▪ I. evangel1, evangile Now arch. or rhetorical.
(ɪˈvændʒəl, -ɪl)
Forms: α. 4 evangil, 5 evangille, -ylle, 6 ewangyle, 4–7, 9 (rare) evangile. β. 4 aphet. vangel (þe vangel for þ'evangel), 5 ewangel, 6–7 evangell, 5–7, 9 evangele, 4– evangel.
[ME. evangile, a. OF. evangi(l)le (mod.F. évangile), corresp. to Pr. evangeli, Sp., Pg. evangelio, It. evangelio, evangelo (aphet. vangelio, vangelo), repr. Eccl. Lat. ēvangelium: see evangely. The β forms are due to the influence of the Lat. spelling.
In England the word was in 17th c. already archaic and purely literary, but in Scotland it remained in current use, as a synonym for gospel, until a still later period. At the present time it is chiefly used in transferred sense, or with allusion to the etymological meaning ‘good news’. The prevailing form now is evangel; but a few writers of the present century have preferred evangele, evangile, either to distinguish the word from evangel2, or merely for archaistic effect.]
I. In various sense of gospel.
1. The ‘good news’ of redemption to the world through Jesus Christ; the religious teaching contained in the New Testament; the Christian religion.
| a 1340 Hampole Psalter cxviii. 72 Laghe of godis mouth is þe vangel. c 1399 Pol. Poems (1859) II. 10 Crist bad him self, how that we schulden preche, And to the folk his evangile teche. c 1425 Wyntoun Cron. vii. vii. 224 Nowcht be þe Lauche of þe Ewangyle. 1558 Knox First Blast (Arb.) 31 And worthy is thy sonne Christ Iesus, to haue his Euangil and glorie aduanced. 1578 Godly & Spirituall Songs (1801) 183 Priests, take ȝour staffe And preich the euangell on ȝour feit. 1641 Milton Ch. Govt. ii. iii. (1851) 158 The heavenly ministery of the Evangel. 1655 Gouge Comm. Heb. xiii. 9 An Evangile (as the Scots according to the Greek notation, term it), that is good or glad tidings. 1820 Scott Abbot ii, That worthy man..teacheth the Evangel in truth and sincerity. Ibid. xxii, Your ears..deceived you when they were closed against the preachers of the evangele. 1834 H. Miller Scenes & Leg. viii. (1857) 107 All the other ministers of the Evangel. 1855 R. Williams Rational Godl. xiv. 207 The spirit of the Evangile. 1884 Congregationalist June 459 The gospel is the evangel. |
b. The ‘Gospel dispensation.’
| 1560 Conf. Faith Kirk Scotl. (1811), As the fatheris vnder the law..Sa..we now, in the tyme of the Euangell, haue twa cheif Sacramentis. |
2. a. The record of Christ's life as contained in the Four Gospels.
| 1393 Gower Conf. III. 34 How that this vice is for to drede In thevangile it telleth pleine. 1483 Caxton Gold. Leg. 436/1 That our lord hath sayd in the holy euangylle. 1552 Abp. Hamilton Catech. (1884) 35 Christ in the evangil..confermis the same promis. 1588 A. King tr. Canisius' Catech. 76 b, Y⊇ testimonies baith of y⊇ Euangell and of y⊇ Apostle S. Paul ar verray plane. 1858 J. Martineau Studies Chr. 273 The ground work..of the triple Evangile. |
b. One of the ‘Four Gospels’.
| c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) xv. 67 He made þe Ewangels, in þe whilk es helefull teching and sothefastnes. 1552 Abp. Hamilton Catech. (1884) 25 The wordis writtin in S. Mathewis evangel. a 1631 Donne Let. to Sir G. Moore Wks. (ed. Alford) VI. xcvi. 414 The Evangiles and Acts teach us what to believe, but the Epistles of the Apostles what to do. 1678 Gale Crt. Gentiles III. 60 Lukes Greek, both in his Evangel as also in the Acts of the Apostles, is most..eligant. 1828 Lamb in Life & Lett. xvi. 153 The Quakers are the only professors of Christianity as I read it in the Evangiles. 1866 Neale Sequences & Hymns 39 Those infrangible Evangels, welded by the Holy Ghost. |
3. pl. Copies of the Gospels; a book containing them, used to impart sanctity to an oath. Rare in sing.; attrib. in evangel-book.
| c 1386 Chaucer Man of Law's T. 568 A Briton book, written with Euaungiles Was fet, and on this book he swoor anoon. 1489 Caxton Faytes of A. iii. viii. 184 He is bounde unto hym by othe upon the holy euangilles. 1535 Stewart Cron. Scot. III. 28 And swoir also vpoun the evangell buik. 1609 Skene Reg. Maj., Sc. Act. Robt. II, 51 The Earle of Carrik..made his aith the halie Eu-angellis being tuiched be him. 1886 Burton Arab. Nts. (abridged) I. 233, I conjured him by the Evangel to alight at my house. |
4. transf. † a. Something ‘as true as gospel’.
| 1613 R. C. Table Alph. (ed. 3), Euangell, true expounding. 1622 Bacon Hen. VII 145 The Attaint upon a false Verdict between party and party, which before was a kind of Euangile, irremediable. 1639 Drummond of Hawthornden Consid. to Parl. Wks. 186 That the covenant be..esteem'd in all times coming, the first evangel. 1681 S. Colvil Whigs Supplic. (1751) 136 That..Merline's prophesies [are] evangels. |
b. A doctrine or principle (pertaining e.g. to politics, social reform, or morals) to which ‘saving’ efficacy is attributed. Sometimes with some notion of the etymological sense ‘good news’.
| 1831 Carlyle Sart. Res. (1858) 109 La carrière ouverte aux talens..which is our ultimate Political Evangel. 1865 Sat. Rev. XIX. 622/2 The law of trust is to be henceforth applied under the inspiration of this new evangele. 1879 Contemp. Rev. XXXVI. 290, I do not announce a new and perfect evangel to be ushered in by loud flourish of trumpets. |
II. 5. In etymological sense: A message of glad tidings. Also (nonce-use), a song of joyful promise.
| 1842 Longfellow Slave Singing at Midn. vi, What holy angel Brings the slave this glad evangel? 1844 Mrs. Browning Drama of Exile Poems I. 14 Our requiems follow fast on our evangels. |
▪ II. evangel2
(ɪˈvændʒəl)
[ad. Gr. εὐάγγελος bringing good news, f. εὖ well + ἀγγέλλειν to announce.]
A proclaimer of the gospel; = evangelist.
| 1593 [see below]. 1614 Stirling Doomsday 2nd Hour xxxviii, When the Euangell most toyl'd Soules to winne. 1860 C. Sangster Hesperus 13 We heard the evangels relate the glad story. 1866 Neale Sequences & Hymns 157 The great Evangel of Patmos. 1878 Symonds Sonn. Campanella xxxv, The true sons of perfidy..Calling themselves evangels of the faith. |
Hence † eˈvangelship, the office of evangelist.
| 1593 Bilson Govt. Christ's Ch. 233 No part of their Euangelship. |