Apostles: More Than the 12 and Paul

by Scott

Apostles today? No way, jose! They died out a long time ago, with the passing of John.

I’ve written plenty in the past on the ministry of the apostle, but it’s been quite some time. So I thought I might revisit a few things. I adamantly believe this ministry is necessary today. Of course, God doesn’t need our appointing of apostles (or prophets) to get the work done. Many of folk have never been appointed direct pastoral or teaching ministries, yet they’ve still practically functioned in these roles, for the building up of Christ’s body. And I’d say the same is true with apostles (and prophets).

You see, when most people think of apostles, I believe they only envision the 12 and Paul. Some might remember that the word apostle sits next to both Barnabas’s and James’s names in the New Testament. But they were exceptional cases.

Why exceptional?

I think this is because we can easily identify an apostle as a writer of New Testament Scripture. Of course, we know that not all of the New Testament was penned by apostles. But we are at least ok with it because we, then, identify them as associates of those first apostles. Their source was one of the 12 that walked with Jesus himself.

But what we might fail to recognise is that there were quite a few more apostles than we first thought. Even more, Scripture-writing was not the primary calling of an apostle.

Now, I do not want to negate the role of writing Scripture – for the apostles and others who penned this God-breathed text. But, just as a starter, go back and think of the calling of some of these apostles in the early parts of the Gospel, or Paul’s conversion in Acts 9. In all of these settings, they were never told, ‘Write Scripture.’ But they still were able to faithfully fulfil their role as apostles.

And here is the interesting point I want to make in this post: If we look at the things properly, I believe we will see that there were at least 22 different apostles in total mentioned throughout the New Testament text. At minimum, that’s 9 more on top of the 12 and Paul.

1) Barnabas

This one is not so difficult, since we read statements like this in Acts 14:14: But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of this…

Pretty clear about Barnabas’s ministry. Interestingly enough, I think Barnabas was one of the greatest mentors of Paul, considering Acts 11:19-30.

2) James (the brother of Jesus)

Again, not too difficult when finding the word apostle in close proximity to James’s name. Paul makes a very clear statement in his letter to the church of Galatia: I saw none of the other apostles—only James, the Lord’s brother (1:19).

So we are at 15 and counting right now.

3) Apollos

First off, who was Apollos?

We first read about him in Acts 18:24-28. He was based in Ephesus at the time and had been instructed in the way of the Lord, was fervent in Spirit, taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, but only knew of John’s baptism at the time (vs24-25). It was Priscilla and Aquila that were used to explain the ways of God more accurately to him (vs26). An important ministry for this married couple, including the wife!

Apollos then went on to the province of Achaia and was used greatly in proving that Jesus was the Christ, or the Messiah (vs27-28).

But why would someone ever consider Apollos as an apostle? In this case, the word never actually is found associated with his name. Well, for starters, I’d encourage us to remember that apostle wasn’t so much a title, but a ministry function. But let’s consider some other things.

Keep in mind that after Priscilla and Aquila helped explain the things of God more accurately to Apollos, he then went on to Achaia. But what’s so important about Achaia?

Within Achaia we find the city of Corinth. It is there that we read about Apollos having a significant ministry role. We can conclude such after looking at two passages of Scripture in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. The first is this:

It is obvious that Apollos had a very significant ministry with the Corinthians, for Paul similarly identifies the ministries of himself, Peter and Apollos by stating how varying people within the church community wanted to follow one of the three. Of course, this was destructive to the body. But we find all 3 being recognised with similar ministries. And if Paul and Peter were apostles, what must we conclude about Apollos?

I believe Apollos’ apostolic ministry is also confirmed when we read these later words of Paul:

Again, Paul is noting the significant ministry that both he and Apollos had amongst the Corinthians. Paul had planted and Apollos had watered. Then, Paul says two interesting statements:

• He who plants (Paul in this specific situation) and he who waters (Apollos in this specific situation) are one. (vs8)
• For we are God’s fellow workers. (vs9)

It seems highly likely that Paul and Apollos shared an apostolic ministry within the Corinthian church. One could argue Paul had a greater measure of apostleship to this church, to which I think this fine. But this would not negate the calling of Apollos. They both had given so much into this church. They both had been part of establishing this church in the faith. The both had a foundation-building role.

Thus, as Paul and Barnabas made a formidable apostolic team at times (see Acts), so did Paul and Apollos.

4) Silas and Timothy

Here are two others that likely had some sense of apostolic ministry. But where would we see Silas and Timothy as having such a ministry? At the beginning of the first letter to the Thessalonians, Paul gives a brief greeting from himself, Silas and Timothy:

Then, later on, we read this all-important statement:

Notice the bolded part of vs6. It refers to the three – Paul, Silas and Timothy. Actually, notice the consistent use of ‘we’ throughout. We don’t realise who often Paul utilised a team in apostolic ministry, and also in writing letters to the churches. This is part and parcel to apostolic ministry – recognising the need for team, all ministries spoken of in Eph 4:11-13.

