A New Look at an Old Verb

The 1999, 2009 Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB) reintroduced a Middle English translation when its translators used the verb “evangelize” six and seven times in the New Testament. The context of these seven uses is amazing and powerful.

Here are those seven times:

1. Acts 8:25, “Then after the apostles had given extensive testimony and had spoken the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem. En route they were evangelizing many of the Samaritan towns.”
2. Acts 8:40, “Philip, on the other hand, was found at Azotus. So he passed through all the (western) towns, evangelizing until he came to Caesarea.”
3. Acts 14:7, “And there they kept evangelizing.”
4. Acts 14:21, “After they had evangelized in Derbe and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and (Pisidian) Antioch.”
5. Acts 16:10, “After his vision, we at once were seeking to depart for Macedonia, inferring that God had called us to evangelize them.”
6. Rom 15:20, “in such a way as to realize my ambition of evangelizing where Christ has not been named, so that I might not build on another man's foundation.”
7. 1 Cor 1:17, “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to evangelize—not with clever words, so that the cross of Christ will not be emptied of its effect.”

Clearly, the verb “evangelize” in its New Testament (NT) context refers to a traveling herald of the gospel. It also relates in context to the beginning of the gospel work in an area. Hence, Paul was initiating work the work of the gospel in Macedonia, and wanted to do so in other places also. In1 Corinthians, Paul stated that his ultimate mission was not baptizing, but rather evangelizing. All of these are powerful uses of this important verb.

As amazing as these seven uses of “evangelize” are, they represent only 13% of the total NT uses of this important verb. Before looking more closely at the biblical use of the verb “evangelize,” let’s discuss why this topic is important and relevant. Use of the verb “evangelize” in the Bible:

• Relates to the Great Commission given to the church, in other words, the raison d’être of the church.
• Correlates with the order of conversion, one of the most important and most hotly debated topics in Christian theology.
• Engenders debate and disagreement in the practice of NT Christianity, leading to significant differences of opinion.

For a precedent to this translation of the verb “evangelize” one has to traverse back in time and search the pages of Wycliffe’s First Edition of 1382. In this edition of the Wycliffe Bible, the verb “evangelise” was used 34 times. However, 6 years later, after the death of Wycliffe in 1834, the Wycliffe translation was revised. One key change was the removal of 33 uses of “evangelizing” and replacing them with “preaching.” That change resulted in a 632-year veil over the term to English-only readers.

The addition of “the gospel” to “preach” took place after John Darby translated “evangelize” in English as “announce glad tidings” in 1884. Since that time the standard translation of the “evangelize” has been “preach the gospel.” Hence, the 1885 English Revised Version translated “evangelize” as “preach the gospel” 25 times.

Several problems emerge from using the verb “preach” as the primary translation of “evangelize.” First, use of the verb relates primarily to ordained people. This played into the hands of state churches who sought to keep control of preaching. They did not want lay people preaching, so they had to muffle the use of the verb “evangelize” by making it apply only to those who had the [invented] “Sacrament of Holy Orders.” A second problem was the limitation of “evangelizing” to men only. The state church did not affirm a women’s role to evangelize. The third problem the translation of “evangelize” to “preach the gospel” is the limitation of “evangelizing” to preaching within the four walls of the church building. Evangelizing is differentiated from preaching primarily by its location and audience: outside the church and to non-believers.

But because the printing presses were controlled by state churches, the primary translation that has come down to us, from Greek lexicons and other Greek grammars, has been tainted by the state-church construct. It is no wonder that once Wycliffe died, his translation was changed to appease the Catholic Bishops in the English Church at the time.

As time progressed, the printing presses were wrestled from the hands of non-Reformation and Reformation state churches. However, the limitations imposed by use of the word “preach” were never reversed until modern times.

However, amazingly the HCSB reversed a 632 year state church lockbox on the use of “evangelize” in English translations of the Bible. And yet, even while the HCSB made this giant step forward, what of the 87% other uses of “evangelize”?

Here are four examples of other NT uses of “evangelize”:

• Jesus said, “I must evangelize” (Luke 4:43).
• Paul wrote, “For if I evangelize, I have no reason to boast, because an obligation is placed on me. And woe to me if I do not evangelize!” (1 Cor 9:16).
• Paul wrote, “Now brothers, I want to clarify for you the gospel which I evangelized to you; you received it and have taken your stand on it. You are also saved by it, if you hold to the message which I evangelized to you—unless you believed for no purpose” (1 Cor 15:1-2).
• Paul wrote, “But even if we or an angel from heaven should evangelize you other than how we evangelized you, a curse be on him!” (Gal 1:8)

The verb “evangelize” is actually found a significant number few times in both the OT and NT:

• The Old Testament LXX used the verb 23 times.
• The New Testament Greek uses the verb 54, 55, or 56 times, depending on the Greek text which one consults.

Two notable OT uses are:

• Isaiah 40:9, “O Zion, You who evangelize, Get up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, You who evangelize, Lift up your voice with strength, Lift it up, be not afraid; Say to the cities of Judah, ‘Behold your God!’”
• Isaiah 52:7, “How beautiful upon the mountains Are the feet of him who evangelizes, Who proclaims peace, Who evangelizes good things, Who proclaims salvation, Who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’”

Most notably, Isaiah 52:7 is quoted in Romans 10:15, with its one or two uses of the verb “evangelize,” again depending on the Greek text one is using.

NT usages of “evangelize” are found as follows:

• Luke-Acts, 25 or 26 uses: 10 in Luke; 15 or 16 in Acts.
• Pauline, 20/21 or 22/23 uses: depending if Paul wrote Hebrews.
• Six other uses: 3 in 1 Peter, 2 in Revelation, 1 in Matthew.

Comparison of versions that used the verb “evangelize”:

• 435 A.D.: Latin Vulgate: 43 uses of evangelize out of 55 in the Greek text of that day.
• 14^th Century English: Wycliffe: 36 uses in 1^st edition (1382); 3 in 2^nd edition (1388).
• 16^th Century French Texts: 13 uses in Protestant Olivétan (1534); 4 in Catholic Louvain (1550); 24 in French Geneva (1560).
• 1560 Geneva Bibles: 24 uses in French Geneva; 0 uses in English Geneva (and 0 in 1611 KJV).
• Darby Bibles: 21 in French Darby (1859); 1 in English Darby (1884).
• Holman Christian Standard Bibles: 6 uses (1999 edition); 7 uses (2009 edition)!

Summary and conclusion:

• From the time of the Middle Ages evangelizing was deemed a threat to state church monopolies, being considered treasonous behavior.
• From at least the 11^th Century on, no motivated lay person was to usurp the office of preaching (or “evangelizing”), which was only conferred by the “Sacrament of Holy Orders”—which among other things included training in Latin and the Sentences of Peter the Lombard, and enforced celibacy.
• Wycliffe and his followers, the Lollards, were known for their evangelism fervor, which may have been fueled by seeing the verb “evangelize” 36 times in the 1382 Wycliffe First Edition of the New Testament.
• Removal of the verb from the text of the New Testament in the 1388 Wycliffe Second Edition appeared to be an attempt to squelch the evangelism fervor of the Lollards.

Perhaps the current reawakening of the use of “evangelize” in the HCSB will result in a renewed biblical understanding of evangelism, as well as lead to a resurgence of NT evangelism.