Gospel of Luke

Synopsis

Luke's Gospel has been called "the Gospel of the nations, full of mercy and hope, assured to the world by the love of a suffering Saviour;" "the Gospel of the saintly life;" "the Gospel for the Greeks; the Gospel of the future; the Gospel of progressive Christianity, of the universality and gratuitousness of the gospel; the historic Gospel; the Gospel of Jesus as the good Physician and the Saviour of mankind;" the "Gospel of the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man;" "the Gospel of womanhood;" "the Gospel of the outcast, of the Samaritan, the publican, the harlot, and the prodigal;" "the Gospel of tolerance."

The main characteristic of this Gospel, as Farrar (Cambridge Bible, Luke, Introd.) remarks, is expressed in the motto, "Who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil" (Acts 10:38; compare with Luke 4:18). Luke wrote for the "Hellenic world." This Gospel is indeed "rich and precious."

Authorship

The evangelist does not claim to have been an eyewitness of Jesus's life, but to have investigated everything carefully and to have written an orderly narrative of the facts (Luke 1:1-4). The authors of the other three Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and John, probably used similar sources. According to the two-source hypothesis, the most commonly accepted solution to the synoptic problem, Luke's sources included the Gospel of Mark and another collection of lost sayings known by scholars as Q.

Date of composition

The date of this gospel's composition is uncertain. Traditionally, Christians believe that Luke wrote under the direction, if the dictation, of Paul. This would place it as having been written before the Acts, the date of the composition of which is generally fixed at about A.D. 63 or 64. Consequently the tradition is that this Gospel was written about 60 or 63, when Luke may have been at Caesarea in attendance on Paul, who was then a prisoner. If the alternate conjecture is correct, that it was written at Rome during Paul's imprisonment there, then it would date earlier, 40-60. Evangelical Christians like to date the gospels very early.

Unfortunately, nowhere in Luke or Acts does it say that the author is Luke, the companion of Paul — this ascription is late second century. Furthermore, the text itself reveals hints it was not written as a dictation of a single author, but made use of multiple sources.

Since Mark was probably written after the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem, around A.D. 70, Luke could not have been written before 70. Scholars date Luke around A.D. 80-130 and Acts thereafter, also 80-130. The de-emphasis of the Parousia and the universalization of the message strongly indicates a much later date than A.D. 60-70 as believed by the traditional view.

The Codex Bezae, in the University Library, Cambridge, contains a 5th or 6th century manuscript that is the oldest complete manuscript of Luke, in Greek and Latin versions on facing pages. The Greek version appears to have descended from an offshoot of the main manuscript tradition and departs from familiar readings at many points. Though the text bears many intended corrections, often to bring it into line with the usual readings, the Codex Bezae demonstrates the latitude in manuscripts of scripture that still existed quite late in the tradition. Historians have minimized the Codex's importance, citing it generally only when it supports the common readings.

Relationship with other gospels

Most New Testament scholars believe the author of Luke relied on Mark and Q as his primary sources.

According to Farrar, "Out of a total of 1151 verses, Luke has 389 in common with Matthew and Mark, 176 in common with Matthew alone, 41 in common with Mark alone, leaving 544 peculiar to himself. In many instances all three use identical language."

There are seventeen parables peculiar to this Gospel. Luke also attributes to Jesus seven miracles which are not present in Matthew or Mark. The synoptic Gospels are related to each other after the following scheme. If the contents of each Gospel are numbered at 100, then when compared this result is obtained: Mark has 7 peculiarities, 93 coincidences. Matthew 42 peculiarities, 58 coincidences. Luke 59 peculiarities, 41 coincidences. That is, thirteen-fourteenths of Mark, four-sevenths of Matthew, and two-fifths of Luke describe the same events in similar language. Luke's style is more polished than that of Matthew and Mark with fewer Hebrew idioms. He uses a few Latin words (Luke 7:41, 8:30, 11:33, 12:6, and 19:20), but no Syriac or Hebrew words except sikera, an exciting drink of the nature of wine, but not made of grapes (from Heb. shakar, "he is intoxicated", Leviticus 10:9), probably palm wine. This Gospel contains twenty-eight distinct references to the Old Testament.

Many words and phrases are common to both the Gospel of Luke and the Letters of Paul; compare:

• Luke 4:22 with Colossians 4:6.
• Luke 4:32 with 1 Corinthians 2:4.
• Luke 6:36 with 2 Corinthians 1:3.
• Luke 6:39 with Romans 2:19.
• Luke 9:56 with 2 Corinthians 10:8.
• Luke 10:8 with 1 Corinthians 10:27.
• Luke 11:41 with Titus 1:15.
• Luke 18:1 with 2 Thessalonians 1:11.
• Luke 21:36 with Ephesians 6:18.
• Luke 22:19-20 with 1 Corinthians 11:23-29.
• Luke 24:34 with 1 Corinthians 15:5.

External link

• (French; English translation

This article was originally based on text from Easton Bible Dictionary of 1897 and from M.G. Easton M.A., D.D., Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Third Edition, published by Thomas Nelson, 1897.

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