Dewayne's Devarim דְּבָרִים לְדּוּאֵין

DEWAYNE DULANEY

Introduction

One of the most interesting problems of New Testament interpretation and translation is whether James the Lord's brother, the oldest of Jesus' earthly brothers, is referred to as an apostle in Galatians 1:19 and 1 Corinthians 15:7, as certain others outside the Twelve and Paul seem to be. In the case of Gal. 1:19, at least, one can find commentaries and Bible versions on both sides of the question. While the King James and the majority of English Bibles do refer to James as an apostle in Gal.1:19, the NIV (New International Version), the most widely-used English version, does not. Nor does the update to the NIV, the TNIV (Today's New International Version—2001), as well as several other modern versions, including the translation of Brother Hugo McCord. Both the NIV and the TNIV say, “I saw none of the other apostles—only James, the Lord's brother”.

This brief look at the question will first consider the origin of the Greek word for apostle, apóstolos (ἀπόστολος); give the Greek text of Gal. 1:19 and an interlinear (word-for-word) translation; and then it will summarize the view of F.F. Bruce on the use of the term in Gal. 1:19 given in the New International Greek Testament Commentary (Eerdmans, 1982). Bruce is an outstanding evangelical scholar who is both a first-rate student and teacher, and generally conservative theologically. (For a good summary of the NT evidence as a whole, Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words should be consulted under "Apostle"). Under that section, I will also give the views of some other scholars who agree with Bruce. Lastly, I will offer some personal concluding observations.

I. Origin and Meaning of apóstolos

Apóstolos (ἀπόστολος) derives from the verb apostéllo (ἀποστέλλω), according to J. Harold Greenlee, A New Testament Greek Morpheme Lexicon, p. 18. The most prominent meaning of apostéllo in the Greek Bible is "send away (out) someone" (Bauer-Arndt-Gingrich-Danker Greek Lexicon, p. 98; hereafter BAGD); this is used of God sending the prophets, Jesus sending the disciples, and of Jesus being sent by God. It can also be used of sending an embassy (an ambassador) to someone, Luke 19:14. This basic idea of sending someone as a messenger carries over into the various uses of the noun apóstolos, including those where God the Father or Jesus is sending someone directly or someone is being sent by a congregation, or local group of Christians (BAGD, 99-100.) These two usages are the most pertinent for our study.

II. Greek Text of Gal. 1:19 and Interlinear Translation

Before we look at Bruce's view, here is the Greek text of the disputed verse and an interlinear (word-for-word) translation:

1. In Greek script:

ἕτερον δὲ τῶν ἀποστόλων οὐκ εἶδον, εἰ μὴ Ἰάκωβον τὸν ἀδελφὸν τοῦ κυρίου.

2. In transliteration, with interlinear translation:

héteron dè tōn apostólōn ouk eidon ei mē Iákōbon tòn adelphòn tou kyríou

Other -- of the apostles not I saw except? James the brother of the Lord.

It should be noted that apostólōn (ἀποστόλων) could mean "messengers" (or even "missionaries") and that ei mē ( εἰ μὴ) could mean "only" (as it does in Galatians 1:7), "but", or "just". These alternate translations need to be kept in mind as this study continues. This is why I put a question mark with the meaning “except” for the Greek ei mē (εἰ μὴ) in the interlinear translation above.

III. Bruce's View of the Use of "apostle" in Gal. 1:19, and Some Others Who Agree with His View

The key point for the interpreter and translator is whether the phrase ei mē ("except/only") just refers to the verb phrase ouk eidon ("I did not see"), or whether it refers to the entire preceding clause , beginning with héteron ("other"). Determining this will tell us whether or not Paul is referring to James as an apostle in some sense.

Bruce holds that the most natural way to understand Paul's Greek is "'The only other apostle I saw [apart from Cephas] was James the Lord's brother" and that it is less natural to take it to mean "'I saw none of the other apostles, but I did see James the Lord's brother'" (citing J.G. Machen, Galatians, 76-80). He believes it would be difficult to improve on J.B. Lightfoot's observation, who says εἰ μὴ has (as always) exceptive force, and that in this case "'the sense of ἕτερον ["other"] naturally links it with εἰ μὴ, from which it cannot be separated without harshness, and ἕτερον carries τῶν ἀποστόλων ["of the apostles"] with it'" (Lightfoot, Galatians, 84f).

