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paulvipond · Joined: 14 Nov 2006 Posts: 60 Location: Bury

Hi, Eli. Thanks for the post and apologies to anyone who thought I was trying to be too scholarly.

Exegesis = explaining what scripture means [in this case a particular word]
Doctrine = a teaching of the Church and/or the Bible.

So Countrydancer's and DavidH's posts accurately set out the doctrine of personal salvation which is entirely biblical and is in deed "good news".

My own post was trying to highlight that early christians [particularly jewish christians] would have heard the word "euangelion" against the background of Isaiah's usage of euangelion [in the septuagint] and the Roman empire's use of euangelion in its imperial proclamations.

[Try googling Priene inscription and you should get one to Augustus caesar from about 9BC which reads: "the birthday of the god [Augustus] was for the world the beginnning of glad tidings [euangellia] which have gone forth because of him."]
It is anachronistic, that is a reading back into history our own ideas, to say that a first century beliver would have immediately understood "gospel" to mean a message about personal salvation. DavidH's post about the old english derivation of the word gospel is helpful to us but not to a first century jew. What he sets out is indeed good news but it is not waht euangelion means - at least not directly.

Sometimes Paul doesn't help us when Galatians 1:11 literally translates as "the gospel that was gospeled by me".

No, the "euangelion" is that Jesus is the Christ, the One true Lord of all the cosmos and this is evidenced foremost in his death and resurrection. It is of course by that same death and resurrection that our salvation is secured. Whiuch is why "gospel" and the doctrine of personal salvation are conflated.

Hope that clears up my original post.

_________________
Make you walk in the dust of your rabbi, Jesus