According
to the Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible "'Apostle' (is) a title
denoting a commissioned messenger or ambassador. It occurs seventy-nine times
in the New Testament, but with various shades of meaning, both of a precise and
of a general character. In Christian usage the term has two distinctive
connotations: (a) it is limited to certain men of the first generation of the
church's history; and (b) it marks the bearer of the title, among other
qualifications, as a missioner of a gospel." New Testament references to
apostles included Jesus (Heb. 3.1), The Twelve, Paul, James (the brother of
Jesus), Barnabas, Andronicus and Junia [the only woman called an apostle
(Romans 16.7)].