John Wycliffe in his translation of the Bible in 1382 translated almost every one of the 54 uses of evangelizare [Latin for evangelize] as "evangelise" or "evangelysinge" [Old English]. The 1388 revision of Wycliffe published after his death changed every use of "evangelize" to "preaching the gospel", "showing Jesus", or something other than evangelize. This change in translation remained through the Tyndale Version, the King James Version, and has been followed by every version of the English Bible since that time — with the exception of six uses in the 2000 Holman Christian Standard Bible. How can such a verbal discrepancy be perpetuated for so long?

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If you are a reader of an English New Testament, as I am, you will find approximately 115 uses of the verbs preach or proclaim. In reality, 61 uses are translations of the verb kerusso — "preach" and 54 are translations of evangelize into preach. My classes in evangelism cover quite a different content than what is taught in a preaching (homiletics) class!

Following are some of the verses that contain evangelize, and you will notice the impact of translating these as "evangelize". Here are five of the ten uses of "evangelize" in Luke (adaptations of the NASB):

• Luke 3:18, "So with many other exhortations he [John the Baptist] evangelized the people."
• Luke 4:43, "But he [Jesus] said to them, 'I must evangelize the kingdom of God to the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose.'"
• Luke 8:1, "Soon afterwards, He [Jesus] began going around from one city and village to another, preaching and evangelizing the kingdom of God."
• Luke 9:6, "Departing, they [12 disciples] began going throughout the villages, evangelizing and healing everywhere."
• Luke 20:1, "On one of the days while He was teaching the people in the Temple and evangelizing, he was confronted by the chief priests and the scribes with the elders."

Here are nine of the fifteen uses in the Book of Acts:

• Acts 5:42, "And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they kept right on teaching and evangelizing Jesus as the Christ."
• Acts 8:4, "Therefore, those who had been scattered went about evangelizing the word."
• Acts 8:12, "But when they believed Philip evangelizing the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were being baptized, men and women alike."
• Acts 8:25, "So, when they [Peter and John] had solemnly testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they started back to Jerusalem, and were evangelizing the many villages of the Samaritans."
• Acts 8:40, "But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through he kept evangelizing all the cities until he came to Caesarea."
• Acts 11:20, "But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene who came to Antioch and began speaking and to the Greeks evangelizing the Lord Jesus."
• Acts 14:7, "And there they [Paul and Barnabas] continued to evangelize."
• Acts 14:21, "After they [Paul and Barnabas] had evangelized that city and had discipled many, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch."
• Acts 15:35, "But Paul and Barnabas stayed in Antioch, teaching and evangelizing, with many others also, the word of the Lord."
• Acts 16:10, "When he [Paul] had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to evangelize them."

Here are 12 of the 21 uses of evangelize in the Pauline epistles (Paul only uses kerusso — "preach" 19 times!):