Apostolic Foundation
What is an apostle in the Bible? Explore the meaning of apostle, the Twelve, Paul, eyewitness qualifications, signs of an apostle, broader messenger usage, and the apostles' foundational role in the church.
Meaning
The Greek term apostolos carries the idea of one who is sent as a messenger or representative.
Context matters because the New Testament does not use the word with exactly the same scope every time.
Sometimes it describes a messenger in a broader sense. In its central church-foundation sense, however, it identifies people specially commissioned by Christ.
The Twelve
Jesus chose twelve from among his disciples and gave them a distinctive commission.
The number itself carried symbolic importance in relation to Israel and the coming kingdom.
These men accompanied Jesus' ministry and became primary witnesses to his teaching, death, and resurrection.
Jesus chooses twelve disciples and names them apostles.
Matthias
After Judas' death, Acts 1 records the selection of a replacement.
Peter describes the candidate as someone who had accompanied the group through Jesus' ministry and could become a witness to the resurrection.
Matthias is then numbered with the eleven apostles.
Peter describes the replacement as one able to join the apostles as a witness of Jesus' resurrection.
Paul
Paul was not one of the original Twelve, yet he repeatedly identifies himself as an apostle of Jesus Christ.
He appeals to having seen the risen Lord and describes Christ's appearance to him as extraordinary and late.
His ministry also carries the signs and authority he associates with genuine apostleship.
Paul appeals to having seen Jesus the Lord in defending his apostleship.
Paul describes Christ appearing to him after the earlier resurrection witnesses.
Signs of an Apostle
The New Testament connects the apostles with extraordinary signs and wonders.
Paul refers to the 'signs of a true apostle' when defending his ministry.
Who Changed the Church? treats these signs as part of God's confirmation of the messengers laying the original foundation.
Paul refers to signs, wonders, and mighty works as signs associated with genuine apostleship.
A Foundational Role
Paul pictures God's household as built on the foundation of apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone.
A foundation is laid so that a structure can be built upon it.
Who Changed the Church? makes that architectural image central: later generations stand on the apostolic foundation rather than repeatedly laying a new one.
Paul describes God's household as built on the foundation of apostles and prophets, with Christ as the cornerstone.
Broader Uses
The New Testament can use related apostolic language for people sent by congregations or engaged in missionary work.
That broader lexical use should not automatically grant every messenger the authority and qualifications of the Twelve or Paul.
Distinguishing the ordinary sense of 'sent one' from the foundational sense prevents the word itself from settling questions about modern apostolic office.
Authority
Acts 2 does not portray apostolic teaching as one spiritual option among several.
The first Christian community devotes itself to what the apostles taught.
Their authority comes from their commission by Christ and their role as witnesses and inspired teachers.
The first believers devote themselves to the apostles' teaching.
What Remained
Christians agree that the original apostles belonged uniquely to the first generation, but traditions disagree over whether their office or authority continues through successors.
Some churches appeal to apostolic succession through bishops. Some modern movements recognize living apostles. Others understand apostolic authority as continuing through the New Testament teaching rather than through new holders of the office.
Who Changed the Church? takes the third position and asks readers to distinguish continuity of apostolic teaching from continuity of later institutional offices.
Why It Matters
An apostle is a sent messenger, but the New Testament gives Christ's foundational apostles a distinctive role as commissioned witnesses, authoritative teachers, and foundation-layers whose ministry was confirmed by signs. That distinction leads directly into one of the central questions of Who Changed the Church?: after the apostles completed their work, was the church supposed to preserve their teaching—or replace their unique authority with new apostolic offices and hierarchies?