Gospel in Biblical History

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Schaff's Bible Dictionary

Definitions in Biblical History
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What is the Gospel?
GOS'PEL
(from the Anglo-Saxon god-spell, "good tidings") is the English translation of the Greek euangelion, which signifies "good" or "glad tidings." Luke 2:10; Acts 13:32. The same word in the original is rendered in Rom 10:15 by the two equivalents "gospel" and "glad tidings." The term refers to the good news of the new dispensation of redemption ushered in by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The "good news" is denominated either simply the "gospel," Matt 26:13, or else "the gospel of the kingdom," Matt 9:35; of "Jesus Christ," Mark 1:1; of "peace," Rom 10:15; Eph 6:15, of "salvation," Eph 1:12; of "God," 1 Thess 2:9; and of "grace." Acts 20:24. Gospels, the Four Canonical. The word "Gospels" is also employed to designate the four biographies of our Lord by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. These are the only faithful accounts of his life extant. They are the independent recitals of well-informed men; and there is no evidence that either Evangelist got his facts from another. But the Gospel by John, while it is complete on its own peculiar plan, seems to have been composed in part with the object of supplementing what was lacking or only partially given in the narrations of the first three Gospels. In this fourth Gospel, for example, the divinity of our Lord is emphatically asserted and dwelt on at length, and of the opposition he met with from the Pharisees a full account is given, John 6-12. John further gives in detail the discourses of our Lord in the last week, John 13-17, and the account of the resurrection of Lazarus, John 11. On the other hand, he omits the circumstances of our Lord's birth, which had been given so fully by Matthew and Luke, the account of the Lord's Supper, related by all three of the other Evangelists, the institution of baptism, and most of the miracles and all the parables found in the first three accounts. There are differences in the accounts of the same events as given by the various Evangelists, but with a few exceptions they are verbal, and only such as we would naturally expect in different descriptions of the same occurrences. These very differences in details are favorable to the genuineness of the Gospels, because they prove the absence of collusion or secret agreement among the writers. The genuineness of these records of our Lord's life is as strongly supported, to say the least, as that of any other document of antiquity. There is no doubt that they were all written, as we have them, in the first century (the first three before the destruction of Jerusalem, a.d. 70), and were all used and known as "the Four Evangelists" in the Church before the year 200, if not before 150. Upon both these points the concurrent evidence is so strong that the opponents must resort to the wildest theories and hypotheses, which refute themselves by their contradictions. There is good evidence scattered all through the second century that they were in general use. Justin Martyr used them about 140. His pupil, Tatian, wrote a Harmony of the Gospels about 170, and quite recently a commentary of Ephraem Syrus on Tatian's Diatessaron has been published at Venice (1876), which settles the vexed question as to the character of this work. The arguments for the genuineness, as varied as they are convincing, are such as these:(1) The direct testimonies of writers in the second century and later; (2) the quotations found in the writings of the authors known as the Fathers; (3) ancient translations, as the Itala and Peshito, dating from the second century; (4) the attitude of heretic and heathen opponents, who, like Celsus (180), did not call in question the genuineness of the records, although they denied the credibility of a part of their contents. Basilides, a Gnostic heretic, knew the Gospel of John as early as 125, and Marcion, another Gnostic, about 150, made use of a mutilated Gospel of Luke. The language in which the Gospels were written was the Greek, with the probable exception of Matthew written in Hebrew, and there can be little doubt that we now have, with the exception of a few readings, the documents as they left the hands of the writers. Gospels, Apocryphal. These are the spurious accounts of our Lord's life. There are many of them; as, for example, the Gospel according to James, according to Nicodemns, etc. The earliest was probably composed sometime in the second century. They indulge in puerile accounts of the parents of our Lord, of the pretended miracles of his childhood, and of his experience in Hades. These stories were invented to satisfy a prurient curiosity, and were accepted by the credulous. The circumstances related carry their own refutation with them, as being entirely out of harmony with the spirit of our Lord's life. They tend to confirm the canonical Gospels as the counterfeit presupposes the genuine coin. A "harmony" of the Gospels is an arrangement of these four biographies which displays the chronology of the events narrated, the variety of events, and the diversity of details. The object is to present a full account of our Lord's life in the chronological sequence of its events. For the several Gospels see Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Bibliography Information
Schaff, Philip, Dr. "Biblical Definition for 'gospel' in Schaffs Bible Dictionary".
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