From the Kerygma-Gospel to Written Gospels

Abstract

This paper wants to address the question, why and how the term εỦαγγέλιον, originally a term for the early Christian proclamation, became the designation of a certain type of literature. Closely related problems have been discussed repeatedly in New Testament scholarship for several generations: (1) The origin of the term εỦαγγέλιον. (2) The consistency and uniformity of its meaning in its Christian usage. (3) The question of the literary genre of the writings which later became known as ‘gospels’. I shall comment on the second and third of these problems insofar as they concern the question addressed in this paper, but I shall leave aside the question of the background and origin of the term.

The use and origin of the (Old and) New Testament as Christianity’s canon

“…Positively seen, 'kerygma' can be described as proclamation emanating from faith, which signifies faith in God as its intent, and not by 'a theoretical system' pretended to 'have a privileged relation to the Truth', but actually is 'contaminated' by 'decisions we can attribute to personal interests, unscientific interests, unresolved psychological determinations, or any of dozens of impure, non-universal motivations' (Adam 1995:15). From a 'canonical' perspective, the Bible, as Old Testament (see Gunneweg [1977Gunneweg [ ] 1978Ridderbos 1971:193) Koester [1980Koester [ ] 1982MacDonald 1995:195;Hennecke 1963:59−60).…”

The Genre of Mark’s Gospel Is ‘Gospel’: Reconsidering Literary Innovation in the Markan Incipit

“… 29 Though I am taking Ἀρχὴ τοῦ εὐαγγελίοῦ as original to the Gospel, it has been argued that this phrase is a later scribal addition (Moule 1982: 131–32 n. 1; Schmithals 1986: 73–75; Koester 1989: 370; Elliott 2000: 584–88). Contra this line of thinking, see Burridge (2018: 188–89). …”