The gospel

The gospel or good news is a theological

concept in several religions. In the
historical Roman imperial cult and today in
Christianity, the gospel is a message about
salvation by a divine figure, a savior, who
has brought peace or other benefits to
humankind. In Ancient Greek religion, the
word designated a type of sacrifice or
ritual dedication intended to thank the
gods upon receiving good news.
Octavian as the August Divine Father, the savior in ancient Roman gospel

The religious concept dates back at least

as far as Greece's Classical era. Roman
authors are known to have adopted it
toward the end of the 1st century BCE, and
Christians somewhat later. It is a central
message of Christianity today, in which
written accounts of the life and teaching
of Jesus Christ are known as Gospels.
Etymology
Gospel (/ˈɡɒspəl/) is the Old English
translation of Greek εὐαγγέλιον, meaning
"good news".[1] This may be seen from
analysis of euangélion (εὖ, eû, '"good"' +
ἄγγελος, ángelos, '"messenger"' + -ιον, -ion
diminutive suffix). The Greek term was
Latinized as evangelium in the Vulgate, and
translated into Latin as bona annuntiatio.

In Old English, it was translated as gōdspel

(gōd, "good" + spel, "news"). The Old
English term was retained as gospel in
Middle English Bible translations and
hence remains in use also in Modern
English.

In Greek the term originally designated a

reward or tip customarily paid to a
messenger who has delivered good news.
The term then came to designate the good
news itself, and also a religious offering of
thanks for good fortune.[2]

In Greek and Roman religion

Classical Greece
A bull being taken to an altar of the goddess Athena

In Ancient Greek religion the word

εὐαγγέλια means a sacrifice offered for
good tidings or good news.[3] Like other
Greek religious thanks-offerings, gospel
offerings took the form of animal sacrifice,
offerings of food and drink, and ritual
dedications. News of military victory was
frequently celebrated with a gospel
offering. In the play The Knights by
Aristophanes of 424 BCE, the comic
character Paphlagon proposes an
excessive sacrifice of a hundred heifers to
Athena to celebrate good news.[4] This
word in Greek has a double meaning: the
singular form means a reward paid to a
human messenger who brings good news,
and the plural form means a thanks-
offering to the gods for good news.[5]

Rome

The Roman Imperial cult celebrated the

gospel of the August One or Divus
Augustus, a mythologized version of the
first Roman emperor Octavian, also known
as Augustus Caesar.[6] Augustus was both
a man and a god, "a savior who has made
war to cease and who shall put everything
in peaceful order."[7] This period of peace
is called the Pax Romana. To celebrate the
good tidings of peace with an unusually
grand gospel offering, governor Paullus
Fabius Maximus suggested the ritual
dedication of the calendar to Augustus,
starting the new year on Augustus's
birthday.[7] This dedication to the August
One served to synchronize diverse local
calendars across the Empire, and is the
origin of the name of the month August.
The idea of dedication to a divine king's
birthday later formed the basis of the
Julian and Gregorian calendars.

One implementation of this gospel

calendar dedication is recorded the
Calendar Inscription of Priene. In it, the
Koine Greek word for "good news" appears
in celebrating the birth of the god and
savior Augustus, sent by Providence to
bring peace. It announces the intention of
the city of Priene to change their calendar
so that it begins on the birthday of
Augustus, the first day of the good news.
The Priene inscription is the most famous
pre-Christian use of the concept of the
gospel. Dated to 9 BCE, a few years before
the birth of Jesus, the inscription
demonstrates that the gospel was used as
a political term before it was applied to
Christianity.[8][9]
In the Bible and Christianity

Hebrew scripture

The ancient Hebrew noun ‫( ְּב ׂשֹוָר ה‬besorah)

appears to carry the same double meaning
as the equivalent Greek word for gospel,
used for both a messenger delivering good
news and a thanks-offering to a god upon
receiving good news. The noun and verb
forms are used several times in the
Hebrew Bible.[5]

When Jewish scriptures were adopted by

Christians as the Old Testament, these
mentions of good news came to be viewed
as prefiguring the later story of Jesus in
the New Testament.

New Testament

The Gospels

The Sermon on the Mount in which Jesus commented on the Jewish Law (author: Carl Bloch

A genre of ancient biographies of Jesus

took on the name Gospel because they tell
good news of Jesus as the Christian
savior, bringing peace and acting as a
sacrifice who has redeemed mankind from
sin. The first four books of the Christian
New Testament are the canonical gospels:
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. In
addition, a number of non-canonical
gospels give accounts of the life of Jesus
but are not officially included in the
Christian Bible.

