Answer # 94

The first four books of the New Testament are set apart from the other 62 books of the Bible in that they are each biographies of Jesus. They deal directly with His birth, life, death, resurrection and the message or announcement He brought about the Kingdom of God.

The word gospel comes from the Anglo-Saxon godspel, which means "good tidings" or "good news." The word in the original Greek, the language in which the New Testament was written, is euaggelion, from which, through the Latin evangelium, comes our word evangel and its derivatives. It means, "bearing or bringing good news." An evangelist is one who brings good news about the coming Kingdom of God.

That which Jesus Himself spoke - the message He brought from God the Father - was and is good news. It is, in our language today, the Gospel. Since Matthew, Mark, Luke and John each contain an account of what Jesus spoke, these books collectively are often referred to as "the four gospels."