The gospel

The gospel or good news is a theological concept in several religions. In the historical Roman imperial cult and in Christianity, the gospel is a message about salvation by a divine figure, a savior, who has brought peace or other benefits to humankind. In Ancient Greek religion, the word designated a type of sacrifice or ritual dedication intended to thank the gods upon receiving good news. The Koine Greek word behind it, euangelion, originally meant the reward paid to a messenger who brought good tidings, and in the plural a thanks-offering made to the gods on receiving them. It reaches English through Old Englishgōdspel, "good news", by way of the Vulgateevangelium.

In Ancient Greek religion the term denoted a sacrifice or ritual dedication offered in thanks for good tidings, often news of military victory. The Roman imperial cult applied it to Augustus, hailed as a saviour who had ended war and brought the Pax Romana; the Calendar Inscription of Priene of 9 BCE, which resets the year to begin on his birthday, is the best-known pre-Christian use of the concept.

It is a central message of Christianity today, in which written accounts of the life and teaching of Jesus Christ are known as Gospels. Paul the Apostle summarised it as the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus "according to the Scriptures", a formula preserved in 1 Corinthians 15 and among the earliest creeds. Christian theology treats the message as foretold in the Old Testament rather than new, reading Genesis 3:15 as a "Proto-Gospel". Emphases differ across movements: the missions movement holds the message to be addressed to every nation, while liberation theology stresses the liberation of the poor and oppressed.

The concept of "gospel" is also significant in Islam, where it is referred to as the Injīl (Arabic: الإنجيل, romanized: Injīl, lit.'good news'), believed to be a divine revelation given to ʿĪsā (Jesus). Islamic theology counts it among the revealed scriptures alongside the Tawrat, Zabur and Qur'an, but generally holds that the original has not survived unaltered, a position expressed by the term taḥrīf.