In the Pauline epistles

Paul gave the following summary, one of

the earliest Christian Creeds, (translated
into English) of this good news (gospel) in
the First Epistle to the Corinthians:

Now I make known to you,

brothers and sisters, the gospel
which I preached to you, which
you also received, in which you
also stand, by which you also
are saved, if you hold firmly to
the word which I preached to
you, unless you believed in vain.
For I handed down to you as of
first importance what I also
received, that Christ died for our
sins according to the Scriptures,
 and that He was buried, and
that He was raised on the third
day according to the Scriptures

— 1 Corinthians 15:1–4[10]

Paul describes the gospel as being

powerful and salvific:

For I am not ashamed of the

gospel, because it is the power of
God that brings salvation to
everyone who believes: first to
the Jew, then to the Gentile.
Romans 1:16[11]
In Acts

The good news can be summarized in

many ways, reflecting various emphases.
C. H. Dodd[12] has summarized the
Christian good news as taught by the
apostle Peter in the Acts of the
Apostles:[13]

The age of fulfilment has dawned;

This has taken place through the
ministry, death, and resurrection of
Jesus;
By virtue of the resurrection, Jesus has
been exalted at the right hand of God, as
Messianic head of the new Israel;
 The Holy Spirit in the Church is the sign
of Christ's present power and glory;
The Messianic Age will shortly reach its
consummation in the return of Christ.

In various Christian movements

"The certain mark by which a Christian community can be recognized is the preaching of the gospel in its purity."—Martin
Luther[14]

The good news is described in many

different ways in the Bible. Each one
reflects different emphases, and describes
part or all of the biblical narrative.
Christian teaching of the good news—
including the preaching of the Apostles in
the Book of Acts—generally focuses upon
the resurrection of Jesus and its
implications. Sometimes in the Bible, the
good news is described in other terms, but
it still describes God's saving acts. For
example, the Apostle Paul taught that the
good news was announced to the
patriarch Abraham in the words, "All
nations will be blessed through you."
(Galatians 3:6–9;[15] c.f. Genesis 12:1–
3).[16]
Liberation theology

Liberation theology, articulated in the

teachings of Latin American Catholic
theologians Leonardo Boff and Gustavo
Gutiérrez, emphasizes that Jesus came
not only to save humanity, but also to
liberate the poor and oppressed. A similar
movement among the Latin American
evangelical movement is the integral
mission, in which the church is seen as an
agent for positively transforming the wider
world, in response to the good news.[17]
This can likewise be seen in black
theology of certain African and African
American Christians.
Christian mission

Missionary preaching in China using The Wordless Book

The Christian missions movement

believes the Christian good news to be a
message for all peoples, of all nations,
tribes, cultures and languages. This
movement teaches that it is through the
good news of Jesus that the nations of
humanity are restored to relationship with
God and that the destiny of the nations is
related to this process. Missiology
professor Howard A. Snyder writes, "God
has chosen to place the Church with Christ
at the very center of His plan to reconcile
the world to himself".[18][19]

Another perspective described in the

Pauline epistles is that it is through the
good news of Jesus' death and
resurrection, and the resulting worship of
people from all nations, that evil is
defeated on a cosmic scale. Reflecting on
the third chapter of Ephesians 3,[20]
theologian Howard A. Snyder writes:
 God's plan for the church
extends to the fullest extent of
the cosmos. By God's 'manifold
wisdom' the Church displays an
early fullness of what Christ will
accomplish at the conclusion of
all the ages. The spectacle is to
reach beyond the range of
humanity, even to the angelic
realms. The church is to be
God's display of Christ's
reconciling love.[21]

