Gospel

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Of all the words in this series, none has strayed as far from its original meaning as 'Gospel'. Today it's a word that belongs almost exclusively to the Church. Whether it's Gospel music, Gospel preaching or even the Gospels in the Bible - Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the word has strong religious connotations. Many of us have heard 'the Gospel' is a message: that we're all a bunch of sinners and Jesus saved us.

So would it surprise you to learn that the word 'gospel' originally had nothing to do with God or the Church? Gospel is translated from the Greek word euangelion. A gospel, a euangelion was a political word, a technical term used by the Roman Empire. Euangelion literally means 'good message', which was translated into Latin as evangelion and into Old English as "God-spell", and was finally modernized as 'gospel'. A Gospel is a 'good message' or 'good news'.

Bonus - Here's the Princess Day video Kati talks about in her interview:

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