Bruce adds that a good grammatical parallel to the present construction, with the pronoun in the negative clause qualified by a genitive, is 1 Corinthians 1:14, oudéna hymōn ebáptisa ei mē Kríspon kai Gáïov (οὐδένα ὑμῶν ἐβάπτισα εἰ μὴ Κρίσπον καὶ Γάϊον), "I baptized none of you but Crispus and Gaius" (where Crispus and Gaius are included in hymōn ["you"]). Where the exception only relates to the negated verb, the context makes this clear, as in Galatians 2:16, ou dikaioutai ánthrōpos ex érgōn nómou ei mē dià písteōs, (οὐ δικαιοῦται ἄνθρωπος ἐξ ἔργων νόμου ἐὰν μὴ διὰ πίστεως) "one is not justified by legal works but [one is justified] through faith". He says further, "There is nothing in the present context to suggest that here the exception relates to οὐκ εἶδον ["I did not see"] only."

Then Bruce concludes, "Probably few would have questioned the rendering here preferred but for misgivings about the designation of James as an apostle. But there is nothing anomalous in the designation, so far as Paul's usage of apóstolos is concerned. He clearly did not restrict the designation to the Twelve. If, in the summary of resurrection appearances in 1 Cor. 15:5-7 he links the appearance to Cephas with a following appearance to 'the twelve' (to whose number Cephas belonged), his linking of the appearance to James with a following appearance to 'all the apostles' suggests that he included James among 'all the apostles'." (Galatians, 100-101)

Some other scholars who agree with Bruce include Marvin R. Vincent and A.T. Robertson. Both men produced now-classic volumes of word studies on the Greek New Testament. Vincent comments (based on the KJV wording): “Save James (εἰ μὴ). With the usual exceptive sense. I saw none save James. Not, I saw none other of the apostles, but I saw James. James is counted as an apostle, though not reckoned among the twelve” (New Testament Word Studies, Vol. 4, 673). Robertson observed, “...James, the brother of the Lord, is here termed an apostle, though not one of the twelve[,] as Barnabas is later so called” (Word Pictures in the New Testament, no pg. # [software edition]). Robertson also produced a massive (over 1000 pages) grammar of New Testament Greek that still is a standard reference work. On the use of the crucial phrase ei mē (εἰ μὴ) in our passage he states, “ εἰ μὴ may make exception to a preceding negative as in Gal. 1:19...” (A Grammar of the Greek New Testament in the Light of Historical Research, 1025). He does concede, however, that “The effect here is to make εἰ μὴ seem adversative instead of exceptive. Cf. Mt. 12:4” (Ibid.).

IV. Some Personal Observations

My own study of the uses of ei mē and apóstolos in the Greek New Testament convinces me that Bruce's arguments are generally sound, though at first I was one of those he refers to as having misgivings about the term "apostle" being applied to James, the Lord's brother. (But this is based more on our English usage than the Greek.) But if James is in fact referred to as an apostle, in what sense was he one?

As Vine and others have pointed out, the New Testament seems to use the term "apostle" in both a narrow sense and a broader sense, both senses being based on the meaning "messenger" inherent in the Greek. In the narrow sense the term applies to the Twelve, Matthias (who was chosen to replace Judas Iscariot, Acts 1:15-26), and Paul--men who were chosen directly by Jesus as his inspired messengers to the world (Acts 1:1-8; Gal. 1:1, 11-12) and as authoritative spokesmen for God to the early church.

The term "apostle" in the broad sense is used of Barnabas as well as Paul in Acts 14:4, 14 (referring to their work as missionaries from Antioch, Acts 13:1-3), and apparently in 1 Cor. 9:1-6. In 2 Cor. 8:23 it is used in the Greek text for two unnamed Christians who helped Titus bring the offering for the poor saints in Judea; these were sent by some of the congregations who contributed. In Phil. 2:25 Epaphroditus is referred to this way, as he was sent by the Philippians to help Paul. Paul uses it in 1 Thess. 2:6 of his work and that of Silas and Timothy as missionaries. Possibly it is also used this way of Andronicus and Junias in Rom. 16:7 (the Greek can mean either that they were "apostles" or that they were honored by the apostles). While Paul does refer to various miracles he performed as “signs that mark an apostle” (2 Cor. 12:12, NIV) to demonstrate he was a true apostle, unlike his opponents, it is also recorded in Acts 14-15 that Barnabas worked miracles along with Paul (Acts 14:3; 15:12).

