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In the NT,
preaching is ‘the public proclamation of Christianity to the non-Christian
world’ (C. H. Dodd, The Apostolic Preaching and its Development). It
is not religious discourse to a closed group of initiates, but open and
public proclamation of God’s redemptive activity in and through Jesus
Christ. The current popular understanding of preaching as biblical
exposition and exhortation has tended to obscure its basic meaning.
New Bible Dictionary
There are two major
word groups translated by the English word 'preach'
The first is
directly related to the preaching of the gospel as it relates to the
unsaved. It is the work of the evangelist to give the good news to
those who have not heard.
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eujaggelivzw 2097 The preaching of the
gospel.
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eujaggevlion 2098 The gospel or the good
news itself.
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eujaggelisthvV 2099 The one who preaches
or proclaims the gospel
The second carries
the idea of heralding a message
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khvrugma 2782 The message by the herald
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kh///::rux 2783 The one proclaiming or
heralding the message
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khruvssw
2784 The preaching of heralding of the message.
The choice of
verbs in the Gk. NT for the activity of preaching points us back to its
original meaning. The most characteristic (occurring over 60 times) is
kerusso, ‘to proclaim as a herald’. Preaching is heralding; the message
proclaimed is the glad tidings of salvation. While kerusso tells us
something about the activity of preaching, euangelizomai ‘to
bring good news’ (from the primitive eus,
‘good’, and the verb angello, ‘to announce’), a common verb, used
over 50 times in the NT, emphasizes the quality of the message itself.
New Bible Dictionary
It is not unusual
to distinguish between preaching and teaching—between kerygma (public
proclamation) and didache (ethical instruction). While the two
activities ideally conceived are distinct, both are based upon the same
foundation. The kerygma proclaims what God has done: the didache
teaches the implications of this for Christian conduct.
New Bible Dictionary |
