Just as a Broadway play needs a stage and background props to provide context for the audience to gain a robust understanding of the production, so the term "gospel" needs the historical stage and background of the Old and New Testament scriptures to provide context for the readers to gain a robust understanding of that biblical term.
In the beginning God created... the stage and the background of world history... onto which He would place the concept of the "gospel" so that we would have a more robust understanding of that term.
On the one hand, the term, “gospel,” is traditionally and simplistically defined as "good news." On the other hand, when placed in the historical context on the stage and background of both the Old and New Testament scriptures, this context offers a more robust understanding of the term for readers, more so than the traditional and simplistic definition, "good news."
You may have heard the phrase "pregnant with meaning." That phrase could have been conceived for the term “gospel.” Since the entire Bible, both the Old and New Testaments, is considered the “gospel,” understanding the context and background in which this term sits in both the Old and New Testaments will provide a greater understanding of the term and a greater understanding of the Bible as a whole.
If then, the singular term “gospel” is pregnant with meaning, it follows then that the entire Bible is pregnant with meaning since the word “gospel” is used 137 times in the Bible, 15 times in the Old Testament, and 121 times in the New Testament.
There are 66 books in the Bible. Doing the math, if the term “gospel” appeared in each book of the Bible, it would appear, on average, just over 2 times in every book. To be exact, it would appear on the average of 2.07 times in each book. To be clear, the word does not appear in every book of the Bible, but the average use of the word would show that, if spread out over every book, it would occur 2.07 times in every book.
That’s a significant amount of usage. In comparison, the word “hope,” which is a significant concept in the Bible, compares very closely in terms of usage to the term “gospel.” The word “hope” occurs 151 times.
Again, doing the math, if the term “hope” appeared in each book of the Bible, it would appear, as the term “gospel,” on average, just over 2 times in every book. To be clear once more, the word “hope” does not appear in every book of the Bible, but the average use of the word would show that, if spread out over every book, it would occur just over 2 times in every book.
As evidenced by the breakdown of Old and New Testament numbers, the term “gospel” is predominantly a New Testament concept. Nonetheless, the term was conceived in the Old Testament.
In my next blog, I will discuss The Immaculate Conception of the Term “Gospel” as found in the Old Testament.