What is the origin of Paul’s gospel? Was he the first Christ-follower to use the term? You have perhaps heard that Jesus himself commissioned Paul to proclaim his message (Galatians 1:11-16). The content of that message includes, among other things, that Jesus is the Son of God and that he died and rose again from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:3-4; Rom 1:3-4). But was he the first to use the term gospel, namely, the “good news”?
The journal Religions recently published an article I wrote entitled, “The Gospel According to Paul: Over a Hundred Years of Interpretation” (Religions 15, 2024: 1–45). In it, I present a survey of interpretations related to Paul’s gospel, and the question of its origin repeatedly came up.
For more than a hundred years this question continues to be raised and remains unsettled. This is true whether we read scholars like Adolf Harnack, C. H. Dodd, Rudolf Bultmann, Peter Stuhlmacher, Ernst Käsemann, or Helmut Koester. Or more recently, whether we read scholars like E. P. Sanders, James D. G. Dunn, N. T. Wright, J. Louis Martyn, J. Christiaan Beker, or others.
There remains no consensus on the origin of Paul’s message of the gospel. Where did he get this message from? Was he the first to use the neuter noun euangelion (εὐαγγέλιον) among Christ’s communities?
4 Views of the Origin of Paul’s Gospel
Paul has a fondness for the noun “gospel.” It appears 60 times in his writings. And the verb “to proclaim the gospel” (in short “to gospelize”: euangelizo/ εὐαγγελίζω), he uses another 20 times, according to Harnack. The next closest use of the noun “gospel” comes from Mark, who uses it only 8 times, Matthew 4 times, and zero for Luke and John! Acts, 1 Peter, and Revelation also use the noun, though rarely.
So then, where did Paul get his gospel? Here are 4 of the most popular options.
Option 1: Paul adopted the term “gospel” from its use by the imperial cult
The Priene calendar inscription, discovered in western Turkey in the late 19th century, dates back to c. 9 BCE. The inscription heralds Caesar Augustus’s birthday as good news/glad tidings, using the noun euangelion in a sacred context. The relevant section reads regarding Augustus: “the birthday of the god was for the world the beginning of things which owing to him are glad tidings” (εὐανγελί[ων]). Remainders of this inscription were also found in several other cities.
Such a find suggests that the noun for the “good news,” euangelion, was widely known during the first century with special reference to Caesar. Paul instead used the term to speak of the good news about Jesus as Messiah. Perhaps he used it in a subversive way against the emperor by claiming that Jesus is Lord and King, not Caesar. Based on this use, Paul was probably the first to use the term among emergent Christians.
Option 2: Paul adopted it not from the imperial cult but from Scripture, particularly Isaiah
Our apostle cites Isaiah 52:7 in Romans 10:15: “How lovely are the feet of those who bring good news (εὐαγγελιζομένων) of good things!” Isaiah (Septuagint version) uses the singular participle form of the verb euangelizo instead of the noun euangelion. Paul’s quote uses a plural participle for the verb rather than the noun. In any case, Paul seems to interpret the verb euangelizo with the noun euangelion in the very next verse: “But they did not all obey the good news (τῷ εὐαγγελίῳ), for Isaiah says, ‘Lord, who has believed our report?’” (Rom 10:16, citing Isa 53:1).
It seems that Paul uses the verb and noun forms of the gospel interchangeably here. If so, this might suggest that he adopted the verb from Isaiah and saw no reason why he could not simply use the same sense in a noun form. And if so, this once again may suggest that Paul was the first to introduce the noun term “gospel” into the vocabulary of emergent Christians.
Option 3: Paul adopted it from Hellenistic believers in Christ
Another possibility is that Paul was not the first to use the term. He himself adopted it from Christ-followers who were believers before him. Since the original apostles in Jerusalem spoke in Aramaic, and euangelion is a Greek term, perhaps Paul adopted it from Hellenistic believers. Christ-followers such as Stephen and Philip in Acts 6–8 would have been among the first to use it. From such believers in Judea and surrounding areas it spread to other places such as Antioch in Syria where Paul first ministered (Acts 11:19–26).
Option 4: Paul adopted it from Jesus’s use of the term
This view suggests that Jesus first used the gospel terms. There is evidence that he considered himself the bringer of good news based on Isaiah 61:1–2. This is based on Matthew and Luke, understood by certain scholars as originating from a very old source lost to us called Q (cf. Matt 11:4–6; Luke 7:22–23). Likewise, both Luke and Mark have Jesus bringing the good news as a central plank in their Gospels (Mark 1:1, 14–15; Luke 4:16–21). However, only the verb form euangelizo appears in Isaiah 61 and elsewhere in Isaiah, never the noun euangelion.
The Good News in Mark 13:10 and 14:9, and Matthew parallels
Even so, we see a multiply-attested tradition in which Jesus appears to use the noun form. Both Mark and Matthew have Jesus claiming that the message of the good news (euangelion) will be proclaimed among all the nations (Mark 13:10; Matt 24:14). Likewise, when a woman anoints Jesus’s feet in preparation for his burial, he uses the term again. He affirms that wherever the good news (euangelion) is proclaimed, the deed of this woman will also be declared in memory of her (Mark 14:9; Matt 26:13).
It is hard to dismiss these sayings as Markan invention when Matthew also adopts them, though using the nuance “this gospel.” Matthew rarely uses the noun “gospel” in his writing (elsewhere only in Matt 4:23 and 9:35). More importantly, he does not adopt Mark’s use of “gospel” elsewhere when it might seem expedient for him to do so. See especially Matt 10:39 and 16:25–26 (cp. Mark 8:35–36) and Matt 19:29–30 (cp. Mark 10:29–30).
This suggests that the two gospel sayings of Jesus found in both Mark and Matthew may originate from the voice of Jesus remembered. If so, then Jesus probably used an Aramaic equivalent for the noun euangelion. His immediate disciples then used the term, and eventually it was passed on to others in Greek, and then to Paul. That is, unless someone like Peter himself didn’t first tell Paul of its use by Jesus when first meeting with Paul.
Conclusion
Among the four options, I am inclined to think that number four is the most accurate. But this does not necessarily rule out some sort of combination of the options. Paul, for example, may have first heard of the gospel noun euangelion from Hellenists, who in turn first heard it from the original disciples and Jesus, though in Aramaic. Likewise, having heard that Jesus derived his own use of the term from Isaiah 61, Paul may have been prompted to do his own reading of Isaiah. He then gleaned further insights from other passages in Isaiah that used the gospel verb, euangelizo. Paul also seems to have popularized the gospel noun euangelion among Christians because it was already a popular term relevant to royalty and Caesar. He thus used it often as an easily recognizable word among his gentile audiences.
If you would like to learn more about Paul’s use of the gospel from a scholarly perspective, feel free to read my article, “The Gospel According to Paul.”
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