Expert: Maria - 5/18/2010

Question
Hello, Maria,

I came across a very interesting answer you wrote last year regarding the Roman usage of the word 'gospel' (http://en.allexperts.com/q/Ancient-Classical-History-2715/2009/2/Roman-usage-gos...). In it you stated that the term was used to denote a list of regulations and laws in the time of Julius and Augustus. Would you kindly reference any books, articles, websites, or original documents which contain or document this usage?

Thank you!

Answer
Hello,

First of all I have to point out that in the  answer you mention I was merely advancing  a hypothesis to somehow justify two anonymous English quotes where the term “gospel” was used in the sense of “a manifesto“ as a list of  regulations and  laws in the times of Julius Caesar or  Augustus as well as "a documentation of the pros and cons of the privileges and responsibilities of becoming a citizen of an advancing kingdom".

It was just in relation to those anonymous quotes that the questioner asked me: “Is there such a thing as the gospel of Caesar or the gospel of Augustus?” and I answered that there was NO  'gospel' of Caesar or Augustus simply because the Latin word for “gospel”  was “euangelium” or “evangelium” [from ancient Greek, εὐαγγέλιον, transliterated as ““euangelion”],  whose literal meaning was "good news”, without any reference to  a list of  regulations and  laws or a documentation of the pros and cons.

Therefore it is clear that there are no books, articles, websites, or original documents which contain or document this usage, since such an usage did not exist in Roman times.

In fact, the only one time when we find the term “euangelia” (plural of “euangelium” meaning  "gospel") in a classical Latin text is in Cicero’s Epistles to Atticus, 2, 3, 1 where Cicero writes : “Primum, ut opinor, euangelia” meaning “First, I have good news for you, as I think”.
So, as you can see, Cicero (died in 43 BC)  uses such a term in the meaning of “good news” which has nothing to do with the religious sense of  “a written account of the life of Jesus” we use today for gospel, that is Latin “euangelium”/”evangelium” which began to be used especially after Christ's death, i.e. in the 1st.century AD.(See the authors of the four canonical Christian gospels just  known as the four evangelists).

To sum up, please note that:

1-I cannot suggest any book, article, website, or original document which contain or document this usage of “gospel” as a manifesto or list of regulations and laws in the time of Julius and Augustus, since such an usage did not exist in Roman times.

2-In my answer I have advanced a mere hypothesis to somehow justify two anonymous English quotes where someone talked  about a hypothetic unreliable  gospel of Caesar or Augustus.

Hope all is clear now.
Best regards,
Maria