DELIBERATELY DIVERSE | Rev. Terry Pierce
“Deliberately Diverse” represents the opinions of a group of Taylor friends who never completely agree about anything but enjoy diverse discussions.
A Greek noun, euangelion, and its related verb, euangelizomai, are heard every day when we talk about Jesus. We translate them, respectively, as Gospel and To Gospel or evangelize.
They also mean Good News or to share the good news.
We don’t find this word in Greek translations of the Hebrew Bible, yet Paul uses it 60 times in his letters to the followers of Jesus in the first century.
So why did Paul use this word and where did it come from?
In 44 BC, the emperor Julius Caesar was assassinated and subsequently deified. Caesar was hailed as a god and given religious honors –– a temple, a priest, his image on coins –– that blurred the line between man and god. His successors took the name Caesar as part of their official title. In the areas where Paul traveled, worship of the emperor as divine was strong and provides a backdrop to some of the language in Paul’s letters.
For example, in Turkey about 9 BC, a decree by the Roman proconsul of Asia proposed the local calendar be reorganized so the new year begins on Augustus’ birthday. The inscription frames Augustus’ birth as the fulfillment of divine Providence, describing him as filled with virtue to benefit humankind.
The key line — “The birthday of the God (i.e. Augustus) has been for the whole world the beginning of the gospel (euangelion) concerning him” — uses euangelion to describe Augustus’s birth itself as “good news” for the entire world.
Paul, whose ministry was with Gentiles in the Roman provinces, coopts this language to describe what has happened in the death and resurrection of Jesus.
John Lewis, New Testament theologian and scholar, says, “Imagine the contrast between Paul proclaiming the good news of Israel’s God with the good news associated with the Roman emperor! Paul used the word provocatively, in a seditious, anti-Roman way. It characterizes the good news of the powerful, victorious events wrought by Israel’s God through God’s Son, Jesus Christ, bringing peace, joy and ongoing salvation to God’s people” (“Discernment in the Early Church,” 23).
The good news for Paul began with the resurrection revealing God’s power over death and continued with God’s power breaking into earthly existence in a never-ending series of gospel-events.
“What has happened … in the death and resurrection of Jesus reveals the very character of God … God’s will (is) to ‘do justice’ on the Earth by intervening in human affairs to establish right relationships where they do not yet exist because of human sin or folly” (Luke Johnson, “Reading Romans,” 28).
Stay tuned in two weeks for more about Paul and Gospel.
Pierce is the retired pastor at St. James’ Episcopal Church in Taylor and can be reached at [email protected].
