Re: The Early Christians: In Their Own Words

The God-given mandate of Christian apostles towered high above everything 
else. This is brought into sharper focus by the fact that the word 
“apostle” originally applied to non-Christian Judaism. The task of the 
Jewish apostles, though, was limited to carrying letters from Jerusalem 
headquarters to the scattered Jews everywhere, collecting contributions
for 
headquarters, exercising supervisory and disciplinary powers, and keeping 
up the bond of all Jews with Jerusalem. In the same way the early church
in 
Jerusalem, the Christian headquarters, with Paul as an apostle, laid the 
well-known financial obligation on him as well as the decision-making role

of the “Apostolic Council.” However, the authority of the kingdom, God’s 
reality, stands behind the apostolic ambassador****p. Its tasks are
greater. 
Therefore, both the work carried out by the apostles and the power given
to 
them had to be equally powerful. It was not to be compared with the Jewish

apostolate, which was purely organizational.