The Pulpit Commentary — Galatians — Section 13

2. That the Jews employed it exclusively to designate persons deputed by some eminent authority, and not to describe a mere ordinary messenger. 3. That it was applied exclusively to persons whose mission related to matters connected with religion; so that the term was invested in the minds of those who used it with sacred associations. In tM New Testament two kinds of dekgaUM,, principally denoted by the term. The evidence furnished by all the passages in the New Testament in which the word ••apostle" occurs, seems to make good the following statements: that, apart from that application of the t.erm to the Lord Jesus Christ which we have in the Hebrews, it is used in these books with reference to two kinds of delegation only : the one being that which was imparted immediately by Christ himself, without human interventiori,-this being the higher kind of apostleship; the other, that which was received from a Church or from Church officials, appointing the recipient to the discharge of aom~ function relating to sacred things. These two different kinds of delegation constituted two forms of apostleship, which were quite distinct from ea.eh other, and operative in, so to speak, different planes •of action. Cases, however, might occnr in which an apostle of the former class was dele- gat.ed by a Church to execut.e a specific commission when the commission thus received would constitute him an apostle of the second class. In such a case the delegate .would be an "apostle" in both senses, the two senses still continuing distinct. • .Apostles del,egated immediately by Ohrist. The only individuals assigned i~-s·cripture to the higher form of apostleship are (1) the "twelve disciples," or,. th~ twelve," wh.o appear so prominently in the Gospels, who, having been elected, and: expre~sly na.m!ld ••apostles" (Luke vi. 13) by our Lord himself early in the course of 'his earthly minis- try, were (with the exception of Judas) confirmed by him a.fresh in their apostleship (Acts i. 2) after his resurrection; (2) St. Matthias, likewise chosen by Christ himself to fill the place among the twelve vacated by Judas's fall, on one of the ten days following next after his ascension ; and (3) St. Paul. • We need not hesitate to assign Matthias to the class of those appointed to be apostles by Christ himself. For they surely misconstrue the narrative relative to Matthias in the first chapter of the Acts, who find therein an election by the eleven themselves of a new twelfth member of their body. For, on the contrary, the eleven appear in the record to have shown themselves especially careful to recogniz4;1 the fact that it apper- tained to Christ himself, both to " choose" which of the two disciples, who alone were by their antecedents qualified to be witnesses with themselves of .the Lord's resurrection, was the one that, according to the prediction of the psalm, was to "take Judas's office;" and also to "show" to them which it wa.s that he did choose. The ,c>,.fip•• were used for the lot, not for voting. The jud.gment of the Church respecting this ,appointment is incidentally shown by Acts ii 14; vi. 2 ; for the twelve must have i.ncluded Matthias. •• The appointment, being directly Divine, superseded the laying on of .hands" ~Bishop Jacobson, on Acts i 26, in 'Speaker's Commentary;' whose rendering, however, of .-.,YKAT£1/tf,,Plcr(f11 by the words, "by vote numbered," is very questionable; the ,j,fi,pos i,n the verb being here merely a counting and not a voting pebble). The characteristica of these apostles may be described as being in the, ma.in the following : - . . 1. They were witnesses of Christ's resurrection, having seen him alive. after his passion. , 2. They were the chief depositaries of the truths of the gospel, which were imparted to them, either from the lips of Christ himself or through his teaching Spirit, to form Chrut's messe.ge through them to the world. By them, either themselves perBOna.lly  t>lSSBRTA'l'ION t :u.v