Tool Beta
Hebrew and Greek Without Learning Either
A walk through Genesis, the Psalms, and John, plus the key Hebrew and Greek words worth knowing. Each card is a place the English Bibles part company, and what in the Hebrew or Greek made them.
apostolos
Apostle. The noun simply means one who is sent, with authority to act for the sender.
Mark 3:14, in every translation this tool compares.
He is our man in Berlin. An envoy speaks with the authority of whoever sent him. That is the whole idea, and it is a job description rather than a rank.
Because the English word is now a title for twelve specific men, and the Greek noun is a function that the New Testament applies more widely than most readers expect.
Every version reads apostle, and messenger in the handful of places where the sense is plainly ordinary.
ἀπόστολος apostolos · G652
Apostolos is from apostello, to send out. A sent one carries the authority of the sender, which is what makes the word more than messenger. It is applied to the Twelve, to Paul, to Barnabas, to Epaphroditus and to Andronicus and Junia.
English apostle has become a proper title and cannot be used of an ordinary envoy, so the range is invisible.
When an English word has become a title, look up every occurrence of the original. Titles narrow faster than any other kind of vocabulary.
Apostle is the majority rendering; messenger appears at Philippians 2:25 and 2 Corinthians 8:23 in most versions.
- apostolos of Epaphroditus: Philippians 2:25
- apostolos of Andronicus and Junia: Romans 16:7
- apostello, to send with a commission
