Luke 6:13

‘And when it was day, he called his disciples; and he chose from them twelve, whom also he named apostles.'

Having spent the night in prayer He now called all His disciples together, of whom there were a goodly number (He will shortly be able to send out seventy to preach), and out of them He chose twelve whom He called ‘Apostles. A ‘disciple' was someone who attached himself to a Teacher in order to learn from him. It was a closer association than just that of a student.

‘Twelve whom also He named Apostles.' ‘Apostolos', an apostle, is derived from apostellein, (to send forth,) and originally signified literally a messenger. The term was employed by earlier classical writers to denote the commander of an expedition, or a delegate, or an ambassador (see Herodotus, 5. 38), but its use in this way was later rare as it came to have a technical meaning referring to ‘the fleet', and possibly also the fleet's admiral. It may be that Jesus spoke with a sense of humour when he used this term and named the fishermen ‘Apostles', seeing them as the future ‘catchers of men'. It would require that He gave the title in Greek, but He may well have done so because it tickled His sense of humour.

It may, however, be that He called each of them a shaliach, which was then translated as apostolos. A shaliach was a personal representative acting on behalf of another.

In the New Testament, apart from the Apostles, the term apostolos is also employed in a more general sense to denote important messengers sent out on God's service (see Luke 11:49; 2 Corinthians 8:23; Philippians 2:25; 1 Thessalonians 2:6), and in one instance is applied to Christ Himself, as the One sent forth from God (Hebrews 3:1). But in the main it is reserved for the twelve, James, the Lord's brother, and Paul and Barnabas (Acts 14:4; Acts 14:14). Paul certainly saw it as giving him a recognised authority direct from Jesus Christ. He saw himself, along with the twelve, as being specifically commissioned by Jesus.