Gospel

:For the genre of Christian-themed music, see gospel music.

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In Christianity, gospel means "good news". The word gospel derives from the Old English word for "good news", a translation of the Greek word ευαγγέλιον, evangelion.

Related Topics:
Christianity - Good news - Old English - Greek

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Gospel has generally been used in three ways:

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• To denote the proclamation of God's saving activity in Jesus of Nazareth or to denote the message proclaimed by Jesus of Nazareth. This is the original New Testament usage (see Romans 1.1 or Mark 1.1).
• More popularly to refer to the four canonical gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) and sometimes other non-canonical works (eg. Gospel of Thomas), that offer a narrative of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

Some modern scholars have used the term to denote a hypothetical genre of Early Christian literature (cf. Peter Stuhlmacher, ed., Das Evangelium und die Evangelien, T?bingen 1983, also in English: The Gospel and the Gospels).

Related Topics:
Genre - Literature

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The expression "gospel" was used by Paul before the literary Gospels of the New Testament canon had been produced, when he reminded the men of the church at Corinth "of the gospel I preached to you" (1 Corinthians 15.1) through which, Paul averred, they were being saved, and he characterized it in the simplest terms, emphasizing Christ's appearances after the Resurrection (15.3 – 8):

Related Topics:
Paul - Corinth - 1 Corinthians

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:"...that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures; that he was buried; that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures; that he appeared to Kephas, then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at once, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. After that he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one born abnormally, he appeared to me."

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The use of gospel (or its Greek equivalent evangelion) to denote a particular genre of writing dates to the 2nd century. It was clearly used to denote a genre in Justin Martyr (c. 155) and more ambiguously so earlier in Ignatius of Antioch (c. 117).

Related Topics:
2nd century - Justin Martyr - 155 - Ignatius of Antioch - 117

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Gospel: Canonical Gospels ►