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Name of the third book of the
New Testament and the longest of the four canonical gospels, though it
has only 24 chapters against the 25 of the Gospel of Matthew. It
describes the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth, from the events of
his birth to his ascension, i.e. the moment when he was taken up to
heaven in his resurrected body.
The author is Luke the Evangelist, an early
Greco-Syrian physician by trade and historical Christian writer, who was
a disciple of the apostle Paul, whom he often accompanied on his
apostolic journeys and to whom he was loyal until his martyrdom. He is
also accredited as the writer of the Acts of the Apostles and many even
believe that the two works originally constituted a two-volume work,
which together span the initial sixty years of the first century. Luke
lived in the Greek city of Antioch in ancient Syria and died at the age
of 84 near Boiotia (Βοιωτία), a city in ancient Greece.
Luke's account, described in the preface as a
historical report, has a special emphasis on the activity of the Holy
Spirit, prayer, joyfulness, and women, and certain popular stories, such
as the Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan, are found only in this
gospel. The gospel is
addressed to Theophilus, which from Greek translates as
‘God-loving’
or ‘friend of (or with) God’,
and may not be a name but a generic term for a Christian, as it is
clearly directed at the early believers rather than at a general
audience. Like Mark, but unlike Matthew, the intended audience is
Gentile, and it assures readers that the new religion is not exclusively
for Jews. The composition
of this synoptic gospel is dated between the early 60s and the later
decades of the 1st century AD, and for its chronology Luke used the
Gospel of Mark (Markan priority) and the so-called Q source, i.e. a
hypothetical textual source (Quelle), with common material found in both
Luke and Matthew, but not in Mark. In addition, the author may have
drawn from other, independent written records.
In Greek this gospel is known as Kata Loukan (Κατὰ
Λουκᾶν), i.e. ‘According to Luke’.
Luke Chapter 1;
2;
3;
4;
5;
6;
7;
8;
9;
10;
11;
12;
13;
14;
15;
16;
17;
18;
19;
20;
21;
22;
23;
24. |
