If you check a dictionary you will find several definitions:
1. any important early Christian teacher, especially St. Paul.
2. the first successful Christian missionary in a country or to a people.
But how does the Bible define an Apostle? During His ministry, the Lord Jesus called 12 men (Apostles) to follow Him. Luke 6:13 And when it was day, he called unto him his disciples: and of them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles;
One of them was lost: Mark 14:10 And Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went unto the chief priests, to betray him unto them.
This left eleven. After the resurrection/ascension of the Lord Jesus, Peter knew the position Judas held had to be filled:
Acts 1:20 For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein: and his bishoprick let another take.
Then he proceeded to give the qualifications:
Acts 1:21 Wherefore of these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, Beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection.
They appointed two men, and then cast lots to see who would be the
12th Apostle to fulfill the great command and Matthias was then numbered among the apostles. See Acts 1:22-26.
Some 12 years later, as Israel continued to reject the resurrected Lord Jesus as their Messiah, the risen, ascended Lord Jesus selected Saul of Tarsus, to become the 13th Apostle, to go to the Gentiles. See Acts 9.
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