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The Gospel According to St. Luke

The ancient historian, Eusebius of Caesarea, states that St. Luke came from Antioch, and this gives rise to the assumption that St. Luke was a gentile or proselyte — a gentile converted to Judaism. By vocation he was a physician, as seen in the Epistles of St. Paul to the Colossians. Ancient tradition adds to this that St. Luke was also an artist. The contents of his Gospel explaining in detail the Lord’s instructions to seventy disciples, lead us to conclude that he was one of the seventy. His unusually dynamic narration of the Lord’s appearance to two disciples on their way to Emmaus, where he refers only to Cleopas by name, attest to his being one of the two disciples deemed worthy of the Lord’s appearance (Luke 24:13-33).

Also from the Acts of the Apostles, it is evident that with the second journey of the Apostle Paul, St. Luke became his constant collaborator and an almost inseparable fellow traveler. He was with Apostle Paul at the time of Paul’s first imprisonment during which the Epistles to the Colossians and Philippians were written. He was also with him during the second imprisonment when the second Epistle to Timothy was written, and which ended with a martyr’s death. It is known that after the death of St. Paul, St. Luke preached and died a martyr’s death in Achaia (Greece). During the mid-4th century his holy relics and those of St. Andrew the Apostle were transferred to Constantinople.

As is evident from the preface of the third Gospel, St. Luke wrote it at the request of a prominent man, the most excellent Theophilus, who lived in Antioch and for whom he then wrote the Acts of the Apostles, a seeming continuation of the Gospel narratives (Luke 1:3 and Acts 1:1-2). Incidentally, he not only made use of eye witnesses’ accounts of the ministry of Christ, but also of already existent writings relating to the Lord’s life and teachings. In his own words, he thoroughly scrutinized and compared those writings. Therefore, his Gospel distinguishes itself by its exceptional accuracy in designating times and places of events and strict chronological succession.

The most excellent Theophilus, for whom the third Gospel was written, did not live in Judea nor did he visit Jerusalem; otherwise it would not have been necessary for St. Luke to make geographic clarifications, e.g., that mount Olivet is near Jerusalem, about a Sabbath’s walk, etc. On the other hand, it seems that he was familiar with Syracuse, Phrygia, Puteoli in Italy, the Appian Square and the Three Inns in Rome, all of which were mentioned in the book of Acts and for which St. Luke gives no explanations. According to the assertion of Clement of Alexandria (writing at the beginning of the 3rd century), Theophilus was a rich and well-known resident of Antioch (Syria), who professed faith in Christ and whose house served as a church for Antiochian Christians.

St. Luke’s Gospel clearly shows the influence of St. Paul with whom St. Luke collaborated and traveled. As the Apostle to the Gentiles, St. Paul tried most of all to disclose the great truth, that Jesus Christ, the Messiah, came to earth not only for the Jews but also for the gentiles and is the Savior of all the world and all people.

In conjunction with this fundamental idea, which is clearly conveyed throughout the entire third Gospel, Jesus Christ’s genealogy is traced to the first ancestor of all mankind, Adam, and to God Himself, in order to emphasize His significance for the entire human race (Luke 3:23-38).

Certain passages, such as the mission of Elijah to the widow in the region of Sydon, the curing of Naaman the Syrian (Luke 4:26-27) from leprosy by the prophet Elisha, the parable of the prodigal son, and that of the publican and the Pharisee are found in tight, inner cohesion with particular development of the teaching of Apostle Paul regarding the salvation not only of the Jews, but also of the gentiles, and of man’s acquittal before God not by means of the law, but by God’s grace, given exclusively through boundless mercy and God’s love of mankind. No one had so clearly portrayed God’s love for repentant sinners as did St. Luke, placing in his Gospel a collection of parables and events on this subject. In addition to the parables just mentioned, one also remembers the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, the good Samaritan, the repentance of the chief of the publicans, Zacchaeus, and other sections, as well as the profound words that “happiness exists for God’s angels in the repentance of one sinner” (Luke 15:7).

The time and place of the writing of St. Luke’s Gospel can be derived through deduction, that it was written prior to the Acts of the Apostles, which seemingly provided a means for the Gospel’s continuation (Acts 1:1). The book of Acts ends with a narrative of St. Paul’s two year ministry in Rome (Acts 28:30). This took place approximately 63 years after the birth of Christ. Consequently, the Gospel of St. Luke could not have been written later than this, and presumably was written in Rome.