GOSPEL (EVANGEL). — From the Greek εὐαγγέλιον, meaning “good news” or “joyful tidings,” this term was applied to the message of redemption and salvation that Jesus Christ brought to the world; by extension, it also came to designate the book that recounts that message.
Jesus, the true author of the Gospel in every sense, preached but did not write; yet the earliest origins of the written Gospel can be traced, so to speak, to the very day when the divine Master was taken from the earth. In the preaching of the Apostles and in the instruction of new converts, the deeds and words of Jesus were recounted. This formed the first and principal foundation of the Gospel as we have it.