Luke (Evangelist)
Overview
- Testament: New
- Role: Physician; Gentile Christian; author of the Third Gospel and Acts; long-term companion of Paul (Apostle)
- Family: No family mentioned in Scripture
- Key Books: Luke, Acts, Colossians, 2 Timothy, Philemon
Biography
Luke is identified as a physician in Colossians 4:14 — “Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas, greet you” — a detail that explains the precision of his medical descriptions and the particular care given to birth narratives, healing accounts, and symptomatic detail in his Gospel. He is the only Gentile author in the canon, making his work a remarkable early witness to the universality of the gospel.
Luke’s method is stated plainly in his own prologue: “It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus, that thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed” (Luke 1:3-4). He was not an eyewitness of Jesus’s ministry but a careful historian who gathered accounts from eyewitnesses and primary sources. Mary’s perspective in the Nativity narrative, the vivid detail in the parable accounts, and the “we” sections of Acts all reflect this close access to firsthand testimony.
Luke’s presence with Paul (Apostle) is confirmed by the “we” passages in Acts (Acts 16:10, 20:5, 27:1 and following) — the sudden shifts to first-person plural that reveal Luke traveling with Paul during the second and third missionary journeys and on the voyage to Rome. At the end of Paul’s life he was still present: “Only Luke is with me” (2 Timothy 4:11). The breadth of Acts — from Jerusalem to Rome — is in large measure Luke’s own eyewitness account of the Spirit-empowered expansion of the gospel.
Key Events
- Paul’s Second Missionary Journey — Luke joins the mission at Troas (Acts 16:10, first “we” passage)
- Paul’s Third Missionary Journey — travels with Paul through Macedonia and Achaia
- Paul’s Voyage and Shipwreck — “we” narrative continues; eyewitness to the storm and Malta
- Paul in Rome — present at Paul’s Roman imprisonment; the “we” narrative closes here
Key Verses
“Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas, greet you.” — Colossians 4:14 (KJV)
“Only Luke is with me.” — 2 Timothy 4:11 (KJV)
“It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order.” — Luke 1:3 (KJV)
Cross-References
- Paul (Apostle) — long-term companion; present at first and second Roman imprisonments
- Acts — his own narrative of the church’s expansion; “we” sections are personal eyewitness
- Luke — his Gospel account; most extensive birth and infancy narrative
- Theophilus — the patron/recipient of both Luke and Acts
- Colossae — greeted with Demas from Paul’s prison letter
Notes
- Only Gentile author of canonical Scripture — his outsider perspective on Israel’s God is deliberate
- Greatest prose stylist in the NT; Luke-Acts together form the longest contribution to the NT canon by a single author
- The “we” sections (Acts 16, 20, 27-28) are among the most reliable ancient travel narratives we possess
- Tradition identifies him with Antioch in Syria, though this is not in the canon