The
Twelve Apostles (Greek
?p?st????,
apostolos, "someone sent out", e.g. with a message or as a delegate) were, according to the
Synoptic Gospels (i.e., the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke) and
Christian tradition,
disciples (followers) whom
Jesus of
Nazareth had chosen, named, and trained in order to send them on a specific mission. After the Apostle
Judas Iscariot had betrayed Jesus, the remaining Apostles under the leadership of
Simon Peter filled the vacancy by electing by lot
Matthias, a companion of theirs ever since they themselves had followed Jesus,
[1] so that by the time of the coming of the
Holy Spirit at
Pentecost they actually numbered twelve again.
The word apostle comes from the Greek word ?p?st???? (apostolos). According to the Bauer lexicon, Walter Bauer's Greek-English Lexicon of the NT "…Judaism had an office known as apostle (????)". In Islam, the Qur'an called The Twelve Apostles "?????????" which derives from the Hebrew word for a pharisaical college "friends".[citation needed] The Friberg Greek Lexicon gives a broad definition as one who is sent on a mission, a commissioned representative of a congregation, a messenger for God, a person who has the special task of founding and establishing churches. The UBS Greek Dictionary also describes an apostle broadly as a messenger. The Louw-Nida Lexicon gives a very narrow definition of a special messenger, generally restricted to the immediate followers of Jesus, or extended to some others like Paul or other Early Christians active in proclaiming the Gospel.
In summary then, the word apostle has two meanings, the broader meaning of a messenger and the narrow meaning of an early apostle, which is restricted to those directly linked to Jesus Christ. The more general meaning of the word is translated into Latin as 'missio', and from this word we get the English word 'missionary'.
In more recent times however, the word apostle has mostly fallen out of use in the general sense. In some parts of the church the world and among certain groups, it is urged that the word apostle should only be used to refer to The Twelve Apostles and Paul, or only those and certain other historic figures. In these settings it can cause great offence to refer to oneself or another modern figure as an apostle; terms which avoid controversy include 'missionary', 'envoy', 'delegate', 'messenger' and 'church planter'.
