Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 April 2005
Against the contentions of a number of NT scholars, the present article aims to demonstrate that the apostle Paul's gospel language never refers to ongoing Christian instruction and only ever connotes announcements which are news to those who hear them. This conclusion, which is maintained even in connection with Rom 1.15, a key text for the ‘broad-ranging’ view of ευαγγελ-, is shown to conform to the wholly consistent usage of gospel terminology throughout Graeco-Roman, Jewish and early Christian literature: ‘gospel’ is news.