Evangelion relationship to Greek?

Brolli411 · Post by **Brolli411** » Wed Nov 27, 2002 9:11 pm

As some of you may or may now know, the word "Evangelion" means "Good news" or more distinctly, "Good messenger/message"
(Ev = good, Angelion = messenger/message)

What I was wondering, is if this was done on propose? I'd bet there are great possibilities that it was intentional, but the Eva's are not something that I would necessarily call 'good.' For all that I know, Evangelion could mean something in Japanese totally different, or similar. After I saw what this meant, I tried to look up other forms from Evangelion, but nothing came up under Greek Religion, Mythology, or way of life. Does anyone know whether it is intentional, or just a weird coincidence.

fellowhoodlum · Post by **fellowhoodlum** » Wed Nov 27, 2002 10:23 pm

I read in a German-English dictionary:

"Evangelium" = "Gospel"

Maybe the meanings are related, but does 'Neon Genesis Evangelion' mean the 'Story of the New Beginning/Creation'?

RadicalEd0 · Post by **RadicalEd0** » Thu Nov 28, 2002 12:59 am

Shinseiki Evangelion is always translated as Gospel of a new century. I've never seen it any other way (besides the dubbed name of Neon Genesis Evangelion)
Gospel literally means good news, so I suppose you could go all the way to say Eva means good news of a new century.
Its mostly a religious thing. Not to mention that Eva is also used as a short for evangelion and eva = eve in german, so it has a double meaning.

kthulhu · Post by **kthulhu** » Thu Nov 28, 2002 1:19 am

From what I've read, "Evangelion" is derived from evangelist (it may also be the German version of the same word), one who speaks (or brings) the good news, which fits in with Shinji's ultimate role in the series, in a sense. So, to expand on what RadicalEd0 is saying, perhaps a more proper meaning/translation might be "The bringer(s) of good news in the new century".

Either way, a very powerful series, not least because of its deceptive beginning.

RadicalEd0 · Post by **RadicalEd0** » Thu Nov 28, 2002 1:22 am

its best in the second half when the angel battles start getting really cool

Squall3X · Post by **Squall3X** » Fri Nov 29, 2002 8:09 pm

EVA is one of my most favorite anime serieses.... but the writer of it wrote end of evangelion in a friggen insane asylum! thats why it makes absolutely no sense at all but its still an awsome movie.

Brolli411 · Post by **Brolli411** » Sat Nov 30, 2002 12:16 am

I like the distorted-ness of it. It sort of combines all aspects of philosophy with animation/reality.

UncleMilo · Post by **UncleMilo** » Sat Nov 30, 2002 3:16 am

Neon Genesis Evangelion's title is a religious reference.

The whole show is based on the Khaballa (I have seen many spellings for this)

The EVA units are based in design on the children of Lillith.
The Pilots bear a striking resemblence to the brides of Adam.
The Angels are designed based on the function of their namesake.

The symbols that come up are all from the same writings
as are the names of the holy relics (such as the Spear of Longinus)

I could go on and on with the religious implications of the surface story...

but as for the last two episodes...
they make perfect sense...
You need to understand what the show is about, you need some understanding of philosophy and psychology... and some understanding of the language of film...

but the religious refs are what make up the surface story
but they do not really play a part in the true story.

The main reason for this is because the true answers are not to be found in ancient fables.

If you want to talk more about EVA, you can e-mail me at UncleMilo@yahoo.com

-Uncle Milo

JustAnOrdinaryPanda · Post by **JustAnOrdinaryPanda** » Sat Nov 30, 2002 7:33 am

A lot of people take their own understanding of the series, esp. End of Eva and eps. 25-26. I personally didn't like the series. It was ok, but was just.... I dunno, maybe it was because I didn't like any of the characters, or really enjoy the story despite its 'deep philosophical meaning'...

RadicalEd0 · Post by **RadicalEd0** » Sat Nov 30, 2002 1:39 pm

shinji looks like a bride of adam?