The primary idea or ground-meaning which runs through all the secondary significations, and is distinctly recognizable in all their various applications, is as has already been remarked, that of “one sent forth,” referring either to persons or things, but more commonly to persons. These secondary meanings being all directly derived from the ground-stock, and not by a repetition of transformations in sense, it is hard to settle any order of precedence among them; which might be easily done if a distinct gradation could be traced, as in the definition of most words. I have chosen to follow what seems to be the historical order of application, as already traced, although several very high authorities give a different arrangement.
I. A messenger, herald, embassador; a person sent with a message. This is the use made of the term by Herodotus, above quoted, and being thus historically the earliest, as well as flowing naturally from the ground-meaning, may therefore justly hold the first place. And when other variable meanings had been lost in the revolutions of usage, this retained its place, being applied to many different persons whose offices included the idea of being sent abroad by commission from a higher power. Under this meaning is most justly included that peculiar Christian use of the word, which is the object of this investigation, and under this head therefore I rank all the New Testament usages of αποστολος. 1. It is used in the simple sense here given, with the first primary idea conveyed by the term. There is no Greek sentence extant which refers so forcibly to the ground-meaning as that in John’s gospel, xiii. 16; where the words in the common English translation are “he that is sent,” though in the original Greek the word is αποστολος, which might be more justly translated “messenger,” in order to make a difference in English corresponding to that in Greek, between αποστολος and πεμψας, (pempsas,) without giving the same word “send” for two different words in Greek. Still the common translation gives the true meaning of each word, though not so simply and gracefully just, as it might be if the difference of terms in the two members of the sentence was kept up in English. In this same general sense of “messenger,” or “any person sent,” it is used in 2 Corinthians viii. 23, (in common English translation “messenger,”) and in Philippians ii. 25, (common translation “messenger.”) 2. It is used to designate persons directly sent by God to men, and in this sense is frequently given to us in connection with “prophet,” as in Luke xi. 49; Ephesians iii. 5; Revelation xviii. 20. In this sense also it is applied to Jesus, in Hebrews iii. 1, 3. It is used as the title of several classes of persons, employed by Jesus in propagating the gospel. These are [1] the twelve chief disciples, commonly distinguished above all others but one, by this name. Matthew x. 2; Mark vi. 30; Luke vi. 13; ix. 10; xxii. 14; Acts i. 26; and in other places too numerous to be mentioned here, but to which a good concordance will direct any curious investigator. [2] Paul, as the great messenger of truth to the Gentiles, so called in many passages; and with him Barnabas is also distinctly included under this term, in Acts xiv. 4, 14; and xv. 33. (Griesbach however, has changed this last passage from the common reading. See his editions.) [3] Other persons, not of great eminence or fame; as Andronicus and Junius, Paul’s assistants, Romans xvi. 7; the companions of Titus in collecting the contributions of the churches, 2 Corinthians viii. 23; and perhaps also Epaphroditus, Philippians ii. 25. This seems to be as clear an arrangement of the New Testament lexicography of the term as can be given, on a comparison of high authorities. Those who can refer to Wahl, Bretschneider, Parkhurst and Schleusner, will find that I have not servilely followed either, but have adopted some things from all.
The extensions and variations of the New Testament usage of the word, among the Grecian and Latin Christian Fathers, were, 1, the application of it to the seventy disciples whose mission is narrated by Luke, x. 29. These are repeatedly called apostles. 2. The companions of Paul and others are frequently honored by this title. Timothy and Mark are called apostles, and many later ministers also, as may be seen by the authorities at the end of Cave’s Introduction to his Lives of the Apostles.
In application to persons, it is used by Athenian writers as a name for the commander of a naval expedition, (See Demosthenes as quoted by Stephens,) but this seems to have come by transferring to the man, the name of the expedition which he commanded, so that this cannot be derived from the definition which is here placed first. This term in the later Greek is also applied to the “bride-man,” or bridegroom’s friend, who on wedding festivals was sent to conduct the bride from her father’s house to her husband’s. (Phavorinus quoted by Witsius in Vita Pauli.) This however is a very unusual sense, which I can find on no other authority than that here given. None of the lexicons contain it.
II. The definition which occupies the first place in most of the arrangements of this word in the common Greek lexicons, is that of a “naval expedition,” “apparatus classium,” “fleet.” There appears, however, to be no good reason for this order, but there is historical argument, at least, as well as analogy, for putting those meanings which refer to persons, before those which refer to things. This meaning, as far as I can learn, seems to be confined to Demosthenes, and there is nothing to make us suppose that it is anterior in use to the simple permanent sense which is here given first. Hesychius gives us only the meaning of “the commander of a fleet,” which may indeed be derivable from this sense rather than the preceding personal uses, though it seems to me not impossible that the name was transferred from the commander to the object of his command, thus making the personal meanings prior to those of inanimate things. The adjective use of the word in Herodotus and Plato, however, makes it certain that in that way it was early applied to a single vessel, and the transition to its substantive use for a whole fleet is natural enough.
The legal use of it for “letters of appeal,” (literae dimissoriae,) of course comes under the head of the later usages in application to things, and is the last modification of meaning which the word underwent before the extinction of the ancient Greek language.
The corresponding Hebrew word, and that which was, no doubt, used by Christ in his discourse to his apostles, was שלוּח or שליח (sheluh, or shelih,) whose primary meaning, like that of the Greek word, is “one sent,” and is derived from the passive Kal, participle of the verb שלח meaning “he sent,” This word is often used in the Old Testament, and is usually translated in the Alexandrian Greek version, by the word αποστολος. A remarkable instance occurs in 1 Kings xiv. 6; where the prophet Ahijah, speaking to the wife of Jeroboam, says, אליך אנכי שלוח “to thee am I sent;” the Alexandrian version gives the noun αποστολος, so as to make it literally “to thee I am an apostle,” or “messenger,” or truly, in the just and primary sense of this Greek word, “to thee I am sent.” This passage is a valuable illustration of the use of the same Greek word in John xiii. 16; as above quoted.
The Hebrews had another word also, which they used in the sense of an apostle or messenger. This was מלאך (mal ak,) derived from a verb which means “send,” so that the primary meaning of this also is “one sent.” It was commonly appropriated to angels, but was sometimes a title of prophets and priests. (Haggai i. 19; Malachi ii. 7.) It was on the whole the more dignified term of the two, as the former was never applied to angels, but was restricted to men. The two terms are very fairly represented by the two Greek words αποστολος and αγγελος, in English “apostle” and “angel,” the latter, like its corresponding Hebrew term, being sometimes applied to the human servants of God, as in John’s address to the seven churches.
The scope of the term, as used in the title of this book, is limited to the twelve chosen disciples of Jesus Christ, and those few of their most eminent associates, who are designated by the same word in the writings of the early Christians. These persons fall under two natural divisions, which will be followed in the arrangement of their lives in this work. These are, first, the TWELVE, or Peter and his companions; and second, Paul and his companions, including also some to whom the name apostle is not given by the New Testament writers, but who were so intimate with this great preacher of Christ, and so eminent by their own labors, that they may be very properly ranked with him, in the history of the first preachers of Christianity.
The persons whose lives are given in this book are,