Bible word study

Apostolos (Strong’s G652): Meaning in the Bible

Apostolos (ἀπόστολος) is the Greek word numbered G652 in Strong’s concordance of the Bible. Strong’s defines it as a delegate; specially, an ambassador of the Gospel; officially a commissioner of Christ ("apostle") (with miraculous powers). In the King James Bible it is translated apostle, messenger, he that is sent..

• Original wordἀπόστολος
• Transliterationapóstolos
• Pronunciationap-os'-tol-os
• Strong’s numberG652
• LanguageGreek

The full Strong’s definition

Derivation. from G649;

How the King James Bible translates it

Where Apostolos appears in the Bible

In the King James Bible’s text tagged with Strong’s numbers, Apostolos (G652) stands behind 83 English renderings in 80 verses across 21 of the 66 books. It is most frequent in Acts (31), 1 Corinthians (10), Luke (6).

How the King James Bible renders Apostolos, by count

• apostles59 of 83 (71 percent)
• apostle19 of 83 (23 percent)
• the2 of 83 (2 percent)
• he that is sent1 of 83 (1 percent)
• messenger1 of 83 (1 percent)
• messengers1 of 83 (1 percent)

Three places to read Apostolos

• Matthew 10:2 Now the names of the twelve apostles are these; The first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother;
• Acts 8:14 Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John:
• 2 Corinthians 11:5 For I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles.

Counts are made at build time from the King James text tagged with Strong’s numbers (eBible.org, public domain). Verses are read from the stored King James text, never typed.

Why the word matters

Every word the biblical writers chose carries weight. Studying Apostolos in the original Greek lets you read the passages where it appears more carefully, closer to what the first hearers understood, so the meaning is drawn from the text itself rather than from the English alone.

The lexical data on this page comes from the public-domain Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890), a Hebrew and Greek dictionary keyed to the King James Bible. It is a reference tool, not a settled verdict: no single word decides a doctrine, and meaning is finally shaped by how a word is used in its sentences. Read the passages themselves, prayerfully, and in full.

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