Friends, Almost nothing is known about the most voluminous writer of the New Testament – Luke – Gospel author and first Church historian, but he sure helps us know Jesus.  See the column below. You are also welcome to join us 10:30 a.m. Thursdays at e91 for our Mustard Seed Bible Study through the Spring on “The People in the Gospel of Luke.” - Bob

-- -- --

Spirituality Column #844

January 17, 2023

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Luke Was Different

By Bob Walters

“I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.” – Luke 1:3-4

Luke, the writer of the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts, isn’t identified by name in either book, is mentioned only three times in the New Testament, and if truly a gentile, was the only non-Jewish writer in all the Bible.  Oh, wait.  Except for Job.

And by the way, Luke, this non-Jew, in only two books wrote 28 percent of the New Testament text, more than Paul’s 24 percent in 13 books, and John’s 20 percent in five.  Luke was the first church historian (Acts) and only guesses and legends remain as to his place of birth (Antioch or Philippi?), his death (Thebes?), where he was educated (Greece?), or how he came to believe in Christ, know Paul, and join Paul’s journeys.

Famously a physician, virtually nothing concrete is known about Luke, scripture’s finest writer of Greek.  In the closing lines of “greetings” in three of the Apostle Paul’s letters, Luke is called a “doctor” in Colossians 4:14, is Paul’s lone companion in 2 Timothy 4:11 – considered to be the imprisoned Paul’s last letter shortly before his death in Rome – and appears in a brief list of Paul’s companions in Philemon 1:24.

Tellingly, in Colossians 4:11 before mentioning Luke in 4:14, Paul’s greeting identifies “Aristarchus, Onesimus, Mark…” and others saying “these are the only Jews among my fellow workers for the Kingdom of God.”  So, Luke … not a Jew.

Yet, great evidence exists that Luke was nonetheless a well-studied student of Jewish theology with a profound, obviously spirit-filled understanding of the importance, impact, purpose, position, and person of Jesus Christ.  This made him a great companion to Paul, the former Jewish Pharisee and now Christ’s apostle to the gentiles.

The Gospel of Luke is one of the three “Synoptic” Gospels with its many similarities to Matthew and Mark, while the Gospel of John is considered separate, i.e., “The Fourth Gospel.”  Some say Matthew was written heavily laden with Hebrew images for the Jews, Mark was succinct for the “to-the-point” Romans, Luke wrote elegantly for the Greeks, and John wrote in the Holy Spirit for everybody.

Each Gospel, then, had its own purpose and audience.  Luke may be famous as a doctor, but he held sufficient academic authority as a writer and historian that his testimony of Christ proved compelling even to those who did not start with belief in the Jewish God.  Luke’s polished use of eyewitness testimony, as an “outsider,” gave him the targeted purpose of preaching Christ not only to gentiles and pagans, but to the leaders and intellectuals of other cultures “to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

Jesus, the Son of God, was a new idea for everybody.  Many Jews rebelled, but the story of Jesus traveled quickly and non-Jewish leaders and intellectuals who heard the tale of the Resurrection and the Son of God wanted to know if it were true.  That is likely the case with Theophilus (“lover of God”), assumed to be a Roman elite and likely a patron and publisher for Luke’s investigation.  Theophilus wanted to know truth.

Luke’s Gospel also had another purpose.  Written in 60 A.D. or after, heresies had already crept into the church, e.g., think of Paul’s letters to the Church at Corinth.  Luke wrote, citing eyewitnesses, to preserve truth among the believers, and wrote as an intellectual outsider so elites elsewhere couldn’t shrug him off “because he was a Jew.”

We don’t know a lot about Luke, but thanks to him, we know a lot about Jesus.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) is teaching a series on “The People in the Gospel of Luke” in e91’s Mustard Seed Bible Study, 10:30 a.m. Thursdays, free and open to all.