Christian Gospel

Gospel is the standard term for the first four books of the New Testament, describing the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, although it has a wider meaning taking in both the Christian message (the meaning in the Pauline epistles) and works centered on that message which may not necessarily touch on the life of Jesus (the Gospel of Thomas, for example, consists entirely of sayings).

Christianity places a high value on the four canonical gospels, which it considers to be revelations from God and central to its belief system. Christianity traditionally teaches that the four canonical gospels are an accurate and authoritative representation of the life of Jesus, but many scholars and historians, as well as some Christians, believe that much of that which is contained in the gospels is not historically reliable.

The baptism of Jesus and the crucifixion of Jesus are events almost universally agreed upon by biblical scholars to be historically authentic. Elements whose historical authenticity is disputed include the two accounts of the nativity of Jesus, as well as certain details about the crucifixion and the resurrection.

The word gospel, meaning "good news" or "glad tidings", is derived from the Greek word εὐαγγέλιον, euangelion. The gospel was considered the "good news" of the coming Kingdom of Messiah, and of redemption through the life and death and resurrection of Jesus, the central Christian message. The Greek word euangelion is also the source (via Latinised evangelium) of the terms "evangelist" and "evangelism" in English. The authors of the four canonical Christian gospels are known as the Four Evangelists.

Paul the Apostle used the term εὐαγγέλιον (gospel) when he reminded the people of the church at Corinth "of the gospel I preached to you". The earliest extant use of "gospel" to denote a particular genre of literature dates to the 2nd century. Justin Martyr (c. 155) in the Apology wrote of "...the apostles, in the memoirs composed by them, which are called Gospels".

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