Who Were the “Evangelists”? (I)

Who were the “evangelists” in the early church and what did they do? My good friend John Dickson caused a bit of a stir when he argued that Paul did not expect all congregations to replicate his evangelistic activity as this role was limited to specially gifted individuals like himself (with responses from folks like Robert Plummer and I. Howard Marshall).

I remember having a discussion on this topic with my Doktorvater, Rick Strelan, where he stated that “evangelists” were essentially readers of the Gospels. This suggestion struck me as a little odd, however, in browsing through his (under read) book, Luke the Priest, he does make some interesting points. Strelan notes this comment from Origen: “When we examine what the task of the evangelist is, we see that it is not only to narrate in what way the Saviour healed a man blind from birth, how he raised a dead man beginning to stink, or how he performed any of his incredible deeds … but horatory and intended to strengthen belief in things  concerning Jesus” (Comm. John. 1.17-18).

Strelan then notes:

The evangelists narrated the gospel (of Luke, for example) and then gave exhortation on its basis. Presumably, Origen means they narrated it in oral form. Or did the evangelist also have some responsibility for the written narrative? Did the “evangelist” perform the gospel  and then leave the audience with a written version of that performance? That is almost the implication of what Eusebius says about them. He wrote that many of the disciples of Jesus “carried out the work of evangelists, ambitious to preach to those who had never yet heard the message of the faith and to give them the inspired gospels in writing” (H.E. 3.37.2). What does the final clause mean? It seems as though being an evangelist included giving people the gospel in writing. This is suggested elsewhere in Eusebius.  For instance, he calls Pantaneus an evangelist, who went as far as Indian where  “he found that Matthew’s gospel had arrived before him.” He ended up in Alexandria where “both orally and in writing he revealed the treasures of the divine doctrine” (H.E. 5.10.3). There appears to be a link between evangelist and written gospel. If there was a link, was that also what Philip and Timothy did who are called “evangelists” in the New Testament (Acts 21:8; [2]Tim 4:5)? And is it also what a certain evangelist called “Luke” did?

Strelan raises some good questions. Were the evangelists attempting to be Pauline-clones, or where they narrators of the Gospel-stories and providers of a written Gospel for believers. Did they preach “the Roman road” or did they preach from Luke?