An order of ministers, "given" among other church officers by Christ, as one of the fruits of His ascension, to His church on and after Pentecost. Not only the office, but the men, were a divine gift: "He gave some to be apostles, and some to be prophets (inspired forth-tellers, not fore-tellers), and some to be evangelists," i.e. itinerant missionary preachers, whereas "pastors and teachers" were stationary (Ephesians 4). The evangelist founded the church; the teacher built it up in the faith. The ministry of gifts preceded the ministry of orders. The irregular "evangelist" prepared the way for the regular "pastor." Apostles (Acts 8:25; Acts 14:7; 1 Corinthians 1:17) or vicars apostolic, as Timothy (2 Timothy 4:2-5), might "preach ("herald", keerussein) the word," and so "do the work of an evangelist." Philip had been set apart as one of the seven (Acts 7; 8; 21) by the laying on of the apostles' hands.
        Christ gave him to the church, additionally, in the capacity of an "evangelist" now in one city, now in another. So others scattered by persecution (Acts 8:4) "went everywhere evangelistically preaching (euangelizomenoi) the word." The "pastors" taught and exhorted; the "evangelists" preached the glad news which prepared the way for the pastorate. It was therefore a work rather than an order. The evangelist was not necessarily an apostle, bishop-elder, or deacon, but might be any of these.
        Evangelist, in the sense "inspired writer of one of the four Gospels," was a later usage. Eusebius (H. E., 3:37) in the third century says: "men do the work of evangelists, leaving their homes to preach Christ, and deliver the written Gospels to those who were ignorant of the faith." The transition step appears in 2 Corinthians 8:18-19, "the brother, whose praise is in the gospel throughout all the churches," probably Luke, well known throughout the churches as Paul's companion in evangelistic work, and at that time with Paul (Acts 20:6). Of all Paul's "companions in travel" (Acts 19:29), Luke was the most prominent, having been his companion in preaching at his first entrance into Europe (Acts 16:10). Paul probably helped Luke in writing his Gospel, as Peter helped Mark. This accounts for the remarkable similarity between Paul's account of the institution of the Lord's supper (1 Corinthians 11:23) and Luke's account, an undesigned coincidence and mark of genuineness. So in 1 Timothy 5:18
        Paul says, "the Scripture saith, The laborer is worthy of his reward," quoted from Luke 10:7; but Matthew 10:10 has "his meat;" whereby he recognizes the Gospel according to Luke as inspired "Scripture," and naturally quotes that one of the Gospels which was written by his own evangelistic helper. Luke's Gospel had then been about eight or nine years in circulation. Our home and foreign missionaries correspond to the primary "evangelists"; they traveled about freely where their services were needed, either to propagate the gospel or to inspect and strengthen congregations already formed. Timothy was such a missionary bishop or vicar apostolic at Ephesus (1 Timothy 1:3; 2 Timothy 4:5).