Comments on: Questions About Saint Paul…… http://redletterliving.net/2010/01/04/questions-about-saint-paul%e2%80%a6%e2%80%a6/ Living by the examples of Jesus Christ Mon, 07 May 2012 00:06:46 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Dan Martin http://redletterliving.net/2010/01/04/questions-about-saint-paul%e2%80%a6%e2%80%a6/#comment-234 Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:27:51 +0000 http://redletterliving.net/?p=953#comment-234 Interesting questions, RJ. I’d take issue with you a bit on the “Apostle” question, but mainly because I believe you are using two different (though popular) mis-definitions of the word. The Greek word “apostolos” is not a title of religious authority, but merely a descriptive noun for “one who is sent out.” As one interesting example, in John 20:21 when Jesus refers to the Father having sent him, the word he uses is the verb form “apestaleken,” so we would be correct in describing Jesus himself as an “apostle of God.”

A less-religious example occurs in Matt. 21:34 when the master in Jesus’ parable “sends” servants to collect his share of the harvest. Same “apostle” word.

The Liddell-Scott Lexicon makes it clear the word was also used in plenty of secular sources, as an “ambassador” or even the commander of a naval fleet!

So Paul was an “apostle” in that he was commissioned and sent out by both Jesus (cf. the vision on the road to Damascus) and later by the church on his various missionary journeys.

To what extent this qualified him to “write scripture” is a whole ‘nother can of worms, but that’s a separate debate entirely.

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