In part 1, I wrote about the abuse of the word gospel to mean whatever we want it to mean. In part 2, I showed how Jesus drew on (and revised) the good news proclaimed by Isaiah. Let's look at one more passage from the Hebrew scriptures and a Roman "text" that also predates Jesus. If gospel is significantly connected to language of God's kingship or rule in Isaiah (it is) and also in the teaching of Jesus (it is), then we should also be paying attention to other things that sound like "royal announcements."
In Daniel 7, the writer describes this vision: 13As I watched in the night visions, I saw one like a human being* coming with the clouds of heaven.
And he came to the Ancient One and was presented before him. 14To him was given dominion and glory and kingship, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not pass away, and his kingship is one that shall never be destroyed. (NRSV)
*Aramaic “a son of man”
In Daniel 7, the writer describes this vision: 13As I watched in the night visions, I saw one like a human being* coming with the clouds of heaven.
And he came to the Ancient One and was presented before him. 14To him was given dominion and glory and kingship, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not pass away, and his kingship is one that shall never be destroyed. (NRSV)
*Aramaic “a son of man”
Some people see Jesus' (self?) references to the "Son of Man" as affirmations of his humanity, but given the fact that Mark 14 records Jesus referencing this passage at his trial, it seems like all that "Son of Man" stuff might be less humble than it appears on the surface.
Now, let's look at an inscription from a Roman government building that also predates Jesus, cited in Richard Horsley's Jesus and Empire (p.23-24): The most divine Caesar… we should consider equal to the beginning of all things… for when everything was falling into disorder and tending toward dissolution, he restored it once more and gave the whole world a new aura; Caesar…the common good Fortune of all… The beginning of life and vitality… All the cities unanimously adopt the birthday of the divine Caesar as the new beginning of the year… Whereas the Providence which has regulated our whole existence…has brought our life to the climax of perfection in giving us (the emperor) Augustus…who being sent to us and our descendents as Savior, has put an end to war and has set all things in order; and (wheras) having become god-manifest, Caesar has fulfilled all the hopes of earlier times…the birthday of the god (Augustus) has been the beginning of evangelion concerning him…
Yes, evangelion was also the word the Romans would use to announce (grandiose?) imperial good news (battles won, heirs born, emperors crowned). Of course, it does seem like the Romans had pretty good reason to be confident about their message. I mean, Caesar may not have made many claims to miraculous healing or anything, but you can't argue with the achievements of Roman power, right? Seems like pretty empirical (pun intended) stuff. But why would a Jewish carpenter start wandering around announcing a different evangelion to subservient denizens of Rome's vassal state (if he wasn't anticipating a take-over)? And (even more weirdly?) why would Jesus' followers continue to announce this evangelion (in even more competitively grandiose terms?) after the Romans executed him?
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