APOSTLE properly signifies a messenger or person sent by another upon some business; and hence, by way of eminence, denotes one of the disciples commissioned by Jesus Christ to preach the gospel.

Christ selected twelve out of the number of his disciples to be invested with the apostleship. Their names were Simon Peter, Andrew, James the greater, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, James the less, Jude, surnamed Lebbeus or Thaddcus, Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot. Of these, Simon, Andrew, James the greater, and John, were fishermen, and Matthew a publican, or receiver of the public revenue; of what profession the rest were we are not told in Scripture, though it is probable they were fishermen.

Our Lord’s first commission to his apostles was in the third year of his public ministry, about eight months after their solemn election; at which time he sent them out by two and two. They were to make no provision of money for their subsistence in their journey, but to expect it from those to whom they preached. They were to declare that the kingdom of heaven, or the Messiah, was at hand; and to confirm their doctrine by miracles. They were to avoid going either to the Gentiles or to the Samaritans, and to confine their preaching to the people of Israel. In obedience to their Master, the apostles went into all the parts of Palestine inhabited by the Jews, preaching the gospel and working miracles. The evangelical history is silent as to the particular circumstances attending this first preaching of the apostles, and only informs us that they returned and told their Master of all that they had done.

Their second commission, just before our Lord’s ascension, was of a more extensive and particular nature. They were now not to confine their preaching to the Jews, but to “go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” Accordingly they began publicly, after our Lord’s ascension, to exercise the office of their ministry, working-miracles daily in proof of their mission, and making great numbers of converts to the Christian faith. This alarmed the Jewish Sanhedrim; whereupon the apostles were apprehended, and being examined before the high-priest and elders, were commanded not to preach any more in the name of Christ. But this injunction did not terrify them from persisting in the duty of their calling; for they [7:3:292]continued daily, in the temple, and in private houses, teaching, and preaching the gospel.

After the apostles had exercised their ministry for , twelve years in Palestine, they resolved to disperse themselves in different parts of the world, and agreed to determine by lot what parts each should take. According to this division, St Peter went into Pontus, Galatia, and other provinces of the Lesser Asia; St Andrew had the vast northern countries of Scythia and Sogdiana allotted to his portion; St John’s was partly the same with Peter’s, namely, the Lesser Asia; St Philip had the Upper Asia assigned to him, with some parts of Scythia and Colchis; Arabia Felix fell to St Bartholomew’s share; St Matthew preached in Chaldea, Persia, and Parthia; St Thomas preached likewise in Parthia, as also to the Hyrcanians, Bactrians, and Indians; St James the less continued in Jerusalem, of which church he was bishop; St Simon had for his portion Egypt, Cyrene, Libya, and Mauritania; St Jude, Syria and Mesopotamia; and St Matthias, who was chosen in the room of the traitor Judas, Cappadocia and Colehis. Thus, by the dispersion of the apostles, Christianity was very early planted in a great many parts of the world. We have but very short and imperfect accounts of their travels and actions.

In order to qualify the apostles for the arduous task of converting the world to the Christian religion, they were, in the first place, miraculously enabled to speak the languages of the several nations to whom they were to preach; and, in the second place, were endowed with the power of working miracles, in confirmation of the doctrines they taught; gifts which were unnecessary, and therefore ceased, in the after-ages of the church, when Christianity came to be established by the civil power.

St Paul is frequently called the apostle by way of eminence; and the apostle of the Gentiles, because his ministry was chiefly made use of for the conversion of the gentile world, as that of St Peter was for the Jews, who is therefore styled the apostle of the circumcision. The several apostles are usually represented with their respective badges or attributes: St Peter with the keys; St Paul with a sword; St Andrew with a cross or saltier; St James minor with a fuller’s pole; St John with a cup, and a winged serpent flying from it; St Bartholomew with a knife; St Philip with a long staff, whose upper end is formed into a cross; St Thomas with a lance; St Matthew with a hatehet; St Matthias with a battle-axe; St James major with a pilgrim’s staff and a gourd bottle; St Simon with a saw; and St Jude with a club.

Apostle was also used among the Jews for a kind of officer anciently sent into the several parts and provinces in their jurisdiction, by way of visitor or commissary, to see that the laws were duly observed, and to receive the monies collected for the reparation of the temple, and the tribute payable to the Romans.

Apostle, in the Grech liturgy, is particularly used for a book containing the epistles of St Paul, printed in the order in which they are to be read in churches through the course of the year. Another book of the like kind, containing the Gospels, is called Euayyελ∕ov, Gospel. The Apostle, of late days, has also contained the other canonical epistles, the Acts of the Apostles, and the Revelation. Hence it is also called Acts of the Apostles, ∏gαξασotfroaog; that being the first book in it.

Apostle is also thought by many to have been the original name for bishops, before the denomination bishop was appropriated to their order. Thus Theodoret says expressly, the same persons were anciently called promiscuously both bishops and presbyters, while those who are now called bishops were called apostles. Apostles’ Creed, a formula or summary of the Christian faith, drawn up, according to Ruffinus, by the apostles themselves, as a rule of faith, and as a word of distinction, by which they were to know friends from foes. Baronius and some other authors conjecture that they did not compose it till the second year of the reign of Claudius, little before their dispersion. As to their manner of composing it, some fancy that each apostle pronounced his article, which is the reason of its being called symbolum apostolicum ; it being made up of sentences jointly contributed, after the manner of persons paying each their club (symbolum) or share of a reckoning.

But there are reasons which may induce us to question whether the apostles composed any such creed as this. For, first, neither St Luke in the Acts, nor any other ecclesiastical writer before the 5th century, makes any mention of an assembly of the apostles in order to the composing of a ereed. Secondly, The fathers of the first three centuries, in disputing against the heretics, endeavoured to prove that the doctrine contained in this creed was the same which the apostles taught; but they never pretend that the apostles composed it. Thirdly, If the apostles had made this creed, it would have been the same in all churches and in all ages; and all authors would have cited it after the same manner. But the case is quite otherwise. In the second and third ages of the church there were as many ereeds as authors, and one and the same author sets down the ereed after a different manner in several places of his works, which is an evidence that there was not at that time any creed which was reputed the production of the apostles. In the fourth century Ruffinus compares together the three ancient ereeds of the churches of Aquileia, Rome, and the East, which differ very considerably in the terms. Besides, these creeds differed not only in the terms and expressions, but even in the articles, some of which were omitted in one or other of them, such as those of the descent into hell, the communion of the saints, and the life everlasting. From these reasons it may be gathered, that though this creed may be said to be that of the apostles in regard to the doctrines contained therein, yet it is not to be referred to them as the authors and first composers of it. Who was the true author of it, it is not easy to determine, though its great antiquity may be inferred from this, that the whole form, as it now stands in the English liturgy, is to be found in the works of St Ambrose and Ruffinus, both of whom flourished in the fourth century.