Greeks expressed their gratitude, FS Naiden notes (Smoke Signals for the Gods), with sacrifice:
“Helliodorus, hellenizing his Phoenicians, says that Tyrians used such a formula after one of their number won at the Pythian games. Returning home with the victor, they sacrificed at the seaside, niketerion and charisterion, ‘thanks for victory,’ although this translation misses the reverence the worshipers would express. Many such sacrifices occurred not after a victory, as at the festival of Artemis Agrotera in Athens, but after a deliverance or a cure a river-crossing or a sea voyage; as Arrian puts it, they commemorated ‘good fortune.’” The term for this was euangelia, which “gave thanks for good news of all kinds, and for this reason was a common epigraphical term for thanksgivings” (100).
Another dimension to add to the New Testament’s use of the euaggel– word group: Not merely good news of victory, but thanks for victory or deliverance. The gospel is the good news of gratitude.
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