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Luke Introduction
April 7th 2019
Meat
Well, let’s get into the Gospel written by Luke. And to begin let’s learn a little about the man Luke, who unlike the Apostles of Jesus, was said to be a Gentile.
However even this apparent fact is in question as one commentator says:
It has been made a matter of inquiry whether Luke was a Gentile or a Jew. On this subject there is no positive testimony. Jerome and others of the early church fathers say that he was a Syrian, and born at Antioch.
The most probable opinion seems to be that he was a proselyte to the Jewish religion, though descended from Gentile parents.
For this opinion two reasons may be assigned of some weight.
He was intimately acquainted, as appears by the Gospel and the Acts, with the Jewish rites, customs, opinions, and prejudices; and he wrote in their dialect, that is, with much of the Hebrew phraseology, in a style similar to the other evangelists, from which it appears that he was accustomed to the Jewish religion, and was, therefore, probably a proselyte.
However, the preface to his Gospel, as critics have remarked, is pure classic Greek, unlike the Greek that was used by native Jews; from which it seems not improbable that he was by birth and education a Gentile.
Additionally, in the Epistle to the Colossians, (4:9-11), we find Paul saying that Aristarchus, and Marcus, and Barnabas, and Justus saluted them, “who are,” he adds, “of the circumcision,” (meaning, Jews by birth). But three verses later (in Colossians 4:14) he says that Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas also saluted them; but since he does not call them of the circumcision, it seems that they were by birth Gentiles.
What is more interesting to me is that the date and circumstances of his conversion are unknown but according to his own statement (in the second verse of our first chapter) he was not an “eye-witness and minister of the word from the beginning.”
What this means is that the things Luke writes are NOT from his own experience – they were communicated to him by another or perhaps others.
Because Luke is mentioned by name in
Colossians 4:14 (which says) “Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas, greet you.”
And 2nd Timothy 4:11 which says:
“Only Luke is with me. Take Mark, and bring him with thee: for he is profitable to me for the ministry.
2nd Corinthians 13:14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen. <
