Apollos ... For I think that God hath set forth Us the apostles last' (1

Cor. 4:6-9).

Here we find Apollos included in the list of apostles.

`Salute Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen, and my fellow prisoners, who are

of note among the apostles' (Rom. 16:7).

We admit that the meaning of this passage may merely be that other

apostles knew these fellow prisoners of Paul very well.  Andronicus and Junia

may have been apostles; there we leave the matter and pass on.

`We might have been burdensome, as the apostles of Christ' (1 Thess. 2:6).

The `we' must refer to the names at the head of the epistle, viz., `Paul,

and Silas, and Timothy'.  The references in 2 Corinthians 8:23 and Philippians

2:25, `apostles of the churches' and `your apostle' we do not press, feeling

that in these cases the idea is simply that such were legates of the several

churches and not apostles in the sense we are considering.  We can however set

down the following names of apostles other than the twelve: Paul, Silas,

Timothy, Barnabas, Apollos; if we include Andronicus and Junia, we have at least

seven apostles of a new order other than the twelve.  If this is so during the

dispensation of the Acts of the Apostles, it is even more probable that for such

a new sphere of service as the dispensation of the Mystery, other apostles,

called in harmony with the glorious revelation of the pleroma, sent directly

from the ascended Head for the benefit of the members, will be given.

The fourfold gift to the church, which we have already considered, was

given with a very special object:

For (pros) the perfecting of the saints:

Unto (eis) a work of ministry.

Unto (eis) a building up of the Body of Christ.

Before the work of ministry could be entered upon, or the Body built up,

something had to be done to meet the dispensational crisis of Acts 28.  The

state of affairs at that time is expressed in the word `perfecting'.  Had the

church of the One Body been the perfect or mature state of which the church of 1

Corinthians 13 was the immature, this development of doctrine and status could

have been expressed by the word so often translated `to perfect' (teleioo).

This, however, is not the case.  The word used here for the `perfecting' of the

saints indicates a rupture, a break, a dislocation, such as we might expect when

such a drastic setting aside of the channel of blessing took place, as it did,

in Acts 28.

Katartismos.  This word according to Cremer is used in classical Greek in

medical works only.  Katartizo occurs in Matthew 4:21, `mending their nets',

where the primary idea restore is seen.  In 1 Corinthians 1:10 it comes in a

context of division:

`I beseech you ... that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be

perfectly joined together ...'.