Evangelist (^evayyi\i(Fn'i<:'), the name of an order or body of men included in tlic constitution of the Apostolical Ciiurch (q. v.). The term is applied in the New Testament to a certainxlass of Christian teachers who were not fixed to any particular spot, but trav- elled either independently, or under the direction of
one or other of the apostles, for the purpose of propa. gating the (iospel. The absence of any detailed ac- count of the organization and j)ractical working of the Church of the first century leaves us in some uncer- tainty as to their functions and position. The mean- ing of the name, "The publisliers of glad tidings," seems common to the work of tlie Christian ministry generally, yet in Eph. iv, 11 the "evangelists" appear, on the one hand, alter the "apostles" and " prophets ;" on the other, before tlie "pastors" and "teachers" (thus : avTUQ tSoms rovg [iiv mrocrroXovf;, rovg St TTQocpiiTaQ, Tovg Si ivayyiKiardc, rovg Sk iroiiikvaQ Kcd SiSauKciKovr'). Assuming that the apostles here, whether limited to the twelve or not, are those who were looked upon as the special delegates and repre- sentatives of Christ, and therefore higher than all oth- ers in tlieir authority, and that the prophets were men speaking under the immediate impulse of the Spirit words that were mightj'^ in their effects on men's hearts and consciences, it would follow that the evan- gelists had a function subordinate to theirs, yet more conspicuous, and so far higher than that of the pastors who watched over a church that had been founded, and of the teachers who carried on the work of syste- matic instruction. Tiiis passage, accordingly, would lead us to think of them as standing between tlie two other groups — sent forth as missionary preachers of the Gospel by the first, and as such preparing the way for the labors of the second. The same inference would seem to follow the occurrence of the word as applied to Philip in Acts xxi, 8. He had been one of those who had gone everj'where "preaching" {tltayyt\iL,6- /.lEvoi) the word (Acts viii, 4), now in one city, now in another (viii, 40) ; but he has not the power or author- ity of an apostle, does not speak as a prophet himself, though the gift of prophecy' belongs to his four daughters (xxi, 9), and he exercises apparent!}' no pastoral super- intendence over any portion of the flock. The omission of evangelists in the list of 1 Cor. xii may be explain- ed on the hypothesis that the nature of Paul's argu- ment led him there to speak of tlie settled organization of a given local Church, which of course presupposed the work of the missionary preacher as already ac- complished, while the train of thought in Eph. iv, 11 brought before his mind all who were in any -way in- strumental in building up the C'hurch universal. It follows, from what has been said, that the calling of the evangelist is expressed by the word Kijpvrraeiv, "preach," rather than ciSacrKfii', "teach," or ■Kcipa- KoKtiv, "exhort;" it is the proclamation of the glad tidings to those who have not known them, ratlier than the instruction and pastoral care of those who have be- lieved and been baptized. This is also what wo gath- er from 2 Tim. iv, 2, 5. Timotheus is "to preach the word;" in doing this he is to fulfil "the work of an evangelist." It follows, also, that the name denotes a icorh rather than an order. The evangelist might or might not be a bishop-elder or a deacon. The apos- tles, so far as the}' evangelized (Acts viii, 25 ; xiv, 7 ; 1 Cor. i, 17), might claim the title, tliough tliere were many evangelists who were not apostles. The broth- er "whose jiraise was in the Gospel" (2 Cor. viii, 18) may be looked upon as one of Paul's companions in this work, and probably known b}' the same name. In short, the itinerant and temporary character of their calling chiefly serves to distinguish them from the oth- er classes of Christian laborers. In this, as in other points connected with the organization of the Church in the apostolic age, liut little information is to be gained from later writers. The name was no longer explained by the presence of those to wliom it liad been specially applied, and it came to be variously inter- preted. Theodoret (on Eph. iv, 11) describes the evan- gelists (as they have been described above) as travel- ling missionaries. Chrysostom, as men who preached tlie Gospel, but without going everywhere Qu) Tttpdov- T(g ■Kcivraxov) ; by which he probably denotes a re-
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stricted sphere to their labors, in contrast with the world-wide coniniission of the apostles. Tlie account given bv Eusebiiis {Hist. Eccles. iii, 37), though some- what rhetorical and vague, gives prominence to the idea of itinerant missionary preaching. Referring to the state of the Church in the time of Trajan, he says, " llany of the disciples of tliat time, whose souls the divine word had inspired with an ardent love of phi- losophy, first fulfilled our Saviour's precept by distrib- uting their substance among the poor. Then travel- ling abroad, they performed the work of evangelists (tpyov tTTiTiXovv EiiayYiXiffTuiv), being ambitious to preach Christ, and deliver the Scripture of the divine Gospels. Having laid the foundations of the faith in foreign nations, thej' appointed other pastors (jroifxivat^ T£ KaOiTTcivTcc; trtpovc), to whom they intrusted the cultivation of the parts thej' had recently occupied, while they proceeded to other countries and nations." One clause of this description indicates a change in the Avork, which before long affected the meaning of the name. If the Gospel was a written book, and the office of the evangelists was to read or distribute it, then the writers of such books were Kar' t^oxtjv the evangelists. It is thus, accordinglj', that Euseliius (Hist. Eccles. iii, 39) speaks of them, though the old meaning of the word (as in Jlist. Eccl. v, 10, where he applies it to Pantsenus) is not forgotten by him. Soon this meaning so overshadowed the old that Qicumeni- iis (Estius on Eph. iv, 11) has no other notion of the evangelists than as those who have written a Gospel (compare Harless on Eph. iv, 11). Augustine, though commonly using tlie word in this sense, at times re- members its earlier signification (Sermon xcix and cclxvi). Ambrosianvis (Estius, I. c.) identifies them with deacons. In later liturgical language the work was applied to the reader of the Gospel for the day (comp. Hooker, Ecclesiastical Politu, bk. Ixxviii, 7, 9). In modern phraseology the term is almost exclusively applied to the writers of the canonical Gospels (q. v.). See Campbell's Zerf?/rcs on Eccle.ficistical Hisiori/, i, 148- 150; Neander's History of the Plantinr/ of the Christian Church, i, 173 ; jMiddelboc,Z'e evangelistis eccksice apos- toli.ca; (Hafn. 1779) ; Schaff, Apostolical Church, § 131. — Kitto, s. V. ; Smith, s. v.