About the word “Gospel”

Definitions

The word Gospel is the English translation of the greek term εὐαγγέλιον (euangélion).

Two thousand years ago, the word εὐαγγέλιον designated an announcement of victory. Wars were still quite common at that time, disputes between two political leaders used to be settled by sending troops of soldiers into battles. These battles were followed with more concern and excitement than football matches nowadays because their outcome had quite existential consequences for the people. People had a vivid picture when they heard εὐαγγέλιον.

Biblical authors then used this word to designate Jesus’ teachings as a whole. They said that Jesus “proclaimed the gospel of God”.

Christians later used the word gospel also to designate the literal genre of writing texts about Jesus’s life[1].

Gospel

The divine message revealed to humanity through Jesus Christ. See About the Good News.

Gospel (literal genre)

A text that describes Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. Usually one of the four books of this genre that are part of the Bible (Mark, Matthew, Luke and John).

Good News

A more explicit expression for the Gospel.

Word of God

A more poetical expression for the Gospel.

The English Wikipedia has a lot of talk about these words:

I would suggest:

  • rename existing Gospel to Gospel (literal genre)

  • rename existing The Gospel to Gospel (message)

  • create a redirect from Gospel to Gospel (disambiguation)

  • tidy up

Another topic is that Good News redirects to Good news, which mentions The Gospel somewhere near the end under “Other uses”. Quite offending.

Word of God

Christians also use the expression Word of God. The literal meaning of this expression is a divine inspiration, an idea perceived by a particular human as coming from God. For example “The word of the Lord came to Jonah” (Jonah 1:1) means that Jonah had a crazy idea, which later turned out to not be crazy.

But when written with a capital “W”, Word of God is simply another expression to designate the Gospel.

John 1 describes the person of Jesus Christ as a synonym for the Gospel.

The Catholic Church uses the expression Word of God at several places of the Holy Mass. The Ordo Lectionum Missae specifies that two of the four Bible readings are to be concluded with the words “Verbum Dei” (translated to “(This is) the word of God” or “Acclamons la Parole de Dieu” or “Wort des Lebendigen Gottes” or “See on Jumala Sõna”). And the other participants of the mass are then to answer “Deo gratias” (“Thanks be to God” or “Louange à toi Seigneur” or “Dank sei Gott dem Herrn” or “Tänu olgu Jumalale”).

I never get tired of warning people that this tradition is dangerous because it can be misunderstood. Too many people use the terms “Bible” and “Word of God” as synonyms, which can lead to Biblicism.

Similar concepts

divine plan

The assumed plan God has for humanity and the whole Universe.

God’s plan

Another word for God’s divine plan

Will of God

Something God wants to happen as part of his divine plan.

Footnotes