Theophilus

Theophilus, whose name means friend of God or lover of God, is the person to whom Luke dedicated both his Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles (Luke 1:3; Acts 1:1). Luke addresses him as "most excellent Theophilus" in the Gospel, a title of honor suggesting he was a Roman official or person of significant social rank. He appears to have already received some instruction about Christianity (Luke 1:4) and may have been Luke's patron for the literary project.

Whether Theophilus was a specific individual, a symbolic name for all Christian readers ("lover of God"), or a code name for a Roman patron remains debated. The most natural reading treats him as a real named individual. Nothing further is recorded about him in Scripture, but he stands at the receiving end of the most extensive single contribution to the NT canon.