GOOD NEWS — the word that gives us 'gospel' (Old English GOD-SPELL, 'good story'). In the wider Greek world it was an IMPERIAL announcement: the good news of a Caesar's birth, victory or accession, proclaimed across the empire — a famous inscription calls the birthday of Augustus 'the beginning (ARCHE) of the good news (EUANGELION) for the world.' Mark takes that political vocabulary and hangs it on a Galilean carpenter: his very first line, 'the beginning (ARCHE) of the good news of Jesus Christ' (1:1), reads almost as a deliberate answer to the emperor-cult. ⚠️ Mark may have coined the use of EUANGELION as the title of a written LIFE of Jesus; the four accounts came to be called 'Gospels' after his opening word. In Jesus' own mouth it is not a book but an announcement: 'the kingdom of God has drawn near' (1:15). → first discussed at Mark 1:1