A gospel is an account, often written, that describes the life of Jesus of Nazareth. The most widely-known examples are the four canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. However, the term is also used to refer to the apocryphal gospels, the non-canonical gospels, the Jewish gospels and the gnostic gospels. Christians may additionally use the term "gospel", otherwise known as the "good news", in reference to the general message of the biblical New Testament.
World religions differ in their treatment of documents classified as gospels. Christianity traditionally places a high value on the four canonical gospels, which it considers to be a revelation from God and central to its belief system. Christians teach that the four canonical gospels are an “accurate and authoritative” representation of the life of Jesus.
In Islam the Injil (Arabic: إنجيل) is the Arabic name for the original gospel of Jesus, and is one of the four Islamic holy books that the Qur'an records as having been revealed by God. Islam holds that over time it became corrupt and God sent the prophet Muhammad to reveal the last book.
Read more about Gospel: Etymology, First Accounts, Synoptic Gospels, Canonical Gospels, Non-canonical Gospels, Islamic View
Famous quotes containing the word gospel:
“The technologist was the final guise of the white missionary, industrialization the last gospel of a dying race and living standards a substitute for a purpose in living.”
—Max Frisch (1911–1991)
“The drama’s altar isn’t on the stage: it is candle-sticked and flowered in the box office. There is the gold, though there be no frankincense or myrrh; and the gospel for the day always The Play will Run for a Year. The Dove of Inspiration, of the desire for inspiration, has flown away from it; and on it’s roof, now, the commonplace crow caws candidly.”
—Sean O’Casey (1884–1964)
“He has the earnestness of a prophet. In an age of pedantry and dilettantism, he has no grain of these in his composition. There is nowhere else, surely, in recent readable English, or other books, such direct and effectual teaching, reproving, encouraging, stimulating, earnestly, vehemently, almost like Mahomet, like Luther.... His writings are a gospel to the young of this generation; they will hear his manly, brotherly speech with responsive joy, and press forward to older or newer gospels.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)