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Who are these apostles? We may first of all reply negatively: they cannot be "the
twelve", for the twelve were appointed by the Lord whilst he was on earth. Their names
are given in Matt. 10:, and the one who fell, Judas, is replaced by Matthias who was
"numbered with the eleven", who received the self-same enduement of the Holy Spirit as
they did (Acts 2: 3).
It goes without saying that Paul was one of this new order of apostles, and the chief.
We need not labour this point. Who are the others, for it says "apostles"? We shall find
that even during the Acts period and before the revelation of the mystery there are others
besides the twelve and Paul who bear the title "apostle".
"When the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard it" (Acts 14: 14).
If Barnabas was not an apostle of the One Body, he was an apostle to the Gentiles in a
way the "twelve" were not.
"These things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and Apollos . . . . . For
I think that God hath set forth US the apostles last" (I 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" (I 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 II Cor. 8: 23, and Phil. 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 than the twelve. If this be 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.
(Mystery14, pp.101-105).