'Evangelist,' rare in the NT, is not found in the Apostolic Fathers or in the Didache. The use of the word for a writer of a Gospel is later, and the use for one who read the gospel in public worship is perhaps later still. AVhen the reader (ava-yvthaT-qs
or lector), an official first mentioned by Tertullian (de Prcescr. 41), expounded what he read, he re- sembled the evangelists of apostolic times ; but the latter had no written gospel to expound ; they expounded the oral gospel, which they knew by heart. The description of them given by Eusebius [HE iii. 37), though somewhat rhetorical, is worthy of quotation.
' They preached the gospel more and more widely and scattered the saving seeds of the Kingdom of Heaven broadly throughout the whole world. For, indeed, very many of the disciples of that time (i.e. disciples of the apostles), whose soul had been stricken by the Divine Word with a more ardent love for philosophy (i.e. the ascetic life), had previously fulfilled the Saviour's injunction by distributing their possessions to the needy. Then setting out on long journeys they performed the dutj' of evangelists, being eager to preach Christ to those who had never yet heard anything of the word of faith, and to pass on to them the Scripture of the Divine Gospels. These men were content with simply laying foundations of the faith in various foreign places, and then appointed others as pastors, entrusting them with the husbandry of those newly reclaimed, while they themselves went on again to other countries and nations with the grace and co-operation of God.'
Harnack {Mission and Expansion of Christi- anity'-, 1908, i. 321 n.) thinks that 'evangelists' has been inserted in Eph 4^^ into the usual list of ' apostles, prophets, and teachers ' because this circular Epistle is addressed to churches which had been founded by missionaries who were not apostles ; also (p. 338) that ' evangelists ' were not placed next to the ' apostles,' because the combina- tion ' apostles and prophets ' was too well estab- lished to be disturbed. There was no such close connexion between ' prophets ' and ' teachers.' The shortness of the list of gifted and given persons in Eph 4" as compared with the three lists in 1 Co 12 may be taken as evidence that the regular exercise of extraordinary gifts was already dying out. Yet in the short list in Eph 4'^ there are two items which are not found in any of the other lists, viz. ' evangelists ' and ' pastors. '
LiTERATURB. — In addition to the works quoted, see J. H. Bernard on 2 Ti 45 (The Pastoral Epistles [Camb. Gr. Test 1899]) ; R. J. Knov7lingr on Ac 218 jn EGT, 1900 ; P. BatifFol, Primitive Catholicism, Eng. tr., 1911, p. 51 ; artt. in HDB, SDB, DCG, and EBi. A, PLUMMEE.
EYE (E£>a).— Eve was (according to J, Gn 3^° 4}) the wife of Adam [q.v.) and the mother of the human race. (1) St. Paul recalls the story of her fall as a warning to his young and attractive, but weak and unstable, Corinthian Church. As God presented Eve, a pure virgin, to Adam, so St. Paul has espoused his Church to Christ, and hopes to present her as His bride at His speedy return. He fears, however, that as the serpent beguiled Eve in his craftiness, so the Church may be corrupted from the simplicity and purity of her devotion to Christ. St. Paul's noun iravovpyia (craftiness) re- presents the Heb. oni; of Gn 3^ better than the adjective (f)p6vi/j.os of the LXX does. It was appar- ently the teaching of the Rabbis that the serpent literally seduced Eve (4 Mac 18""^ ; cf. Iren. c. Hccr. I. XXX. 7) ; and a Church which should let herself be drawn away from Christ, who has the right to His bride's whole-hearted love, w^ould be guUty of spiritual fornication. The identification of the serpent with the devil, which was far from the thoughts of the writer of Gn 3, first appears in Wis 2--', ' But by the envy of the devil death entered into the world' (cf. Eo W>, Rev W 20^).
(2) The writer of 1 Tim. (2i3-i'») uses the story of the Fall for the purpose of proving woman's natural inferiority to man. He remarks that man was not beguiled, but that 'the woman' — a word spoken with the same accent of contempt as in Gn 3^2 — being beguiled, fell into transgression. The writer appears to think, like Milton, that the man knew better, and sinned, not under stress of
380
EVERLASTING
EVIL
temptation, but in generous sympathy vnth his frail partner, whose fate he resolved to share. This is, of course, a man's account of the origin of f;in, and happily the original story, with all the Rabbinical and other unworthy inferences that have been dra^^^l fi'om it, is no longer among the Christian credenda. James Stkahan.
EVERLASTING.— See ETERNAL.
EYIL. — This article is not a study of the word 'evil' as substantive, adjective, or adverb in the two senses of 'bad 'and 'hurtful,' for which the use of a concordance may suffice ; but of the con- ception of evil in the apostolic writings. Three senses of the term have been distinguished by Leibniz : metaphysical — the necessary imperfection of the creature as compared with the Creator ; physical — pain, suffering, sorrow, death ; and moral — sin. Although the NT does assert the difference between God and the world and man, and the in- feriority of the made to the Maker, it does not conceive creatureliness as itself evil, but expresses its limitation and impotence in the term 'flesh.' For this aspect see art. Flesh, The art. Sin deals with the third sense of the word ' evil.' It is thus with physical evil alone that we are here concerned. Its existence in manifold forms is assumed by all the apostolic Avriters ; but generally it is with the sufferings of Christian believers, including persecu- tion, that they are concerned, in order to encourage patience, offer comfort, or assure deliverance.