Etymology and Usage of the Term Pre-Christian use of apostolos [ajpovstolo"] in the sense of messenger is rare. More common is the verb apostello, referring to the sending of a fleet or an embassy. Only in Herodotus (1.21; 5.38) is it used of a personal envoy. Josephus employs it once (Antiquities17.11.1) in the classical sense of an embassy. Epictetus (Discourse3.22) speaks of the ideal Cynic teacher as one "sent by Zeus" to be a messenger of the gods and an "overseer" of human affairs.The Septuagint uses apostello [ajpostevllw] or exapostello [ejxapostevllw] some seven hundred times to translate the Hebrew salah [j;l'v] ("stretch out, " "send"). More than the act of sending, this word includes the idea of the authorization of a messenger. The noun apostolos [ajpovstolo"] is found only in 1ki 14:6, where the commissioning and empowering of the prophet are clearly in mind. Thus, the Septuagint uses the apostello [ajpostevllw] word-group to denote the authorization of an individual to fulfill a particular function, with emphasis on the one who sends, not on the one who is sent.

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