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  • From: "George Athas" <gathas AT ausisp.com>
  • To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Apostleship
  • Date: Sun, 9 Dec 2001 23:20:48 +1100


We need to consider the idea that the etymology of the word APOSTOLOS might
not
necessarily convey everything about what an apostle actually was.

In reference to Hyam's posting, I don't think that Paul thought he saw a
different Jesus
to the one that the other apostles had. If we look at what is involved in
apostleship in
the canonical literature, especially 1 Cor 9 & 15, it is very clearly
connected with
having witnessed the risen Jesus. The Twelve were special in the group of
apostles because
they had also seen Jesus' entire ministry. That distinguished The Twelve from
Paul.
However, Paul claimed to have seen Jesus. An earthly Jesus and a heavenly
Jesus would have
been a false dichotomoy to Paul; they were one and the same Jesus.

We must be careful to distinguish the notion of apostle=missionary from the
canonical idea
that apostle=witness of Jesus. The Apostles were not simply missionaries, or
emissaries,
or ambassadors (though all those words may well be legitimate translations of
the *word*
APOSTOLOS). A survery on the NT literature surrounding the nature of
Apostleship shows
that it was primarily a witness about the resurrection and a commission to
testify that
came directly from Jesus himself. Paul believed himself to have been
commissioned by Jesus
just as the other Apostles also believed they were commissioned with their
witness of the
resurrection by Jesus. The timing between the them was vastly different, and
that leads to
the confusion. Also adding to the confusion is that Paul was not one of the
Twelve. Paul
did not believe that he had seen a vision of Jesus -- he believed that he had
seen Jesus
himself, and that was a distinguishing criterion of an apostle, a la 1 Cor
9:1-2.


Best regards,

GEORGE ATHAS
(Sydney, Australia)





  • Apostleship, George Athas, 12/09/2001

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