Who were these people who called themselves apostles?
Revelation 2:2 (ESV)
2“‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil,but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false.
We know nothing more about them than is indicated in these few words. An “apostle” was a person who was “sent” (that’s what the root of the word in Greek means). There appear to have been men who claimed a divine mandate to preach.
2 “‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false.