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.
33-521: Evangelion refers to the gospel in Christianity, translated from the Ancient Greek word εὐαγγέλιον ( euangélion ; Latin: evangelium ) meaning "Good News". Evangelion may also refer to: The gospel The religious concept is found at least as far back as Greece's Classical era and Roman authors are known to have adopted it toward the end of the 1st century BCE . It
66-434: 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. In Ancient Greek religion the word εὐαγγέλια means a sacrifice offered for good tidings or good news. Like other Greek religious thanks-offerings, offerings took the form of animal sacrifice , offerings of food and drink, and ritual dedications. News of military victory
99-799: A god upon receiving good news. The noun and verb forms are used several times in the Hebrew Bible . Christian theology describes the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ not as a new concept, but one that has been foretold throughout the Hebrew scripture (known as the Old Testament in Christian Bibles) and was prophetically preached even at the time of the fall of man as contained in Genesis 3:14–15, which has been called
132-511: Is a central message of Christianity today, in which written accounts of the life and teaching of Jesus Christ are known as Gospels . Gospel ( / ˈ ɡ ɒ s p ə l / ) is the Old English translation of Greek εὐαγγέλιον , meaning "good news". This may be seen from analysis of euangélion ( εὖ , eû , '"good"' + ἄγγελος , ángelos , '"messenger"' + -ιον , -ion diminutive suffix). The Greek term
165-548: Is recorded in 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
198-916: Is represented by the bulk of the Mishnah ( משנה , published around 200) and the Tosefta within the Talmud , and by some of the Dead Sea Scrolls , notably the Copper Scroll and the Bar Kokhba Letters . Dead Sea Scrolls archaeologist Yigael Yadin mentions that three Bar Kokhba documents he and his team found in the Cave of Letters are written in Mishnaic Hebrew and that it was Simon bar Kokhba who revived Hebrew and made it
231-506: 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". Another perspective described in the Pauline epistles is that it
264-410: 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, 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
297-810: The Christian Bible . Paul the Apostle 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
330-540: The waw-consecutive . The past is expressed by using the same form as in Modern Hebrew. For example, Pirqe Avoth 1:1: משה קיבל תורה מסיני "Moses received the Torah from Sinai". Continuous past is expressed using the past tense of "to be" + participle, unlike Biblical Hebrew. For example, Pirqe Avoth 1:2: הוא היה אומר "He often said". Present is expressed using the same form as in Modern Hebrew, by using
363-613: The " Proto-Evangelion " or "Proto-Gospel". 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 exist or existed but are not officially included in
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#1732773163356396-679: 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; c.f. Genesis 12:1–3). 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
429-584: The Christian good news as taught by the apostle Peter in the Acts of the Apostles : 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
462-669: The Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures 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 The good news can be summarized in many ways, reflecting various emphases. C. H. Dodd has summarized
495-649: The close of the Tannaitic era (around the year 200), is characterized by RH as a spoken language gradually developing into a literary medium, in which the Mishnah, Tosefta, baraitot and Tannaitic midrashim would be composed. The second stage begins with the Amoraim , and sees RH being replaced by Aramaic as the spoken vernacular, surviving only as a literary language. Many of the characteristic features of Mishnaic Hebrew pronunciation may well have been found already in
528-404: 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. The ancient Hebrew noun בְּשׂוֹרָה ( besorah ) 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
561-613: 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. Mishnaic Hebrew Mishnaic Hebrew ( Hebrew : לשון חז"ל , romanized : Ləšon Ḥazal "Language of the Sages ") is the Hebrew language of Talmudic texts . Mishnaic Hebrew can be sub-divided into Mishnaic Hebrew proper (also called Tannaitic Hebrew, Early Rabbinic Hebrew, or Mishnaic Hebrew I), which
594-509: The earlier Jerusalem Talmud published between 350 and 400, generally comment on the Mishnah and Baraitot in Aramaic. Nevertheless, Hebrew survived as a liturgical and literary language in the form of later Amoraic Hebrew , which sometimes occurs in the Gemara text. There is general agreement that two main periods of Rabbinical Hebrew (RH) can be distinguished. The first, which lasted until
