GOSPEL. As a word in the English language, gōspel represents Middle English terminology derived from the Old English godspel (from gōd, "good," and spel, "story"). "Gospel" is the common translation of the Late Latin evangelium, which is a virtual transliteration of the Greek euaggelion. In classical Greek, euaggelion designated everything connected with the euaggelos, the bearer of good news (from eu, "well," and aggelos, "messenger, one who announces"). Initially euaggelion designated the reward given to the messenger who brought happy news (see Homer, Odyssey 14.152–153). In the plural the term euaggelia was used to designate the offerings to the gods made in thanksgiving upon the reception of good news (e.g., Xenophon, Historia Graeca 4.13.14). Later euaggelion came to be used for the content of the message, the good news itself, usually an announcement of a military victory.

Euaggelion occasionally entered into religious use, where its connotation was...