Kerygma

Biblical Text

Kerygma (Greek κήρυγμα) is a New Testament noun meaning "proclamation" or "the word proclaimed." In Matthew 12:41 and Luke 11:32 it refers to the cry of Jonah, which the people of Nineveh heard and at which they repented. The New Korean Revised Version renders the phrase "the preaching of Jonah."

In the Pauline epistles the word refers to the apostles' proclamation concerning Christ. Representative occurrences include the following:

• 1 Corinthians 1:21: "by the foolishness of preaching"
• 1 Corinthians 2:4
• 1 Corinthians 15:14: "then is our preaching vain"
• Romans 16:25
• 2 Timothy 4:17
• Titus 1:3

Depending on the context, the New Korean Revised Version translates the word variously as "preaching," "proclaiming," or "proclamation." The word also appears in some manuscripts of the ending of the Gospel of Mark.

Background of the Word

Kerygma derives from the verb kēryssō (κηρύσσω, "to announce, to proclaim"). The related noun kēryx (κῆρυξ) denoted a herald, that is, a person who publicly announced the official news of a king or city. The word therefore carries the sense of faithfully delivering the message of the one who sends, rather than voicing one's own ideas.

The verb appears far more often in the New Testament than the noun. It is used, for example, where Jesus proclaims, "Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 4:17).

Meaning in Scripture as a Whole

The sermons of Peter and Paul recorded in Acts 2, 3, 10, and 13 share a common outline:

• Old Testament prophecy has been fulfilled.
• Jesus died and rose again.
• The hearers are called to repentance and the forgiveness of sins.

Paul summarized his proclamation as "Christ crucified" (1 Corinthians 1:22–25). In 1 Corinthians 15:3–5 he also summarized the core of the gospel he had received as Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. For this reason, kerygma is commonly understood to refer to the essential content of the gospel.

Interpretation and Issues

• Act or content of proclamation: In passages such as 1 Corinthians 1:21, interpreters differ over whether kerygma denotes the act of preaching or the content that is preached.
• Kerygma and didache: In The Apostolic Preaching and Its Developments (1936), the British theologian C. H. Dodd distinguished between proclamation addressed to unbelievers (kerygma) and teaching addressed to believers (didache). This distinction gained wide acceptance, but it has also been criticized on the grounds that the New Testament does not separate the two so sharply.
• Bultmann's understanding: Rudolf Bultmann held that faith rests not on a reconstruction of the historical Jesus but on an encounter with the kerygma. A number of scholars, including some of his own students, subsequently reexamined the relationship between the kerygma and the historical Jesus.
• Preaching and the Word of God: The Second Helvetic Confession (1566), a confession of the Reformed tradition, states that "the preaching of the Word of God is the Word of God." Karl Barth regarded proclamation as one form of the Word of God. These examples reflect a strand of thought that assigns great theological weight to proclamation.

In the Korean Church

Kerygma is a term frequently used in seminary instruction in homiletics and pastoral theology. A framework that describes the ministry of the church in terms of kerygma (proclamation), didache (teaching), koinonia (fellowship), and diakonia (service) is widely used in church education and ministry planning. Some add leitourgia (worship) to make five categories. This classification, however, is not a list given directly in Scripture but a framework developed by later theology.