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Friday 17 April 2015

Gospel

The word gospel derives from the Old English gōd-spell, meaning "good news" or "glad tidings". The gospel was considered the "good news" since it narrates Jesus Christ's life and teaching, to invite anyone to believe that he was born to save the world from sin and enable us to truly know God as a Father, which is the central  message of Christianity.

St. Paul used the term 'gospel,' when he reminded the people of the church at Corinth "of the gospel I preached to you".

Later the word 'gospel' was applied to the four written accounts of Jesus Christ by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

The Gospel of Mark was written around 60 AD by Mark, who was a companion of St. Paul on his first missionary journey. It was written in Rome to convince its Gentile readership that Jesus of Nazareth, in spite of his sufferings and death, was the Son of God. Mark was at one time an interpreter for Peter and the Gospel is based on the apostle's reminiscences.

Luke, a doctor and travelling companion of St. Paul completed the Gospel of Luke around 60 AD. Luke did not know Jesus himself but he gathered information from people who witnessed the events that he wrote about. The doctor included some helpful details about Jesus’ healings and showed how Christ regarded women and the poor with special compassion. The Gospel taught a message of universal salvation addressed to all people, not only to the Jew.

Matthew, one of Jesus’ twelve disciples wrote the Gospel of Matthew around 62 AD where Jesus was presented to the Jews as the promised Messiah, and a heavenly rather than earthly king.

John, one of the disciples of Jesus, wrote the Gospel of John around 85 AD, in which he stressed the deity of Christ. The apostle devoted much of his gospel to spiritual issues and recorded in detail the last twenty-four hours before Jesus’ crucifixion.

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