CHAPTER 7 Defining Evangelizing - Evangelism Unlimited

342 Evangelizology
This was a bold move for the HCS which has become the first English translation since A.D.
1382 to use the English “evangelize” for the Greek verb euvaggeli,zw! Note: Two other English
translations also used the term in the intervening 621 years: one use in Darby’s 1884 translation
of Luke 7:22, and one use of “evangelize” in the 1899 Douay-Rheims translation of Luke 8:1.
Likewise, the 2006 Idiomatic Translation of the New Testament by William Graham MacDonald
also used the verb “evangelize” in 7 of the 55 NT uses of euvaggeli,zw as “evangelize” (13% of
the NT uses)—5 of which are the same verses as found in the HCSB, one of which is added as
implied in the text:
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 14:21, “After they had evangelized in Derbe and had made many disciples, they returned to
Lystra, Iconium, and (Pisidian) Antioch.”
4) Acts 16:10, “After his vision, we at once were seeking to depart for Macedonia, inferring that God
had called us to evangelize them.”
5) 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.”
6) Gal 4:13, “You know that in the beginning of our relationship when I evangelized you, I did so while
being physically debilitated.”
7) Phil 4:15, “You Philippians also know that when this area began to be evangelized, when I set out
from Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving—except you alone.”
The bold move by the 2003 HCSB seems to have been emulated in the 2006 MacDonald
text. May this trend continue!