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Although this word occurs twice (2Co_5:20 and Eph_6:20) in the English Version of the NT, the corresponding Greek noun ( ðñåóâåõôÞò ) occurs nowhere. Instead, we find the verb ðñåóâåýù , ‘to be an ambassador,’ while the cognate collective noun (Revised Version ‘ambassage’) is used in Luk_14:32; Luk_19:14.* [Note: ðñåóâåýù and ðñåóâåõôÞò were the recognized terms in the Greek East for the Legate of the Roman Empire (Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East2, 1911, p. 379).]
In the OT the idea behind the words translated ‘ambassador’ (generally mal’âkh) is that of going or being sent, and of this the etymological equivalent in the NT is not ‘ambassador’ but ‘apostle’ ( ἀðüóôïëïò , ‘one sent forth’); but both the OT terms and the NT ἀðüóôïëïò have to be understood in the light of use and contest rather than of derivation. In this way they acquire a richer content, of which the chief component ideas are the bearing of a message, the dealing, in a representative character, with those to whom one is sent, and the solemn investiture, before starting out, with a delegated authority sufficient for the task (cf. Gal_1:15-17).
The representative character of ambassadorship is emphasized by the repeated ὑðÝñ , ‘on behalf of,’ in 2Co_5:20, with the added ‘as though God were intreating by us.’ The same preposition ( ὑðÝñ ) occurs in Eph_6:20; thus ðñåóâåýù is never found in the NT without it. So also in Luk_14:32; Luk_19:14 the context shows that the ðñåóâåßá is representative.
There is no very marked difference between ‘ambassador’ and ‘apostle.’ ðñåóâåýù , having ðñÝóâõò (‘aged’) as its stem, does suggest a certain special dignity and gravity, based on the ancient idea of the vastly superior wisdom brought by ripeness of years. Probably, however, St. Paul was not thinking of age at all, for ðñåóâåýù had lived a life of its own long enough to be independent of its antecedents. His tone of dignity and of pride springs not so much from his metaphor as direct from his vividly realized relation to God: ὑðÝñ is more emphatic than ðñåóâåýù . It is in exactly the same tone that he claims the title ‘apostle’ (see, e.g., Gal_1:1, 1Co_9:1; 1Co_15:9-10); cf. Gal_1:15 f., where his ‘separation to preach’ expresses the same thought in yet another form. Nevertheless, his is a humble pride, for only grace has put him in his lofty position (cf. 1Co_15:9 f.). Moreover, his commission is not to lord it over others, but to ‘beseech’ them; nay, God Himself only ‘intreats’ (2Co_5:20). It is He who seeks ‘arrangements for peace’ with men (cf. Luk_14:32). On the ðñåóâýôçò of Phm_1:9 (Authorized Version and Revised Version ‘the aged,’ Revised Version margin ‘an ambassador’) see article Aged.
C. H. Watkins.