The word " apostle" occurs once in the New Testa- ment (Heb. iii, 1) as a descriptive designation of Jesus Christ : " The apostle of our profession," i. e. the apos- tle whom we profess or acknowledge. The Jews were in the habit of applying the term rp?d, from FlPEJ, to send, to the person who presided over the synagogue, and directed all its officers and affairs. The Church is represented as "the house or family of God," over which he had placed, during the Jewish economy, Mo- ses as the superintendent — over which he has placed, under the Christian economy, Christ Jesus. The im- port of the term apostle is divinely commissioned su- perintendent; and cf the whole phrase, u the apostle of our profession," the divinely commissioned superin- tendent whom we Christians acknowledge, in contra- distinction to the divinely appointed superintendent Moses, whom the Jews acknowledged.
1. The term apostle, however, is generally em- ployed in the New Testament as the descriptive ap- pellation of a comparatively small class of men, to whom Jesus Christ intrusted the organization of his Church and the dissemination of his religion among mankind. At an early period of his ministry " he or- dained twelve" of his disciples "that they should be with him." Their names were : 1. Simon Peter (Ce- phas, Bar-jona); 2. Andrew; 3. John; 4. Philip; 5. James the Elder ; G. Nathanael (Bartholomew) ; 7. Thomas (Didymus) ; 8. Matthew (Levi); 9. Simon Zelotes ; 10. jude (Lebbams, Judas, Thaddaeus) ; 11. James the Less ; 12. Judas Iscariot. (For their names according to Mohammedan traditions, see Thilo, . [poor'. i, 152.) " These he named apostles." Some time afterward " he gave to them power against unclean spirits to cast them out, and to heal all manner of disease;" "and he sent, them to preach the kingdom of (I. m1" (Mark iii, 11: Matt, x, 1-5; Mark vi, 7; Luke vi, 13; ix, 1). To them he gave "the keys of the kingdom of God," and constituted them princes over the spiritual Israel, that " people, whom God was to take from among the Gentiles, for his name" (Matt. xvi, 19; xviii, 18; xix, 28; Luke xxii, 30). Previ- ously to his death he promised to them the Hoky Spirit, to fit them to be the founders and governors of the Christian Church (John xiv, 1(1, 17, 20 ; xv, 26, 27; xvi, 7-15). After his resurrection he solemnly confirmed their call, saying, "As the Father hath sent me. so send I you ;" and gave them a commission to "preach the gospel to every creature" (John xx, 21-23: Matt, xviii, 18-20). After his ascension he, on the day of Pentecost, communicated to them those
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supernatural gifts which were necessary to the per- formance of the high functions he had commissioned them to exercise ; and in the exercise of these gifts they, in the Gospel history and in their epistles, with the Apocah'pse, gave a complete view of the will of their Master in reference to that new order of things of which he was the author. They "had the mind of Christ." They spoke "the wisdom of God in a mystery." That mystery " God revealed to them by his Spirit," and the}' spoke it, "not in worils which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth." They were " ambassadors for Christ," ; nd besought men, " in Christ's stead, to be reconciled to God." They authoritatively taught the doctrine and the law of their Lord ; they organized churches, and required them to "keep the traditions," i. e. the doc- trines and ordinances delivered to them" (Acts ii; 1 Cor. ii, 16; ii, 7, 10, 13; 2 Cor. v, 20; 1 Cor. xi, 2). Of the twelve originally ordained to the apostleship, one, Judas Iscariot, "fell from it by transgression," and Matthias, " who had companied" with the oth- er apostles " all the time that the Lord Jesus went out and in among them," was by lot substituted in his place (Acts i, 17-26). Saul of Tarsus, afterward termed Paul, was also miraculously added to the num- ber of these permanent rulers of the Christian society (Acts ix; xx, 4; xxvi, 15-18; 1 Tim. i, 12; ii, 7 ; 2 Tim. i, 11). See Disciples {Twelve). — Kitto, s. v.
2. The number twelve was probably fixed upon after the analogy of the twelve tribes of the Israelites (Matt, xix,' 28; Lightfoot, Hor. Heb. p. 323; comp. Tertull. c. Marcion. iv, 415), and was so exact, that the apostles are often termed simply "the Twelve" (Matt, xxvi, 14, 47 ; John vi, G7 ; xx, 24 ; 1 Cor. xv, 5). Their general commission was to preach the gos- pel. (See generally Cave, Hist, of the Apostles, Lond. 1677 ; Spanheim, Be apostolatu, in his Dissert, hist. quatemio, Lugd. B. 1679 ; Budda; Eceles. apost. Jen. 1729; Burmann, Exercit. acad. ii, 104 sq. ; Hess, O'esch. u. Schrift. d. Apostel, Tur. 1821 ; Planck, Geseh. des Ckristentk. Gott. 1818; Wilhelm, Christi Apostel, Heidelb. 1825 ; Capelli Histor. apost. illustr. Genev. 1634, Salmur. 1683, Frckf. 1691 ; Von Einem, Ilistoria Chr. et Apostol. Goett. 1758 ; Rullmann, De apostolis, Rint. 1789; Stanley, Sermons on the Apostolic Age, Oxf. 1847, 1852; Kenan, Les Apotres, Paris, 1866.) They were uneducated persons (F. Lami, De erudi- tione apostnlorujn , Flor. 1738) taken from common life, mostly Galileans (Matt, xi, 25), and many of them had been disciples of John the Baptist (John i, 35 sq.). Some of them appear to have been relatives of Jesus himself. See Brother. Our Lord chose them early in his public career, though some of them had certainly partly attached themselves to him before ; but after their call as apostles they appear to have been continuously with him or in his service. The)' seem to have been all on an equality, both during and after the ministry of Christ on earth ; and the prelatical supremacy of Peter, founded by the Romish Church upon Matt, xvi, 18, is nowhere alluded to in the apos- tolical period. We rind one indeed, Peter, from fervor of personal character, usually prominent among them, and distinguished by having the first place assigned him in founding the Jewish and Gentile churches [see Peter] ; but we never find the slightest trace in Scripture of any superiority or primacy being in con- sequence accorded to him. We also find that he and two others, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, are admitted to the inner privacy of our Lord's acts and sufferings on several occasions (Mark v, 37 ; Matt, xvii, 1 sq. ; xxvi, 37); but this is no proof of superi-, ority in rank or office. Early in our Lord's ministry, he sent them out two and two to preach repentance, and perform miracles in his name (Matt, x ; Luke ix). This their mission was of the nature of a solemn call to the children of Israel, to whom it was confined (Matt, x, 5, 6). There is, however, in his charge to