Luke

Luke (Greek Loukas) was a Gentile Christian physician and the author of the Third Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles — two volumes that together make up about a quarter of the New Testament, more than any other single writer. Paul calls him “the beloved physician” (Colossians 4:14), and his medical training shows in the care of his accounts. He was almost certainly a Gentile, distinguished in Colossians 4:10-14 from Paul’s Jewish co-workers — making him likely the only non-Jewish author in the Bible.

Luke was a close companion of Paul rather than an eyewitness of Jesus’ ministry. The famous “we” passages in Acts, where the narrative shifts to the first person, mark the stretches he travelled with the apostle — from Troas on the second journey, through the return to Jerusalem, and on the perilous voyage to Rome (Acts 16:10-17; Acts 20:5-15; Acts 27:1-28:16). He remained faithful to the end: during Paul’s final imprisonment, when others had deserted him, Paul wrote, “Luke alone is with me” (2 Timothy 4:11), and counted him among his “fellow workers” (Philemon 1:24).

His two-volume work, addressed to Theophilus, is the result of careful research — having “followed all things closely,” he writes “an orderly account… that you may have certainty” (Luke 1:1-4; Acts 1:1-2). The Gospel traces salvation history from the temple and a manger in Bethlehem to the cross and resurrection; Acts carries it from Jerusalem and Pentecost to the gospel’s arrival in Rome, the heart of the empire. Luke writes with notable literary skill and a universal vision — Jesus as Saviour of all peoples, the Son of Man who “came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10).

Luke’s Gospel is especially treasured for its tenderness toward the marginalized — women, the poor, Samaritans, and tax collectors — and for material found nowhere else: the fullest nativity narrative (Luke 2:1-20), the songs of Mary and Simeon, and the parables of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) and the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32). His emphasis on prayer, the Holy Spirit, joy, and God’s mercy to outsiders has made his writings a cornerstone of the church’s understanding of the gospel’s reach to the ends of the earth.