Both “apostle” and “deacon” are Hebrew terms. Before the
Christian era the pregnant use of the verb to send (shalaḥ)
indicates a technical meaning like the use of αποστελλω in
st. Mark vi. 7. The word shaliaḥ (shaluaḥ) is commonly met with
in the sense of deputy, representative, agent, emissary, plenipotentiary. An
old Rabbinic maxim is reflected in St. John xiii. 16b: “neither is he that is
sent greater than he that sent him” for “he that is sent is like him who sends
him”: the emissary is equal in (delegated) authority to him who empowers and
sends him. The term shaliaḥ was used in many senses: for the official
representative of the Sanhedrin; for the officiant at congregational worship in
the Synagogue; for the representatives and accredited agents of God, as well as
in other connections. The atmosphere of Acts ix. 1-2 is entirely in keeping
with Jewish procedure: the “letters from the High Priest” would be accrediting
testimonials, for which contemporary Hebrew offers a technical parallel, authorizing
the venture of an official “emissary” sent off for a particular function. The
word “deacon” or “minister” has ample precedent and parallel in Rabbinic
literature, and its true congeniality can best be studied in the Semitic
Christian milieu of the early Syriac literature. (Frank Gavin, The
Jewish Antecedents of the Christian Sacraments [London: Society for
Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1928], 103-4)
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