One who is SENT — an envoy carrying another man's authority, from apostellō, 'to send off'. In secular Greek it could mean a naval expedition or a cargo dispatched; the New Testament makes it a person. Acts 1 supplies the strict definition (a companion from John's baptism to the ascension, and a witness of the resurrection); Paul, who met neither condition, claimed the title anyway on the ground that he had seen the risen Lord, and the tension is never tidied up. → first discussed at Rom 1:1