CHAPTER 7 Defining Evangelizing - Evangelism Unlimited

Thomas P. Johnston 339
G. Turning the Tide—Unleashing the Word Evangelize!
A well-meaning acquaintance (with a Ph.D.) once told me, “The Gospels and the Book of Acts speak
of evangelism, but it cannot be found in the epistles.” This statement, by a man of letters, exemplifies
why the word evangelize needs to be unleashed in the Pauline letters. Indeed, the word euvaggeli,zw is
found 21 times in the Pauline epistles. However, this learned man was unaware of that fact, as was I at
the time. Notice above that 12 of the 24 translations of euvaggeli,zw in the French Olivétan version (i.e.
proto-French Geneva Bible) are in the Pauline letters, while it is found only once the Book of Acts. It
was obvious that this acquaintance was not reading the French Geneva Bible in his devotions!
However, what if your Bible read like this? …
Several OT precedents (of the 22 total OT LXX uses) of the verb euvaggeli,zw from the LXX (revising the
NKJ):
Psa 40:9, “I have evangelized righteousness In the great assembly; Indeed, I do not restrain my lips, O LORD,
You Yourself know”
Psa 68:11, “The Lord gave the word; Great was the company of those evangelizing”
Psa 96:2, “Sing to the LORD, bless His name; Evangelize His salvation from day to day”
Isa 40:9, “O Zion, You who evangelizes, Get up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, You who evangelizes,
Lift up your voice with strength, Lift it up, be not afraid; Say to the cities of Judah, ‘Behold your God!’”
Isa 52:7, “How beautiful upon the mountains Are the feet of him who evangelizes, Who proclaims peace,
Who evangelizes good, Who proclaims salvation, Who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’”
Isa 60:6, “The multitude of camels shall cover your land, The dromedaries of Midian and Ephah; All those
from Sheba shall come; They shall bring gold and incense, And they shall evangelize the praises
[LXX: ‘the salvation’] of the LORD”
Isa 61:1, “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, Because the LORD has anointed Me To evangelize the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the
prison to those who are bound”
Joel 2:32 (revising Brenton), “And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall
be saved: for in mount Sion and in Jerusalem shall the saved one be as the Lord has said, and they that
are evangelized, whom the Lord has called”
Nahum 1:15, “Behold, on the mountains The feet of him who evangelizes, Who proclaims peace! O Judah,
keep your appointed feasts, Perform your vows. For the wicked one shall no more pass through you; He is
utterly cut off”
The following translates euvaggeli,zw as evangelize in its 25 uses in Luke-Acts (10 in Luke and 15 in
Acts), revising the NASB translation:
Luke 1:19, “And the angel answered and said to him, “I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God; and I
have been sent to speak to you, and to evangelize this thing.”
Luke 2:10, “And the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; for behold, I evangelize you a great joy which shall
be for all the people.’”
Luke 3:18, “So with many other exhortations also he [John the Baptist] evangelized the people.”
Luke 4:18 (cf. Luke 7:22), “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to evangelize the
poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free
those who are downtrodden.”
Luke 4:43, “But He [Jesus] said to them, “I must evangelize the kingdom of God to other cities also, for I was
sent for this purpose.”
Luke 7:22, “And He answered and said to them, ‘Go and report to John what you have seen and heard: the
blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the
poor are evangelized.’”
Luke 8:1, “And it came about soon afterwards, that He began going about from one city and village to another,
proclaiming and evangelizing the kingdom of God; and the twelve were with Him.”
Luke 9:6, “And departing, they began going about among the villages evangelizing and healing everywhere.”
Luke 16:16, “The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John; since then the gospel of the kingdom of
God is evangelized, and everyone is forcing his way into it.”
Luke 20:1, “And it came about on one of the days while He was teaching the people in the temple and
evangelizing, that the chief priests and the scribes with the elders confronted Him.”
Acts 5:42, “And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they kept right on teaching and
evangelizing Jesus as the Christ.”