The
Apostle
We are in the midst of chapter 9 of the
First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians. In these
verses, Paul makes a passionate defense of some of the rights and
responsibilities of the apostle. In the opening verse he asks,
"Am I not an apostle?" And the implication here
is that the correct answer is "yes."
That word, "apostle" comes from
the Greek, "apostolos" meaning "one sent
forth as a messenger." Throughout the NT and early
church literature, this word is used with this same basic meaning
but with some variations to allow the title to be applied in different
ways. This article will examine how the word, "apostle,"
is used.
In the Greek version of the OT,
this word occurs once, and that is in First Kings 14:6:
"I have been commissioned to bring you bitter news."
In the NT, this word occurs, according to some estimates,
about eighty times.
We start with the four Gospels. They
were, according to the Acts of the Apostles and Christian
tradition, disciples whom Jesus of Nazareth had chosen and trained
in order to send them on a specific mission. That mission
was to preach the Kingdom of God and to establish the Christian
Church through evangelization, and the proclaim the "good news."
Traditionally, the Twelve Apostles included
Peter, Andrew, James the Greater, James the Lesser, John, Philip,
Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, Thaddeus, Simon, and Judas Iscariot
(The gospels of Matthew and Mark). Judas
had been one of the Twelve, but he betrayed Jesus and killed himself.
With Judas gone, Matthias became one of the Twelve (Act 1:15-26).
Luke substitutes Jude for Mark's Thaddeus. John
refers to the Twelve without naming them all. But John
does mention the name Nathanael and uses the term "beloved
disciple" (presumably for John). Jesus' inner circle
of twelve disciples probably corresponded to the twelve tribes of
Israel.
In the Synoptics, Peter, James, and John
seem to have special closeness to the Lord. They are with
Jesus to witness his divine Transfiguration and to be with him when
he prays at Gethsemane.
The Acts of the Apostles initially
continues to used this title of apostle for the twelve, (after the
departure of Judas and with the addition of Matthias). In
the early chapters of the Acts of the Apostles, the focus
is centered on the deeds of the apostles in the years after Jesus'
death and resurrection. The latter part of this book shifts
focus to Paul and his associates and also applies the title of apostle
to him. In the story in which Paul healed a man who was crippled,
the crowd thought Paul and Barnabas were gods and then the Acts
notes that "The apostles Paul and Barnabas tore their garments
when they heard this" (Act 14:14).
In the opening greetings of many of his
letters, when Paul identifies himself, he does so with the title
of apostle. "Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, called to
be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God. . . . Through
him we have received the grace of apostleship, to bring about the
obedience of faith, for the sake of his name, among all the Gentiles"
(Rom 1:1,5). In Second Corinthians 1:1, Paul refers
to himself as "an apostle of Christ by the will of God."
And in Second Timothy, he begins, "Paul, an apostle
of Jesus Christ Jesus by the will of God for the promise of life
in Christ Jesus" (2Tm 1:1).
As we see, Paul describes his apostleship
as a call from God. The original Twelve received this commission
when Jesus called them by name. The Book of Revelations
expresses concern regarding false apostles: "I know that you
have tested those who called themselves apostles but are not and
discovered that they are imposters" (Rev 2:2). Paul claimed
that his valid and special commission was from the risen Jesus,
who called him by name, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?"
in his Damascus vision when he met Jesus in that dramatic way (Act
9:1-9).
But there were differences in how Paul saw
is role as apostle. He explicitly referred to himself as the
apostle to the Gentiles: "I am the apostle to the Gentiles,
the glory of my ministry" (Rom. 11:13).
In another instance where Paul speaks of
himself as an apostle, it is also with a different understanding.
"After that he (Jesus) appeared to James, then to all the apostles.
Last of all, as to one born abnormally, he appeared to me.
For I am the least of the apostles, not fit to be called an apostle,
because I persecuted the church of God. But by God's grace
I am what I am, and God's grace to me has not been ineffective"
(1Cor 15:7-10).
Paul did not restrict the term apostle to
the Twelve and himself but attributed this title to others in his
ministry. In Romans 16:7 Paul states, "Greet
Andronicus and Junia, my relatives and my fellow prisoners; they
are prominent among the apostles and they were in Christ before
me." It is noteworthy that Paul is referring to a female
apostle here.
In his First Letter to the Thessalonians,
Paul greets the people in his own name and in the name of Silvanus
and Timothy (1:1); and he says later, "although we were able
to impose our weight as apostles of Christ, we were rather gentle
among you" (2:7).
The office of apostle is listed by Paul
as one of the charisms given to the church: "He gave some as
apostles, others as prophets, others as evangelists, pastors and
teachers" (Eph 4:11-13). After Jesus' ascension, the
authority of the apostles to carry on the life of the church in
the face of new challenges became quite apparent. Their gift
was needed! So important was this apostolic charism in the
first generation of the church, that the church found it necessary
to preserve this apostolic mission in its leaders, officers, teacher,
missionaries, and preachers for future generations.
Much of the NT writings were attributed
to those with the office of apostle. Various Christian non
canonical texts, such as the Didache and the Apostolic
Constitutions, were attributed to the Twelve Apostles.
Bishops traced their lines of succession back to individual apostles,
who were said to have established churches across great territories.
Christian bishops have traditionally claimed authority, through
apostolic succession, from the Twelve.
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| Text:
First Corinthians 9:12b-18
12b Yet we have not used this right.
On the contrary, we endure everything so as not to place an obstacle
to the gospel of Christ.
13 Do you not know that those who
perform the temple services eat (what) belongs to the temple, and
those who minister at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings?
14 In the same way, the Lord ordered
that those who preach the gospel should live by the gospel.
15 I have not used any of these rights,
however, nor do I write this that it be done so in my case. I would
rather die. Certainly no one is going to nullify my boast.
16 If I preach the gospel, this is
no reason for me to boast, for an obligation has been imposed on
me, and woe to me if I do not preach it!
17 If I do so willingly, I have a
recompense, but if unwillingly, then I have been entrusted with
a stewardship.
18 What then is my recompense?
That, when I preach, I offer the gospel free of charge so as not
to make full use of my right in the gospel.
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