Evangelion relationship to Greek?

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Evangelion relationship to Greek?

Postby 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.
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Postby 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'? :shock:
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Postby 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.
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Postby 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.
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Postby RadicalEd0 » Thu Nov 28, 2002 1:22 am

its best in the second half when the angel battles start getting really cool :P
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Postby 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.
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Postby 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.
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Postby 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

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Postby 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'...
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Postby RadicalEd0 » Sat Nov 30, 2002 1:39 pm

shinji looks like a bride of adam? :shock:
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Postby '-=HungryCrackPot=-' » Sat Nov 30, 2002 1:44 pm

None of you seem to grasp the TRUE meaning. Evangelion was talking about man's quest to build the perfect automobile. In his quest to create it, he must violently DESTROY the opponents models without hesitation. It is written in unwritten law that this is the way it must be. God himself was quoted with saying "Build me a good car!" THAT is what the series is about!

Some of you need to get a fucking clue.
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Postby UncleMilo » Sat Nov 30, 2002 2:13 pm

RadicalEd0 wrote:shinji looks like a bride of adam? :shock:


Not looks like.
The story behind the women created for Adam connects well with the first three children

Rei, Asuka and Shinji.

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Postby MrScribble » Sat Nov 30, 2002 4:01 pm

I managed to get most of the relgion referances in NGE, but theres one little point I didn't understand.

Somewhere in the battle with the viruslike angel, they are speaking of the socalled Pribnov box, which is he bunker from which they monitored the fake Eva bodies. In reality, the Pribnov box is a site located on bacterial DNA strands, also called the TATAAT box (-10th nucleotide from the first nucleotide to be transcripted to RNA) and works as an inhibitor (site where the duplication of DNA starts). Unless I'm missing something important, I'm getting the idea that Anno put some of the things in just because they sounded fancy...
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Postby UncleMilo » Sat Nov 30, 2002 7:37 pm

The guys at Gainax do a lot of research for their titles...

I would imagine that there is a real reason for them using that name... that the item mentioned in the series serves a similar function in the show as the real item does...

or at least similar enough to justify the name.

I would find it hard to believe that you get most of the religious refs... and I don't say that because I think you are dim... but whenever I talk to my pal Taliesin, I am ever amazed at how little I actually understand on the religious side... there are so many obscure and tiny references that it is overwhelming...

Still, the religious refs are just for the surface story... and I think that's an important point as well.

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Postby JustAnOrdinaryPanda » Sun Dec 01, 2002 7:53 am

Yeah, this is all well and good, but why Sinatra for an end theme? :?
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