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corpus-paul - re: Jewish origins of apostle

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  • From: "John Dickson" <dicksonj AT bigpond.net.au>
  • To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: re: Jewish origins of apostle
  • Date: Sun, 9 Dec 2001 17:19:07 +1100


Neither the Greek usage of APOSTOLOS (which is rare) nor the Jewish
'shaliah' (late and rather mundane compared with Paul's concept of
apostleship) appears to provide the direct linguistic link to the Pauline
usage. The most fruitful line of inquiry does (as Jeffrey Gibson intimates)
seem to lie in the OT prophetic notions, wherein 'sending' is critical to
the prophet's self-understanding.
To be more specific, I believe three Isaiah texts are of some importance for
Paul's notion of APOSTOLOS. These are Isaiah 40:1-9; 52:7 and 61:1. What is
important here is that these are the key bsr/EUAGGEL texts in the MT/LXX and
all three contain the notion of prophetic sending, 61:1 explicitly
(linguistically). Furthermore, all three are the subject of considerable
eschatological speculation in later Judaism. It would be quite neat, would
it not, if the (Isaianic herald) tradition which provided momentum for the
NT use of EUAGGEL also provided the background for the NT appropriation of
APOSTOLOS. The intimate connection in Paul between the EUAGGEL and APOSTEL
roots may point in the same direction. Indeed, Rom 10:15 contains all three
elements in one verse: the Isaianic herald tradition, the APOSTEL root and
the EUAGGEL root.
Regards,
John Dickson
Department of Ancient History
Macquarie University
Sydney, Australia





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