ἀπόστολος

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /a.pós.to.los/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /aˈpos.to.los/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /aˈpos.to.los/^[1]

Forms

ᾰ̓πόστολος (apóstolos) m (genitive ᾰ̓ποστόλου); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is derived from ἀποστέλλω (apostéllō, “to send off”), formed from ἀπο- (apo-, “away”) and στέλλω (stéllō, “to send”).^[1][2][3] Στέλλω is from Proto-Indo-European *stel- (“to set up, prepare”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Herodotus uses it for a messenger: the herald sent by Alyattes to Miletus, and a man who went on a mission to Sparta by ship.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

In Attic, Lysias and Demosthenes use it for a naval expedition, a fleet sent out, and Plato has the adjective for a ship ready to sail.^[5][3] Hesychius glosses it as a general sent by sea.^[5][3][6] Spicq notes that from the 4th century it almost always refers to a naval expedition or a transport, and in the papyri it was the official document for shipping grain on the Nile, a bill of lading or clearance certificate.^[2][3]

The Septuagint uses it once for a messenger sent by God, and the New Testament makes it the title of the men sent out by Christ, the apostles, and of other missionaries.^[5][3][7] It was borrowed into Latin as apostolus, into Gothic, Old Church Slavonic and Coptic, and translated literally in Old Armenian.^[1] Modern Greek απόστολος (apóstolos) is an apostle, the church reading from the Acts and the Epistles, and, after French apôtre, a zealous advocate of an idea.^[8]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it for a messenger.^[2][5]
• 5th–4th century BC – Lysias uses it for a naval expedition.^[5][7]
• 4th century BC – Demosthenes uses it for a fleet.^[3][7]
• 3rd–1st century BC – The Septuagint uses it for a messenger from God.^[5]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament uses it for the apostles.^[3][7]
• 1st century AD – Papyri use it for a shipping document.^[3][2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A messenger, envoy, one who is sent.^[7][5]
2. A naval expedition, a fleet sent out.^[7][5]
3. (papyri) A bill of lading; a clearance certificate.^[3][2]
4. (New Testament) An apostle.^[5][3]

Word family

• ἰσαπόστολος (isapóstolos)

Related words

• ἀποστέλλω (apostéllō)
• στέλλω (stéllō)
• στόλος (stólos)
• Latin apostolus
• English apostle

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Spicq, Ceslas (1994), Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, tr. James D. Ernest, 3 vols, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick W., et al. (2000), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
4. ^ Rix, Helmut, et al. (2001), Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben, 2nd ed., Wiesbaden: Reichert
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
7. ^ a b c d e f Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki