 1:6), of preachers generally (Rom. 10:15), of

angels (Heb. 1:14), and of Paul (Acts 26:17).  There is, however, one other

occasion where apostello and apostolos are used, that gives all subsequent

apostles and messengers their true and only authority.  Both words are used of

the Lord Jesus Christ.  He is pre-eminently `The Sent One' (1 John 4:9,10,14);

He is pre-eminently `The Apostle'.

`Consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus'

(Heb. 3:1).

Here, therefore, is revealed the character of the solemn office denoted by

the title `Apostle'.  Paul's insistence on the use of the word `me' in 2 Timothy

2:2 is carried back to another and higher use of the pronoun, `He that receiveth

you receiveth Me' (Matt. 10:40) and, through Him, to the ultimate source of all

authority, God Himself.

In the opening salutations of the epistles to the Romans, 1 and 2

Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus, Paul

speaks of himself as an apostle.  In 1 Corinthians 12:28 he indicates the

supremacy of the office saying, `God hath set some in the church, first

apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles', etc.,

apostleship taking precedence over all other ministerial gifts and callings.  To

the Corinthians, Paul said: `Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among

you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds' (2 Cor. 12:12).

Writing to the Romans, Paul, who never magnified himself but confessed that he

was `not meet to be called an apostle' (1 Cor. 15:9), said `I speak to you

Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office'

(Rom. 11:13), and in both epistles to Timothy the apostle claims to have been

appointed `a preacher and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles' (1 Tim.

2:7; 2 Tim. 1:11), adding in the first of these references the solemn words `I

speak the truth in Christ, and lie not'.

The word apostolos is not of very frequent use in classical Greek.  It is

found in Herodotus as `an envoy' and later, it is used, as we have seen, of the

commander of a naval force.  The fact that the word was almost unadopted by

classical Greek, made it more suitable for the new order of envoys that were

sent out from the Lord.  The word was known among the Jews, for Oecumenius (a

Bishop of Tricca, in Thessaly, 10th century), says:

`It is even yet a custom among the Jews to call those who carry about

circular letters from their rulers by the name of apostles'.

The word is used in John 13:16:

`The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent

(apostolos) greater than he that sent him'.

The word is once used in 2 Corinthians in its simple etymological sense

`they are the messengers of the churches' (2 Cor. 8:23), and once in

Philippians, `your messenger' (Phil. 2:25).