These 3 had an effective apostolic ministry in Thessalonica.

5) Titus and others

Here is the passage for consideration:

Unfortunately, our English translations are not as helpful with vs23. Though the Greek word, apostoloi (which is the plural version of apostolos) is found in vs23, our English versions usually translate the word as messengers (or representatives). This is due, perhaps, to translators holding to the view that apostles were mainly the authoritative New Testament Scripture writers. Thus, it would be argued that the term can only be used to describe the twelve, Paul, and possibly a couple of others, namely Barnabas and James.

Therefore, it is argued that these spoken of in 2 Corinthians 8:16-23 are simply ‘general messengers’.

We first take note that, quite similarly to Apollos, Paul refers to Titus as ‘my partner and fellow worker’ (vs23). But, re-read the text carefully. Read what Paul says about Titus and these two other unnamed brothers. One of the unnamed persons had a major preaching role and was ‘appointed by the churches’ to travel with Paul (vs19). The other seems quite reputable (vs22).

And remembering that, in its core essence, an apostle is a ‘sent one’, we then see how Titus and these two unnamed people fulfilled an apostolic role. Just as Jesus and the Holy Spirit had been sent with a specific mission and task to accomplish, so was Titus and the two others spoken of in 2 Cor 8. They were sent with a specific mission, being instrumental in the Corinthian church just as Apollos.

Did they have as significant role as Paul? No. But what if these guys had a similar role to a Thomas or Simon the Zealot? And, hey, those guys were apostles, right? They had the word sitting next to their name in the Gospel accounts. And we might even say that Titus and these two others did as well. Maybe they had more of a role than just being ‘general messengers’.

6) Epaphroditus

Epaphroditus is spoken of as an apostle in Paul’s letter to the Philippians:

Just as with Titus and the other two men, most will simply recognise Epaphroditus as a general messenger. But, one thing interesting to note is that Paul calls him ‘your apostle’ (vs25). Just as Apollos had a significant role in Corinth, and Silas and Timothy had such a role in Thessalonica, it is highly probable that Epaphroditus was to have a special role within the Philippian church.

All of these people were being used in the early days to establish, strengthen and maintain local churches. Again, we are fine to note that Paul would have had the more significant apostolic ministry in these churches. But we must be willing to consider that God had called others to function in apostolic ministries as well.

It is also very interesting to note that the same language Paul used to describe his love and affection for the Philippians (1:7-8), he also uses to describe Epaphroditus’s love for them (2:26). I point this out to note that apostles deeply care for those to whom they have poured out their lives. Both Paul and Epaphroditus had such a heart for the church in Philippi.

7) Andronicus and Junia

We finish by reflecting on the enigmatic couple, Andronicus and Junia. We use the term ‘enigmatic’ because we do not really know much about them outside of this statement by Paul:

What is most probable is that Andronicus and Junia were a married couple working in ministry together, quite like Priscilla and Aquila.

In the ESV, it states that they were ‘well known to the apostles’. The NIV and NASB puts it this way: ‘outstanding among the apostles’. No definite statements can be made about this couple from only one verse of Scripture. But it is interesting to consider a few things.

Whereas many see this phrase stating that the apostles knew them well or recognised them as having a good general ministry, I believe Paul’s statement carries a little more significance. I think it more probable that Paul is stating this couple had an outstanding apostolic ministry. This could be strengthened as we reflect on his words, ‘and they were in Christ before me’.

Also, if Andronicus and Junia were a married couple in ministry together, it is interesting to consider the implications on a couple like Priscilla and Aquila. When we read about the significant ministry of Priscilla and Aquila in the book of Acts and other places, it is even possible that they, too, fulfilled an apostolic function in the early church. They functioned a lot like Barnabas, Apollos, Titus, and even Paul at times. They didn’t pen Scripture, but they go on with establishing, founding, strengthening and building up the church.

If interested in more thoughts on the role of Junia, I’d encourage you to look at Scot McKnight’s little book, Junia Is Not Alone, which I shared some thoughts about here.

Some Concluding Words

In all, outside of the twelve and Paul, there could have been quite a few other apostles in those early days. Not to mention there could have been more that are not mentioned in Scripture.

The point is not for us to count how many apostles there were. But the purpose is to show that the apostolic ministry was not confined to the twelve and Paul in the first century. While the twelve and Paul might have had a greater measure of apostleship than the others we have looked at here (though we don’t know a great deal about the ministry of many of the 12), our eyes have still been opened to the reality that apostleship is not confined to a few.

Knowing there were many more apostles functioning in the New Testament era, I think it calls for us to at least re-examine the nature of apostolic ministry continuing into today.