But there were apostles in the early church other than the original Twelve, Matthias and Paul. Paul himself alludes to this. In 1 Corinthians 15:8 Paul calls himself an apostle and he lists all those to whom Jesus appeared after his resurrection from the dead. In the list (1 Cor 15:5-7) Paul includes Peter, The Twelve, more than five hundred brothers, James and then “all the apostles.” Who were they?
Paul doesn’t explain. But elsewhere Scripture does name other apostles. In Acts 14:14 Barnabas, the Son of Encouragement, is identified as an apostle together with Paul. When Paul wrote his first letter to the Christians in Thessalonica he considered at least Silvanus and probably Timothy as apostles with himself (1 Thess 2:6).
When he closed his letter to the Romans Paul asked to be remembered to Andronicus and Junia, two relatives who had been in prison with him who were outstanding “among the apostles” (Rom 16:7). The Greek text makes it clearer than the English translation that Paul considers them apostles. It is interesting to note that “Junia” was generally a woman’s name. Just as we have women missionaries today there may have been women missionaries in the days after Jesus’ ascension.
As T. W. Manson, the eminent New Testament scholar wrote in The Church’s Ministry:
“It seems clear that we have to reckon with a stricter and a looser use of the term both in the New Testament and in early Christian literature.” 11
Many of the Christian writers immediately following the New Testament period used the term apostle broadly and inconsistently. There seemed to be no rigid limitation to the office.12
At the end of the first century, the writing titled The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, better known as the Didache, assumed only a broader use of the title apostle! Interesting, since the title itself would seem to narrow the designation.
In 1 Clement, The Letter of the Romans to the Corinthians, written before AD 100, Apollos is called an apostle (47:4).
In later Christian writings the same can be seen. Origen (d. 254) calls the Samaritan woman of John 4 an apostle, because she brought the Gospel to her neighbors.13 Eusebius of Caesarea (d. 339) says that “many apostles remained in Jerusalem until its fall.” Could this have been “many of the Twelve”? Or, was Eusebius referring to the broader designation, “missionaries” who were being sent out into all the world?
Gregory of Antioch described the women at Jesus’ grave as apostles because they had been sent by God; Stephen is called an apostle by Didymus Alexandrinus; Gregory Nazianzus considers Mark an apostle.
Early on the broader and narrower meanings of apostle were used side by side, until the narrow interpretation won out. Ignatius, writing in the early second century, only used the narrow definition.
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