Now, where does James the Lord's brother fit in? James was not a disciple of Jesus before the Resurrection (compare Jn. 7:5 with 1 Cor. 15:7 and Acts 1:14). Yet, as 1 Cor. 15:7 notes, he was granted an appearance by the risen Jesus. As far as the criteria of Acts 1:15f go, he met the requirements of apostleship as well as Paul did. (Neither were followers of Jesus during his personal ministry, but both were witnesses of the resurrection.) If this James was, as I believe, the writer of the NT letter of James, then he was an inspired man. This also seems borne out by the fact that his statement at the Jerusalem conference was accepted by the Twelve, including Peter (Acts 15).

Yet, nothing is ever mentioned of him being specially commissioned by Christ as Paul was (Acts 9:15). This would seem to be the key difference between an apostle in the narrow sense and one in the broad sense. To my mind, James was an apostle in the broad sense, which was broad enough to include both those like Paul with a special commission from Christ, and those without such. This is the only way I can explain why James is referred to as an apostle along with Cephas (Peter) in Gal. 1 (and why Barnabas is called one in Acts 14 along with Paul).

To avoid confusion, I would suggest that those producing new translations of the New Testament, if they use the term "apostle", reserve it for the Twelve and Paul, and translate the other instances by "messenger(s)"/"representative(s)"/"delegate(s)" or "missionary(ies)" as appropriate in each context. Phillips takes the second approach in Galatians 1:19, using “messengers” to translate the plural of apóstolos. In my translation of Philippians (unpublished), I translated apóstolos in 2:25, which refers to Epaphroditus, as “missionary” in the text, with “messenger” as an alternate translation in the margin. Personally, I favor replacing the term "apostle" altogether in translation when used in the narrow sense with a phrase such as "Christ's messenger" or "Christ's ambassador" to better bring out the flavor of the Greek.

I hope this study will be of service in looking at this question.

(Next time, I'll begin a series on how we can find Christ's church today, called “Marks of the New Testament Church.”)

WORKS CITED

Bauer, Walter. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. Translated and adapted by William F. Arndt and F. Wilbur Gingrich. 2nd ed. Revised and augmented by F. Wilbur Gingrich and Frederick W. Danker. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1979.

Bruce, F. F. The Epistle to the Galatians: A Commentary on the Greek Text. The New International Greek Testament Commentary. Exeter, United Kingdom: The Paternoster Press and Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdsmans Publishing Company, ©1982; rpt., 1990.

Greek text of Galatians 1:19 found at The Online Greek Bible: Greek New Testament Resources, http://www.greekbible.com/. Text used is the Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece, 26th ed., © 1979, Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft , Stuttgart and The United Bible Societies' The Greek New Testament, 3rd ed., © 1975, United Bible Societies, London.

Greenlee, J. Harold. A New Testament Greek Morpheme Lexicon. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1983.

Image of P51, papyrus manuscript of Galatians 1:2-10,13,16-20, A.D. 400, found at http://163.1.169.40/, in P. Oxy: Oxyrhynchus Online, Ashmolean Library, Oxford, England, http://www.papyrology.ox.ac.uk/POxy/ Image © Egypt Exploration Society.

Mac Gallery http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Ridge/1217/MacGalleryIndex.html (No copyright info listed): I found the "Made with a Mac" banner here.

Microsoft Office Online: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx (Clip art and photos). I found the image of the "Roman Librarian" (by the "You're Invited to Comment" statement) at this site. © 2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Robertson, A.T. Word Pictures in the New Testament. Digital edition: module in MacSword Bible study software for Macintosh OS X, version 1.3 beta. Available at http://www.macsword.com/. (A version for Windows is available at The Sword Project, Crosswire Bible Society, http://www.crosswire.org/sword/index.jsp. Click on the Software link to go to the download page.)

____________. A Grammar of the Greek New Testament in the Light of Historical Research. 4th ed. Nashville: Broadman Press, 1934.

Vincent, Marvin R. Word Studies in the New Testament. Vol. 4. Digital edition, Adobe Acrobat Reader PDF file. The AGES Digital Library Commentary. Books for the Ages. AGES Software, ver. 2.0. Albany, Oregon, ©1996, 1997. Found at Christian Hospitality's Biblical Archives, http://www.christianhospitality.org/archives.htm.

Vine, W.E., Merrill F. Unger, and William White, Jr. An Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1984.

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—Dewayne Dulaney