Cardinal Ratzinger on "good news"

Since this blog is dedicated to an idea expressed by Pope Benedict, I thought I would quote, from time to time, passages that I found particularly striking in his works.
The word evangelium means "glad tidings", we said. But it did not have, originally, the neat and somewhat ineffectual ring that it has today, even when it is translated more comprehensively - and admittedly, with a concomitant poverty of meaning - as "good news". In Jesus' time, the word had found its way into the language of contemporary political theology: the decrees of the emperor, all his proclamations, were called evangelium, even when, for the recipients, they were far from being good news. Evangelium meant "a message from the emperor". There was nothing trivial or sentimental about it but rather something majestic. Even though such messages were not always manifestly joyful, they were called joyful because they came from him who held the world together. Granted, it would be presumptuous for just any individual - even an emperor - to claim to be God and, for that reason, to call his messages "glad tidings", for it would be an expression of man's glorification of self. But when the carpenter's son of Nazareth uses this manner of speech, then all that has gone before is absorbed and surpassed: Jesus' message is evangelium, not because it is immediately pleasing to us or comfortable or attractive, but because it comes from him who has the key to true joy. Truth is not always comfortable for man, but it is only truth that makes him free and only freedom that brings him joy.

The Principles of Catholic Theology page 78

Now how about a new translation of the Scriptures called "Message from the Ruler of All Bible"?

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