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Evangelist: (publisher of glad tidings). In the New Testament the "evangelists" appear on the one hand after the "apostles" and "prophets;" on the other before the "pastors" and "teachers." They probably stood between the two. Ac 21:8; Eph 4:11 The work of the evangelist is the proclamation of the glad tidings to those who have not known them, rather than the instruction and pastoral care of those who have believed and been baptized. It follows also that the name denotes a work rather than an order. Its use is nearly like our word missionary. The evangelist might or might not be a bishop-elder or a deacon. The apostles, so far as they evangelized, Ac 8:25; 14:7; 1Co 1:17 might claim the title, though there were many evangelists who were not apostles. If the gospel were a written book, and the office of the evangelists was to read or distribute it, then the writers of such books were pre-eminently THE evangelists. In later liturgical language the word was applied to the reader of the gospel for the day.
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