apostolos

Semantic range

1. 1a delegate sent with authority to represent the sender
2. 2a naval expedition or fleet (classical)
3. 3the office held by the Twelve and by others so called

From apostellō, to send out with a commission. The emphasis is on authorisation: an apostolos speaks and acts for the one who sent him, and the Jewish legal principle behind it — that a man's agent is as the man himself — is the root of the New Testament idea.

Ephesians 4:11–14 makes apostles and prophets part of the permanent architecture of the Church, given "till we all come in the unity of the faith." The Restoration reads their disappearance as a symptom of apostasy and their return as a necessary part of restoration; the Twelve were organised in February 1835, and D&C 107:23 defines them as "special witnesses of the name of Christ in all the world."

See also

• ἐκκλησίαekklēsia
• ἐξουσίαexousia
• μάρτυςmartys