Greek word - (apostolos G652)
Quiz - Choose the answer that is closest to what you think APOSTLE is.
A - a disciple
B - one of the twelve or Paul
C - a top leader of the church
D - a missionary
Problem - Transliteration, Misused
KJV Example - "Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute" (Luke 11:49).
Explanation
The English word, apostle, is a transliteration of the Greek word, apostolos. It is made up of two parts: apo (out) and stolos (send). It is someone who is sent out to do something. Do you have someone working for you who runs errands? This is what an apostle is.
You may think that this borders on blasphemy, but an honest look at how this Greek word is used in the Bible reveals this to be true.
Closely related to apostolos is its Greek verb, apostello. Apostello means to send out. It is used often in the New Testament. Jesus many times states that He was sent out by God on a mission (Matthew 10:40). Jesus often sent His apostles out to do certain things. Many people in the New Testament narrative (Herod, the men in a certain area, property owners, the owners of a donkey, a certain king, the Pharisees, Pilate's wife, Jesus' mother and brothers, and many more) sent people out to do things. In the church today, the people who are sent out on the big missions are called missionaries.
The King James Version is not completely consistent in the way it translates apostolos. Usually it translates it as apostle, but once it translates it as "he that is sent" (John 13:16) and twice as messenger (2 Corinthians 8:23; Philippians 2:25).
Apostolos does not mean messenger (a different Greek word, angelos, is closer to that meaning), but an interesting fact is that hundreds of years ago (when this word was put in the English Bible) the word, messenger, had a different meaning. It meant someone who was sent out. So messenger is actually a correct translation of apostolos if a person is speaking Old English, but today's readers do not know Old English. For them, it is wrong.
Why didn't the King James Version translate apostolos as messenger everytime? It could have. And why these three times did it not translate it as apostle? Is it because in these three verses apostolos is NOT one of the Twelve or Paul? Doesn't this hide the truth about what an apostle is? Many are fooled by it.
The bad translating of this word has led to much misuse of it in Christian circles.
The truth is that an apostle is a person sent out to do certain tasks or a missionary. The twelve apostles started out as people that Jesus sent out on missions, but they ended up as missionaries.
Right after Jesus appointed the twelve, He called them apostles (Luke 6:13). By most people's definition of apostle, they could not be described as apostles at that time, but they were.
Jesus ordained them so that He might apostello them, send them out (Mark 3:14). Do you get it? Apostolos - apostello. He called them apostolos, apostles, and he apostello them, He sent them out to do things. These are the same thing.
The tasks He apostello, sent them out, to do included speaking publicly, controlling the crowd, getting a boat ready, going out by twos to spread His teachings, going into a town and buying food, preparing a hall to eat the Passover in, and fetching a donkey. The last task they were sent out to perform was to go out and make students. This is what a missionary does.
This is an apostle.
But if this is true, how is it that an apostle is ranked over pastors in 1 Corinthians 12:28? Today missionaries are under pastors.
This is explained by Jesus in John 13:16 (remember, "he that is sent" is apostle in Greek). A missionary is under the person who sends him out. Pastors send missionaries out.
But when missionaries go out, they start churches and train pastors. The pastors that they train are under them. So the missionary ends up being over pastors in the area that he is sent to.
Apostle. Two thousand years of tradition has given us many explanations of what an apostle is, but the best explanation is the one the Greek word, apostolos, and its verb, apostello, give us: an apostle is someone sent out on a mission, a missionary.
In the Bible, apostle is missionary.
Modern Synonym - missionary
Bible Version Tally (how other versions translate this word) - apostle (43 of 50), missionaries (1 of 50), emissaries (2 of 50).
Breakthrough Version - "Because of this, God's insight also said, 'I will send preachers and missionaries out to them, and they will kill some from them and pursue them,'" (Luke 11:49).