Although the description of Jesus Christ as saviour is central
to modern expressions of Christianity, use of the word so ̄ ter
in early texts is rather sparse. In the undisputed letters of Paul,
the term appears only twice. His instructions to the Ephesians
about the Christian household include the statement: ‘the husband
is the head of the wife just as Christ is the head of the church,
the body of which he is the saviour (so ̄ ter)’ (Ephesians5.23).
Addressing the Philippians, he told them: ‘our citizenship is in
heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a saviour (so ̄ ter),
the Lord Jesus Christ’ (Philippians3.20). After Paul, the term
so ̄ terbecomes more common. There are ten instances of the word
in the Pastoral Letters, which, as we saw in chapter 3, are prob-
ably not by Paul (Hawthorne and Martin 1993: 868–9). The term
also appears in other New Testament epistles (e.g. 2 Peter1.1;
Jude25). From there, it became a common descriptor for Jesus
Christ in early Christian literature.
The term euangelion(gospel) is central to the vocabulary of
the New Testament (Stanton 2004: 20–5). The Greek word is
usually translated as ‘gospel’, an Old English word meaning ‘good
news’ (hence the Good News Bible) or ‘glad tidings’. The biblical
accounts of Jesus’ ministry ascribed to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and
John are each called to euangelion(the gospel). Paul used the term
in a variety of ways too. Often he spoke simply of to euangelion
on its own, a phrase that implies ‘thegospel’. At other times, he
wrote of ‘the gospel of God’ (e.g. Romans1.1), ‘the gospel of
Jesus’ (e.g. 1 Thessalonians3.2), and even, at two points, ‘my
gospel’ (euangelion mou:Romans2.16, 16.25). Also common in
his writings is the verb euangelizesthaiderived from euangelion:
literally it means ‘to gospel’ or, less idiosyncratically, ‘to spread
the good news’; it is the root of the English verb ‘evangelize’.
For the inhabitants of the eastern provinces of the Roman
empire in the first century, such words would have had a very
particular resonance that might have influenced how they ‘heard’
the preaching of Christian missionaries. They were used routinely
in decrees (and inscriptions recording them) connected with the
worship of Roman emperors as gods. Emperor worship, one of
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