Throughout the New Testament, the term apostle
is used in different ways. It can be used in a broad sense to refer to a commissioned representative of the churches (cf. 2 Corinthians 8:23; Philippians 2:25) or in a narrow sense to refer to Paul and the initial twelve (Galatians 2:6–9; 1 Corinthians 9:1, 1 Corinthians 9:5).1 In both instances, an apostle was clothed with the authority of the one who sent him.2
1 Paul, an apostle not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead