[syn: religious doctrine, church doctrine, gospel, creed]
5. a doctrine that is believed to be of great importance;
- Example: "Newton's writings were gospel for those who followed"
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Gospel \Gos"pel\, n. [OE. gospel, godspel, AS. godspell; god God
+ spell story, tale. See God, and Spell, v.]
[1913 Webster]
1. Glad tidings; especially, the good news concerning Christ,
the Kingdom of God, and salvation.
[1913 Webster]
And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their
synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom.
--Matt. iv.
23.
[1913 Webster]
The steadfast belief of the promises of the gospel.
--Bentley.
[1913 Webster]
Note: It is probable that gospel is from. OE. godspel, God
story, the narrative concerning God; but it was early
confused with god spell, good story, good tidings, and
was so used by the translators of the Authorized
version of Scripture. This use has been retained in
most cases in the Revised Version.
[1913 Webster]
Thus the literal sense [of gospel] is the
"narrative of God," i. e., the life of Christ.
--Skeat.
[1913 Webster]
2. One of the four narratives of the life and death of Jesus
Christ, written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
[1913 Webster]
3. A selection from one of the gospels, for use in a
religious service; as, the gospel for the day.
[1913 Webster]
4. Any system of religious doctrine; sometimes, any system of
political doctrine or social philosophy; as, this
political gospel. --Burke.
[1913 Webster]
5. Anything propounded or accepted as infallibly true; as,
they took his words for gospel. [Colloq.]
[1913 Webster]
If any one thinks this expression hyperbolical, I
shall only ask him to read [OE]dipus, instead of
taking the traditional witticisms about Lee for
gospel. --Saintsbury.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Gospel \Gos"pel\, a.
Accordant with, or relating to, the gospel; evangelical; as,
gospel righteousness. --Bp. Warburton.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Gospel \Gos"pel\, v. t.
To instruct in the gospel. [Obs.] --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
Gospel
n 1: the four books in the New Testament (Matthew, Mark, Luke,
and John) that tell the story of Christ's life and
teachings [syn: Gospel, Gospels, evangel]
2: an unquestionable truth; "his word was gospel" [syn:
gospel, gospel truth]
3: folk music consisting of a genre of a cappella music
originating with Black slaves in the United States and
featuring call and response; influential on the development
of other genres of popular music (especially soul) [syn:
gospel, gospel singing]
4: the written body of teachings of a religious group that are
generally accepted by that group [syn: religious doctrine,
church doctrine, gospel, creed]
5: a doctrine that is believed to be of great importance;
"Newton's writings were gospel for those who followed"
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
54 Moby Thesaurus words for "Gospel":
Acts, Agnus Dei, Alleluia, Anamnesis, Apocalypse, Biblical,
Blessing, Canon, Collect, Communion, Consecration, Credo,
Dismissal, Epistle, Epistles, Fraction, Glad Tidings, Gloria,
Good News, Gradual, Introit, Kyrie, Kyrie Eleison, Last Gospel,
Lavabo, Mosaic, New Testament, New-Testament, Offertory,
Old-Testament, Paternoster, Pax, Post-Communion, Preface,
Revelation, Sanctus, Secreta, Synoptic Gospels, Tersanctus, Tract,
apocalyptic, apostolic, canonical, evangelic, evangelistic, gospel,
inspired, prophetic, revealed, revelational, scriptural, textual,
textuary, theopneustic
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
97 Moby Thesaurus words for "gospel":
Bible truth, Biblical, Gospel, Mosaic, Negro spiritual,
New-Testament, Old-Testament, Weltanschauung, anthem, apocalyptic,
apostolic, articles of religion, bad news, canonical, cantata,
canticle, catechism, certainty, chorale, church music, credenda,
credo, creed, cult, dinkum oil, doctrinal statement, doxology,
evangel, evangelic, evangelistic, fact, faith, formulated belief,
glad tidings, good news, good word, gospel music, gospel truth,
how it is, how things are, hymn, hymn-tune, hymnody, hymnology,
ideology, inspired, introit, ism, like it is, mass, motet,
offertory, offertory sentence, oratorio, paean, passion,
political faith, political philosophy, prophetic, prosodion, psalm,
psalmody, recessional, religion, requiem, requiem mass, revealed,
revealed truth, revelational, sacred music, school, scriptural,
spiritual, system of belief, textual, textuary, the absolute truth,
the case, the exact truth, the hard truth, the honest truth,
the intrinsic truth, the naked truth, the plain truth,
the simple truth, the sober truth, the stern truth, the truth,
the unalloyed truth, the unqualified truth, the unvarnished truth,
theopneustic, truism, truth, veracity, white spiritual,
world view
Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary:
Gospel
a word of Anglo-Saxon origin, and meaning "God's spell", i.e.,
word of God, or rather, according to others, "good spell", i.e.,
good news. It is the rendering of the Greek _evangelion_, i.e.,
"good message." It denotes (1) "the welcome intelligence of
salvation to man as preached by our Lord and his followers. (2.)
It was afterwards transitively applied to each of the four
histories of our Lord's life, published by those who are
therefore called 'Evangelists', writers of the history of the
gospel (the evangelion). (3.) The term is often used to express
collectively the gospel doctrines; and 'preaching the gospel' is
often used to include not only the proclaiming of the good
tidings, but the teaching men how to avail themselves of the
offer of salvation, the declaring of all the truths, precepts,
promises, and threatenings of Christianity." It is termed "the
gospel of the grace of God" (Acts 20:24), "the gospel of the
kingdom" (Matt. 4:23), "the gospel of Christ" (Rom. 1:16), "the
gospel of peace (Eph. 6:15), "the glorious gospel," "the
everlasting gospel," "the gospel of salvation" (Eph. 1:13).