Senses
1. apostle, messenger, one sent forth — A person sent with a commission, specifically one of the authoritative messengers of Christ — either one of the Twelve, Paul, or more broadly a delegate or envoy of a church. The term apostolos carries the fundamental idea of authorized sending (from apostellein). In the NT it applies to the Twelve (Matt 10:2; Luke 6:13), to Paul (Rom 1:1; 1 Cor 9:1), and occasionally to other commissioned agents (Rom 16:7; 2 Cor 8:23; Phil 2:25). Multilingual evidence is uniform: Spanish 'apóstol/apóstoles,' Hindi 'prerit' (प्रेरित), Arabic 'rasuul/rusul' (رسول/رسل), Korean 'sado' (사도), and Swahili 'mtume/mitume.' The two clusters differ only in number — S63169 (plural: apostles) vs S63170 (singular: apostle) — with no semantic distinction between them. 80×
AR["الرُّسُلُ","الرُّسُلِ","رَسُولًا","رُسُلاً","رُسُلًا","رُسُلَ","رُسُلُ","رُسُلِ"]·ben["পবিত্র","প্রেরিত","প্রেরিতদের","প্রেরিতরা","প্রেরিতেরা"]·DE["Apostel"]·EN["apostles"]·FR["apôtre"]·heb["שְׁלִיחִים","שְׁלוּחִים"]·HI["-प्रेरित","और","जिन्हें","दिलासे-का","पास","प्रेरित","प्रेरितों-के","प्रेरितों-को","प्रेरितों-ने","हों","होते-थे"]·ID["rasul","rasul,","rasul-rasul","rasul.","rasul;"]·IT["apostolo"]·jav["para-rasul","rasul","rasul,","rasul.","rasul;"]·KO["그-","명령하시고","사도들-에의해","사도들-을","사도들-의","사도들로","사도들에게","사도들을","사도들의","사도들이","사도들이라고","증거-를"]·PT["apóstolos"]·RU["апостолам","апостолам,","апостолами","апостолами.","апостолов","апостолов,","апостолов.","апостолов;","апостолы"]·ES["apóstoles"]·SW["mitume"]·TR["-o","diğer","eliçilerin","elçiler","elçilere","elçilerin","havariler","havarilerden","havarilere","havarilerin","havariyle"]·urd["رسول","رسولوں","رسولوں-سے","رسولوں-نے","رسولوں-کو","رسولوں-کے","نام-رکھا"]
Matt 10:2, Mark 3:14, Mark 6:30, Luke 6:13, Luke 9:10, Luke 11:49, Luke 17:5, Luke 22:14, Luke 24:10, Acts 1:2, Acts 1:26, Acts 2:37 (+38 more)
BDB / Lexicon Reference
ἀπόστολ-ος, ὁ, messenger, ambassador, envoy, ὁ μὲν δὴ ἀ. ἐς τὴν Μίλητον ἦνRefs 5th c.BC+; ἐς Λακεδαίμονα τριήρεϊ ἀ. ἐγίνετο he went off on a mission to Laced., Refs __b commander of a naval force, Refs 5th c.AD+ __2 messenger from God, LXX; especially of the Apostles, NT __II ={στόλος}, naval squadron or expedition, Refs 5th c.BC+; ἀπόστολον ἀφιέναι, ἀποστέλλειν, ποιεῖσθαι, Refs 4th c.BC+ __II.2…