What the gospel says

If the gospel is news, what does the news say? Paul answers the Corinthians plainly: “I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you” (1 Corinthians 15:1).

In Greek the phrase is the gospel I gospelled to you: the noun euangelion and the verb euangelizomai side by side. The Corinthians received it, they stand in it, and by it they are saved. In verse 2 the Greek verb is present, “you are also being saved”, as the LSV has it; the BSB says “you are saved”. Then Paul sets out what the news is.

News received and handed on

Received (παρέλαβον) and passed on (παρέδωκα) are the words for taking over a tradition and handing it down. Wesley reads Paul as saying he had it “From Christ himself. It was not a fiction of my own” Wesley. Many scholars see in verses 3 to 5 a confession the church was already reciting before Paul. The two readings do not exclude each other: Paul says he received the gospel by revelation from Jesus Christ (Galatians 1:12), and he confesses it in words he shares with the whole church.

The summary has four clauses, each beginning with that: he died, he was buried, he was raised, he appeared. The burial says the death was real; the appearances say the rising had witnesses. He was raised is a Greek perfect (ἐγήγερται): raised, and alive still. The for of for our sins is ὑπέρ, which can mean both on account of and on behalf of. The witnesses run from Cephas and the Twelve to more than five hundred at once, “most of whom are still living” (1 Corinthians 15:6), then James, all the apostles, and last of all Paul. Matthew Henry adds: “All the apostles agreed in this testimony; by this faith they lived, and in this faith they died” Matthew Henry.

News about a person

Romans opens with the same gospel, promised beforehand through the prophets, and says whom it concerns:

The BSB and the KJV say declared, the LSV marked out. The church has not read this as Jesus becoming the Son at Easter, but as the Son he always was being shown with power for who he is. Wesley notes that “Both the natures of our Saviour are here mentioned” Wesley. Writing in chains to Timothy, Paul folds it all into one line: “Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David, as proclaimed by my gospel” (2 Timothy 2:8). The church kept the same outline in its creed, confessing that he suffered, died, was buried and rose again on the third day the Apostles’ Creed.

The verses where Paul names this gospel, 1 Corinthians 15:1, Romans 1:1 and 2 Timothy 2:8, each have a longer note in the dictionary of verses.