2. The One Gospel: Synchronic Approach to the Original Meaning of "Gospel"

The original oral Gospel can rightly be called the One Gospel because, notwithstanding the variety of emphases on the part of the various Apostles, the word of Paul stands true: "Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you have come to believe." (1 Cor 15:11)

To begin with, let us first take an overall view of the original content of the One "Gospel", as we can derive from a synthetic look at the whole New Testament, including the Four Gospels. We do this in order to supplement the historico-critical method with concerns which are at once traditional and contemporary. That is, we try to supplement the diachronic method of exegesis with the synchronic method. At this stage, we shall limit ourselves to outline synchronically the overall impression one obtains in contacting the New Testament texts regarding the "One Gospel", the essential core of the Good News. In doing this it will not be necessary to use a strictly chronological approach to the New Testament writings. It will suffice to choose some representative expressions from the Gospels and Acts.

"Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means, 'God is with us'" (Matt 1:23).

"Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29).

"We have found the Messiah" (John 1:41).

"We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth" (John 1:45).

"Never has anyone spoken like this!" (John 7:46).

"Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?"(Mark 4:41).

"You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God" (Matt 16:16).

"Truly this man was God's Son!" (Mark 15:39).

"Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen" (Luke 24:5).

"My Lord and my God!" (John 20:28).

"Therefore let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified" (Acts 2:36).

"No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known" (John 1:18).

2.1 The Gospel is News

Something extraordinary has happened. Something unheard-of. God has broken out of his unphatomable mystery. The unapproachable God has approached us. The Word who was in the beginning, the Word who was with God, the Word who was God, has become flesh and has pitched his tent among us. This is too extraordinary an event for us to remain indifferent to it. This is too unheard-of a fact to be kept secret. This news in its newness and extraordinariness by far surpasses anything that the Old Testament could have led us to expect. "In former generations this mystery was not made known to humankind, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit" (Eph 3:5). The prophets meant here are the prophets of the New Testament, the bearers ofthe Gospel message. As for the prophets of the Old Testament, they foretold much about the coming salvation. Their expectation took on a plurality of forms: salvation through the promised Messiah-son-of-David, salvation through the promised Prophet, salvation through Elijah, salvation through the promised Coming One, salvation through (or for?) the Suffering Servant... (cf. John 1:21) The nearest approach prophetic revelation made to the actual reality of salvation can be found in the basic message of Deutero-Isaiah and of Daniel, the message of the coming Kingship of God. However, the actual happening of salvation in Jesus Christ went beyond even Deutero-Isaiah's and Daniel's apocalyptic expectation. Paul's word remains true: "In former generations this mystery was not made known to humankind." The salvation given us through Jesus not only fulfils all Old Testament expectations and promises, but it does so in a totally unforseen, wonderfully transcendent, manner. The Good News of Jesus Christ is really "news".

2.2 The Gospel is Good News

The Good News of Jesus Christ is also really a "good" news.

This extraordinary happening, this unheard-of fact is the news that each human heart deep down desires to hear. It is the news that alone can quench the longing of the human heart for communion with the source of its being, God. "For Thou hast made us for Thee and our heart is unquiet till it finds its rest in Thee." (St. Augustine) In the West this famous dictum of St Augustine expresses powerfully humankind's thirst for God. In the East, we may quote Confucius's equally powerful dictum: "If a man in the morning hear the right way, he may die in the evening without regret." The news of Jesus fills man's heart with joy and peace. This news reveals the supremely wonderful ultimate destiny of man: an unimaginably intimate and yet personal union with God. This news overturns from top to bottom humanity's view of life. As Miguel de Unamuno said: "Without Thee, Jesus, we are born only to die. With Thee, we die to be born." This news gives man strength to live up to his or her ultimate destiny in the face of immense trials and untold suffering. "The things that have now been announced to you through those who brought you good news by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven - things into which angels long to look!" (1 Pet 1:12), through these things "you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials [...]" (1 Pet 1:6). The Gospel is the Good News par excellence: "The Good News of Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God" (cf. Mark 1:1).