The Twelve Apostles
In the New Testament history we first hear of the term as applied by Jesus to the Twelve in connection with that evangelical mission among the villages on which He dispatched them at an early stage of His public ministry (Mat 10:1; Mar 3:14; Mar 6:30; Luk 6:13; Luk 9:1). From a comparison of the Synoptics it would seem that the name as thus used was not a general designation for the Twelve, but had reference only to this particular mission, which was typical and prophetic, however, of the wider mission that was to come (compare Hort, Christian Ecclesia, 23-29). Luke, it is true, uses the word as a title for the Twelve apart from reference to the mission among the villages. But the explanation probably is, as Dr. Hort suggests, that since the Third Gospel and the Book of Acts formed two sections of what was really one work, the author in the Gospel employs the term in that wider sense which it came to have after the Ascension.
When we pass to Acts, “apostles” has become an ordinary name for the Eleven (Act 1:2, Act 1:26), and after the election of Matthias in place of Judas, for the Twelve (Act 2:37, Act 2:42, Act 2:43, etc.). But even so it does not denote a particular and restricted office, but rather that function of a world-wide missionary service to which the Twelve were especially called. In His last charge, just before He ascended, Jesus had commissioned them to go forth into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature (Mat 28:19, Mat 28:20; Mar 16:15). He had said that they were to be His witnesses not only in Jerusalem and Judea, but in Samaria (contrast Mat 10:5), and unto the uttermost part of the earth (Act_1:8). They were apostles, therefore, qua missionaries - not merely because they were the Twelve, but because they were now sent forth by their Lord on a universal mission for the propagation of the gospel.
When we pass to Acts, “apostles” has become an ordinary name for the Eleven (Act 1:2, Act 1:26), and after the election of Matthias in place of Judas, for the Twelve (Act 2:37, Act 2:42, Act 2:43, etc.). But even so it does not denote a particular and restricted office, but rather that function of a world-wide missionary service to which the Twelve were especially called. In His last charge, just before He ascended, Jesus had commissioned them to go forth into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature (Mat 28:19, Mat 28:20; Mar 16:15). He had said that they were to be His witnesses not only in Jerusalem and Judea, but in Samaria (contrast Mat 10:5), and unto the uttermost part of the earth (Act_1:8). They were apostles, therefore, qua missionaries - not merely because they were the Twelve, but because they were now sent forth by their Lord on a universal mission for the propagation of the gospel.
This biblical study was taken from the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Edited by James Orr, published in 1939 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co