627-501: The future. It mostly replaces the imperfect (prefixed) form in that function. The imperfect (prefixed) form, which is used for the future in modern Hebrew, expresses an imperative (order), volition or similar meanings in Mishnaic Hebrew (the prefixed form is also used to express an imperative in Modern Hebrew). For example, Pirqe Avot 1:3: הוא היה אומר, אל תהיו כעבדים המשמשין את הרב "He would say, don't be like slaves serving
660-599: The generic term for these passages is baraitot . The language of all these works is very similar to Mishnaic Hebrew. Mishnaic Hebrew is found primarily from the first to the fourth centuries, corresponding to the Roman period after the destruction of the Second Temple in the Siege of Jerusalem (70 CE) . It developed under the profound influence of Middle Aramaic . Also called Tannaitic Hebrew or Early Rabbinic Hebrew, it
693-556: The gospel of the August One or Divus Augustus, a mythologized version of the first Roman emperor Octavian, also known as Augustus Caesar. Augustus was both a man and a god, "a savior who has made war to cease and who shall put everything in peaceful order." 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
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#1732773163356726-413: The language occurs in the other works of Tannaitic literature dating from the century beginning with the completion of the Mishnah. These include the halakhic midrashim ( Sifra , Sifre , Mekhilta of Rabbi Ishmael etc.) and the expanded collection of Mishnah-related material known as the Tosefta . The Talmud contains excerpts from these works, as well as further Tannaitic material not attested elsewhere;
759-454: The morphemes was not pronounced, and the vowel previous to it was nasalized. Alternatively, the agreement morphemes may have changed under the influence of Aramaic. Also, some surviving manuscripts of the Mishna confuse guttural consonants, especially ʾaleph ( א ) (a glottal stop ) and ʿayin ( ע ) (a voiced pharyngeal fricative ). That could be a sign that they were pronounced
792-573: The official language of the state during the Bar Kokhba revolt (132–135). Yadin also notes a shift from Aramaic to Hebrew in Judaea during the time of the Bar Kokhba revolt: It is interesting that the earlier documents are written in Aramaic while the later ones are in Hebrew. Possibly the change was made by a special decree of Bar-Kokhba who wanted to restore Hebrew as the official language of
825-402: The participle ( בינוני ). For example, Pirqe Avoth 1:2 על שלושה דברים העולם עומד "The world is sustained by three things", lit. "On three things the world stands". Future can be expressed using עתיד + infinitive. For example, Pirqe Avoth 3:1: ולפני מי אתה עתיד ליתן דין וחשבון . However, unlike Modern Hebrew but like contemporary Aramaic, the present active participle can also express
858-421: The period of Late Biblical Hebrew. A notable characteristic distinguishing it from Biblical Hebrew of the classical period is the spirantization of post-vocalic stops (b, g, d, p, t, k), which it has in common with Aramaic. A new characteristic is that final /m/ is often replaced with final /n/ in the Mishna (see Bava Kama 1:4, " מועדין "), but only in agreement morphemes. Perhaps the final nasal consonant in
891-473: 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. 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
924-587: The ritual dedication of the calendar to Augustus, starting the new year on Augustus's birthday. 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
957-466: The same way in Mishnaic Hebrew. Consonants Vowels Mishnaic Hebrew displays various changes from Biblical Hebrew, some appearing already in the Hebrew of the Dead Sea Scrolls . Some, but not all, are retained in Modern Hebrew . For the expression of possession, Mishnaic Hebrew mostly replaces the construct state with analytic constructions involving של 'of'. Mishnaic Hebrew lacks
990-480: The state. Sigalit Ben-Zion remarks, "[I]t seems that this change came as a result of the order that was given by Bar Kokhba, who wanted to revive the Hebrew language and make it the official language of the state." However, less than a century after the publication of the Mishnah, Hebrew began to fall into disuse as a spoken language. The Gemara ( גמרא , circa 500 in Lower Mesopotamia ), as well as
1023-606: 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
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1056-502: Was a spoken language , and Amoraic Hebrew (also called Late Rabbinic Hebrew or Mishnaic Hebrew II), which was a literary language only. The Mishnaic Hebrew language, or Early Rabbinic Hebrew language, is one of the direct ancient descendants of Biblical Hebrew as preserved after the Babylonian captivity , and definitively recorded by Jewish sages in writing the Mishnah and other contemporary documents. A transitional form of
1089-508: Was frequently celebrated with an 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. 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. The Roman Imperial cult celebrated
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