The present study aims to provide a historical and cultural analysis of the term εὐαγγέλιον (and the related verb εὐαγγελίζω) in the Greco-Roman world up to its reception in the theological lexicon of the Septuagint and postclassical Greek. Since the beginning of the 21st century, the field of investigation of semantic change has attracted increasing interest. The latest frontiers of computational linguistics have promoted the application of advanced methods of semantic distribution to certain lexical areas of ancient Greek. These studies have mainly focused on the first centuries AD, aware of the impact that the advent of Christianity had on the Greek language. Although εὐαγγέλιον is known to have become a 'monopoly word' of the Christian tradition, the present investigation, making use of literary, papyrological and epigraphical sources, investigates its antecedents. Starting from the archaic age, it shows the ubiquity and long-term persistence of this term. Although the original meaning of 'glad tidings' remains semantically stable over time, what changes is the occurrence and the referential and inferential contexts in which the noun phrase 'glad tidings' and the associated actions of 'reporting/ referring' and 'commun(icat)ing it' take place.