We, in these latter times, may apostatize, though under different circumstances from those above de-
APOSTATE
308
APOSTLE
scribed. The term "apostasy'" is perverted when it is applied to a withdrawal from any system of mere polity ; it is legitimately used only in connection with a departure from the written truth of God in some form, public or personal. — Bingham, Orig.Ecdes. bk. xvi, ch. vi, s. v. See Backsliding.
Apostate {airoararnq, a rebel, renegade), a term used, in its strict sense, bj' ecclesiastical writers, to designate one who has, either wholly or in part, left the true faith to embrace a false belief, or who has forsaken any holy profession to which he was bound by solemn vows. The term apostate is, in Church history, applied by way of emphasis to the Emperor Julian, who, though he had been nominally Christian when he came to the throne, renounced the Christian religion, and used every means in his power to re- establish paganism in the empire. See Heretic.
Apostle (rt7roffroXoc, from airoaTtWw, to send fortii). In Attic Greek the term is used to denote a fleet or naval armament. It occurs only once in the Sept. (1 Kings xiv, G), and there, as uniformly in the New Testament, it signifies a person sent by another, a messenger. It has been asserted that the Jews were accustomed to term the collector of the half shekel which every Israelite paid annually to the Temple. an apostle ; and we have better authority for asserting that the}' used the word to denote one who carried about encyclical letters from their rulers. CEcumenius states that it is even yet a custom among the Jews to call those who earn' about circular letters from their rulers by the name of apostles. To this use of the term Paul has been supposed to refer (Gal. i, 1) when he asserts that he was "an apostle, not of men, nei- ther by men" — an apostle not like those known among the Jews by that name, who derived their authority and received their mission from the chief priests or principal men of their nation. The import of the word is strongly brought out in John xiii, 16, where it occurs along with its correlate, " The servant is not greater than his Lord, neither h' who is sent {ciKuaro- Xog) greater than he who sent him."
It is the opinion of Suicer (Thesawrus, art. 'Attcoto- Xoc) that the appellation "apostle" is in the N. T. employed as a general name for Christian ministers as " sent by God," in a qualified use of that phrase, to preach the word. The word is indeed used in this loose sense by the fathers. Thus we find Archippus, Philemon, Apphia, the seventy discip!es (Luke x, 1- 17), termed apostles ; and even Mary Magdalene is said ytviadai role; c'nroaToXotg et—oaroXoc, to become an apostle to the apostles. No evidence, however, can be brought forward of the term being thus used in the N. T. Andronicus and Junia (Rom. xvi, 7) are indeed said to be tiriffjjjuot iv ro7e «7rooTo\oit', "of note among the apostles;" but these words by no means imply that they were apostles, but only that they were well known and esteemed by the apostles. The avvepyot, the fellow-workers of the apostles, are by Chrvsostom denominated avvuir ottoXoi. The ar- gument founded on 1 Cor. iv, 9, compared with ver. 6, to prove that Apollos is termed an apostle, cannot bear examination. The only instance in which it seems probable that the word, as expressive of an of- fice in the Christian Church, is applied to an individ- ual whose call to that olfice is not made the subject of special narration, is to be found in Acts xiv, 4, 14, where Barnabas, as well as Paul, is termed an apos- tle. At the same time, it is by no means absolutely certain that the term apostles, or messengers, does not in this place refer rather to the mission of Paul and Barnabas by the prophets and teachers at Antioch, under the impulse of the Holy Ghost (Acts xiii, 1-4), than to that direct call to the Christian apostleship Which we know Paul received, and which if Barna- bas had received, we can scarcely persuade ourselves that no trace of so important an event should have been found in the sacred history but a passing hint,
which admits, to say the least, of being plausibly ac- counted for in another way. We know that, on the occasion referred to, "the prophets and teachers, when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on Barnabas and Saul, sent them away" (cnriXvaav) ; so that, in the sense in which we will immediately find the words occurring, they were «7rooTo\oi — prophets and teachers (Vollhagen, he Apost. Ebr. Greifsw. 1704).
In 2 Cor. viii, 23, we meet with the phrase (!tt6<jto- Xoi iiocAjjffiwi', rendered in our version "the messengers of the churches." Who these were, and why they re- ceived this name, is obvious from the context. The churches of Macedonia had made a contribution for the relief of the saints of Judrea, and had not merely requested the apostle "to receive the gift, and take on him the fellowship of ministering to the saints," but at his suggestion had appointed some individuals to accompany him to Jerusalem with their alms. These " apostles or messengers of the churches" were those " who were chosen of the churches to travel with the apostle with this grace [gift], which was ad- ministered by him," to the glory of their common Lord (2 Cor. viii, 1-4, 19). With much the same meaning and reference Epaphroditus (Phil, ii, 25) is termed c'l-uaroXoc — a messenger of the Philippian Church — having been employed by them to carry pe- cuniary assistance to the apostle (Phil, iv, 14-18).