Euangelion

The term euangelion in the New Testament always means either the content of the good news that is being proclaimed or the act of proclaiming it. The New Testament does not use euangelion in the sense of the literary genre of “Gospel.”

The Gospel of Mark seems to open with a declaration of the content of the euangelion. It reads, “The beginning of the euangelion of Jesus Christ” (Mark 1:1). This announcement could refer either to the good news “about” Jesus Christ or the good news proclaimed “by” Him. In the Gospel of Matthew, euangelion is clearly used in the latter sense, where the teachings by Jesus are called “the gospel of the kingdom” (Matt 4:23; 9:35). Mark’s phrase likely implies that Jesus is both the one who proclaims the good news and the very content of the news He proclaims.

Luke recounts Jesus saying that He was compelled by the Spirit of the Lord to preach the euangelion to the poor, providing release to the captives and sight for the blind (Luke 4:18).

Paul is more explicit about the content, saying he preached the euangelion and the message was that Christ died for sins, was buried, and arose on the third day (1 Cor 15:1–4).

Paul had to defend his euangelion against the attacks of those who were teaching “another euangelion” (Gal 1:7). Opponents of Paul were teaching that outside the Torah there was no salvation. In order to obtain righteousness in the eyes of God, they were requiring that gentile Christians be circumcised and fulfill additional requirements of the Jewish law. If any euangelion was declared contrary to his, Paul threatened a curse on those proclaiming it (Gal 1:9).

David Seal