Quoting Trent W. Buck (trentbuck@gmail.com):
Nitpick: eu-angelos-izo (good-message-er) requires neither persuasion nor religion; Pheidippides was an evangelist for the victory at Marathon.
Sure, OK. I do know my Herodotus, Trent, but I believe the meaning of the Greek word _as adopted into English_ is as I indicated. (I am not a Greek scholar, so I bow to you about my questionable translation. ;-> )
Granted your explanation holds for sense #2, but you were talking about the root :-)
Fair cop. ;->
Christians are INSTRUCTED to evangelise, [...] [...]
I had a quick look for a biblical mandate, but the only cite I could find was Carey quoting an instruction from Jesus to his apostles (first-order followers). Maybe the commutativity is implicit?
I was wondering about that, myself!