See also
Atonement
 Evangelism
Gospel
Messiah
Ministry of Jesus
Threefold office

Notes

Footnotes
1. Woodhead 2004, p. 4.
2. Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert (1940).
"εὐαγγέλ-ιον" (http://www.perseus.tufts.ed
u/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0
057:entry=eu)agge/lion) . A Greek-English
Lexicon. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
3. "εὐαγγέλια" (https://lsj.gr/wiki/%CE%B5%E
1%BD%90%CE%B1%CE%B3%CE%B3%CE%A
D%CE%BB%CE%B9%CE%B1) . Liddell,
Scott, Jones Ancient Greek Lexicon (LSJ).
4. Jim, Theodora Suk Fong (2012). "Naming a
Gift: The Vocabulary and Purposes of Greek
Religious Offerings" (https://grbs.library.duk
e.edu/article/viewFile/13901/3751) .
Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies. 52:
310–337.
5. Burrows, Millar (1925). "The Origin of the
Term "Gospel" " (https://www.jstor.org/stabl
e/pdf/3260047.pdf) (PDF). Journal of
Biblical Literature. 44 (1/2): 21–33.
doi:10.2307/3260047 (https://doi.org/10.2
307%2F3260047) . JSTOR 3260047 (http
s://www.jstor.org/stable/3260047) .
6. Carus, P (1918). Virgil's Prophecy on The
Saviour's Birth: The Fourth Eclogue.
London: The Open Court Publishing Co.
pp. 14–17.
7. Danker, Frederick W. (1982). Benefactor: an
Epigraphic Study of Graeco-Roman and
New Testament Semantic Field (https://can
vas.harvard.edu/courses/815/files/11976
6/download?verifier=Vw5v2yDsGJ0u7Rq4r
QsiUhsaJl3jbhcwCVJ6yE9Y&download_frd
=1) . St. Louis, Missouri: Clayton Publishing
House, Inc. p. 215-222.
8. Cross, F.L. (1958). "Gospel" (https://archive.
org/details/oxforddictionary0000flcr/page/
572/mode/2up) . The Oxford Dictionary of
the Christian Church. Oxford University
Press. p. 573.
 9. Murphy, Catherine. "The Priene Calendar
Inscription" (https://webpages.scu.edu/ftp/
cmurphy/courses/sctr027/artifacts/priene-
calendar.htm) . Santa Clara University.
10. 1 Corinthians 15:1–4 (https://www.biblegat
eway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians
+15:1%E2%80%934&version=nasb)
11. "Bible Gateway passage: Romans 1:16 -
New International Version" (https://www.bib
legateway.com/passage/?search=Roman
s%201%3A16&version=NIV) . Bible
Gateway. Retrieved 2022-05-19.
12. What Does Kerygma Mean? (http://www.af
n.org/~afn52344/kerygma.html)
13. The Apostolic Preaching and Its
Developments (https://web.archive.org/we
b/20070223220610/http://www.religion-onl
ine.org/showchapter.asp?title=539&C=60
6)
14. Tappert, T.G., Selected Writings of Martin
Luther (https://books.google.com/books?id
=cHvf_xp6V8IC&dq=%22The+certain+mark
+by+which+a+Christian+community+can+b
e+recognized+is+the+preaching+of+the+go
spel+in+its+purity.%22&pg=RA3-PA325) ,
Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2007, p.325
15. Galatians 3:6–9 (https://bible.oremus.org/?
passage=Galatians%203:6%E2%80%939&v
ersion=nrsv)
16. Genesis 12:1–3 (https://bible.oremus.org/?
passage=Genesis%2012:1%E2%80%933&ve
rsion=nrsv)
17. Padilla 2004, p. 20
18. Snyder 1999, p. 139
19. Ephesians 1:20–23 (https://bible.oremus.or
g/?passage=Ephesians%201:20%E2%80%9
323&version=nrsv)
20. Ephesians 3 (https://bible.oremus.org/?pas
sage=Ephesians%203&version=nrsv)
21. Snyder 1999, p. 138

Sources

Woodhead, Linda (2004). Christianity: A

Very Short Introduction (https://books.go
ogle.com/books?id=0dFLBAAAQBAJ) .
 Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-
0199687749.

References
Dodd, C. H. 1964 The Apostolic
Preaching and its Developments Harper
and Row. (https://web.archive.org/web/
20070223220610/http://www.religion-o
nline.org/showchapter.asp?title=539&C
=606)
General Directory for Catechesis 1997,
Congregation for the Clergy (https://ww
w.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregation
s/cclergy/documents/rc_con_ccatheduc
_doc_17041998_directory-for-catechesi
s_en.html)
Goldsworthy, G, 1991, According to Plan:
The Unfolding Revelation of God in the
Bible Sydney: Lancer Press.
Johnstone, P, 2001, Operation World,
Carlisle, UK: Paternoster Lifestyle.
Köstenberger, A and P. O'Brien, 2001,
Salvation to the Ends of the Earth: A
Biblical Theology of Mission New Studies
in Biblical Theology 11, Leicester:
Apollos.
Padilla, R, 2004, 'An Ecclesiology for
Integral Mission,' in The Local Church,
Agent of Transformation: An
Ecclesiology for Integral Mission, T.
 Yamamori and C. R. Padilla, eds, Buenos
Aires: Kairos Ediciones.
Snyder, H. A., 1999, 'The Church in God's
Plan,' in Perspectives on the World
Christian Movement, 3rd edn, Pasadena,
California: William Carey Library.
Jepsen, Bent Kim, 2009 The Origin of
Good News[1] (http://www.historicalchri
st.com)

External links
Catholic Encyclopedia: Judaizers (http://
www.newadvent.org/cathen/08537a.ht
m) - Concerning the cultural
implications of the Good News
 Catholic Encyclopedia: Salvation (http://
www.newadvent.org/cathen/13407a.ht
m)
Lordship salvation (http://www.reformed
missionary.org) - Reformed Christian
Gospel presentation emphasizing
Lordship Salvation Archived (https://we
b.archive.org/web/20210512181523/htt
p://www.reformedmissionary.org/)
2021-05-12 at the Wayback Machine

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