II. The definition which occupies the first place in most of the arrangements of this word in the common Greek lexicons, is that of a “naval expedition,” “_apparatus classium_,” “fleet.” There appears, however, to be no good reason for this order, but there is historical argument, at least, as well as analogy, for putting those meanings which refer to _persons_, before those which refer to _things_. This meaning, as far as I can learn, seems to be confined to Demosthenes, and there is nothing to make us suppose that it is anterior in use to the simple permanent sense which is here given first. Hesychius gives us only the meaning of “the commander of a fleet,” which may indeed be derivable from this sense rather than the preceding _personal_ uses, though it seems to me not impossible that the name was transferred from the commander to the object of his command, thus making the personal meanings prior to those of inanimate things. The adjective use of the word in Herodotus and Plato, however, makes it certain that in that way it was early applied to a single vessel, and the transition to its substantive use for a whole fleet is natural enough. The legal use of it for “letters of appeal,” (_literae dimissoriae_,) of course comes under the head of the later usages in application to _things_, and is the last modification of meaning which the word underwent before the extinction of the ancient Greek language. The corresponding Hebrew word, and that which was, no doubt, used by Christ in his discourse to his apostles, was שלוּח or שליח (_sheluh_, or _shelih_,) whose primary meaning, like that of the Greek word, is “_one sent_,” and is derived from the passive Kal, participle of the verb שלח meaning “he sent,” This word is often used in the Old Testament, and is usually translated in the Alexandrian Greek version, by the word αποστολος. A remarkable instance occurs in 1 Kings xiv. 6; where the prophet Ahijah, speaking to the wife of Jeroboam, says, אליך אנכי שלוח “to thee am I sent;” the Alexandrian version gives the noun αποστολος, so as to make it literally “to thee I am an _apostle_,” or “messenger,” or truly, in the just and primary sense of this Greek word, “to thee I am _sent_.” This passage is a valuable illustration of the use of the same Greek word in John xiii. 16; as above quoted.