EUANGGELION
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Thu Jul 11 13:28:22 EDT 2002
At 11:25 AM -0700 7/11/02, Michael Abernathy wrote:
>What is the earliest clear use of EUANGGELION referring to a written gospel?
>An article I was reading suggested that Didache 8:2, 11:3, and 15:3-4 point
>to a written gospel. Do you agree?
>Sincerely,
[Transliteration convention: GG spells Greek gamma + gamma, but in Greek
that combination always makes the first gamma a nasal; therefore the "N" is
otiose in transliteration.]
This is a question to which there may not be a clearly agreed-upon answer.
Some would say that EUAGGELION already in Mark's gospel (assuming Marcan
priority, with which many disagree, although I personally accept it) is
used in a way indicating it is a literary genre. I don't agree, but am
inclined rather to think, as I believe W. Marxsen did, that Mark uses
EUAGGELION in exactly the same sense in which Paul used it: as the proper
term for the saving proclamation. Those who believe that Mark abridged the
gospels of Matthew and Luke perhaps have more reason to believe that the
word in Mk 1:1 is used in the sense, "gospel as a literary genre." I think
it's highly dubious that the word was used anywhere in the GNT in that
sense, and I suspect that your reference to Didache is reasonable. That's
also what BDAG (s.v. "2, 3") seems to be asserting.
--
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
Most months:: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu OR cwconrad at ioa.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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