A Study in Luke

This week, as we kick off a new year in our chapter-a-day study of the New Testament, I will read through the Gospel of Luke, one of my favorite New Testament books!  Luke is the longest book in the New Testament (the book of Acts is the second longest) and we will spend over six weeks in it.

The Gospel of Luke is intended to be a careful investigation of the life of Christ, without hearsay, getting to original sources when possible.  In his writing, Luke emphasizes the sacrifice of Jesus for the entire world, not just for the Jews. It is a book on the Kingdom of God made available for all people-groups.

Other themes include:

1. Prayer,
2. Women,
3. Praise/worship,
4. the Gentiles,
5. Jesus/God reaching out to the poor and to "sinners", those whom the religious establishment has ignored;
6. The timing of the Savior's arrival.

Luke carefully wrote a two-volume history of the young church, first describing Jesus in the gospel of Luke and then describing the growth of the church in the book of Acts. Outside of those two books, Luke is mentioned by name three times in the New Testament writings.  He is a companion of Paul in Philemon 24 and II Timothy 4: 11 and described as a "dear friend" and a physician in Colossians 4: 14. The Greek writing of the gospel of Luke and the book of Acts is apparently well-written, by someone comfortable with Greek.

The book, like the book of Acts, is addressed to someone called Theophilus but the author of the book is not identified. Strong early tradition, however, has both this gospel and the book of Acts written by a Gentile believer named Luke, a physician converted during Paul's ministry in Asia Minor (southern Turkey.)

The name Theophilus translates, in Greek, as "one who loves God" or "friend of God." It is equivalent, in that sense, to European names like Amadeus or Gottlieb.  It is not clear if the recipient of the letter was a single specific friend who had taken the name Theophilus or if that name is intended by Luke for a general reader seeking to learn more about God and Jesus.

Luke is as close to an academic as the first century might allow and this may be one of the reasons I like this book!  The author claims to have "carefully researched" the life of Jesus and appears to have interviewed people, such as the mother of Jesus, who were eyewitnesses of his ministry and life.  The author is better than other writers in identifying women who were involved in early church ministry.

Luke pays attention to detail -- careful attention to who said what. He is also careful to identify dates when possible.

Luke was not one of the Twelve. He was not a Jew, but a Gentile. He was not an eyewitness of Christ. This book is different from the other gospels in several ways, notably in viewpoint and detail.

Long ago (1997), I taught a Sunday School class on Luke with friend Diane Kilmer. Some of my notes will reflect Diane's insight. (Thanks Diane!)

Resources for a study in Luke

According to statistics on New Testament writings, Luke is the longest New Testament book with over 19,500 English words and 1151 verses; second and third place go to Acts and the gospel of Matthew, respectively.  It is likely that these lengths are due to careful writing by Luke on a standard length of papyrus scroll.

OverviewBible.com has a nice summary of Luke here. along with theme verses and other simple "overviews".  In a similar way, a nice Youtube video project, The Bible Project, has some short capsules on the book, Luke 1-9, and Luke 10-24.  These are nicely done, great for an introductory class on this book.

In my readings in Luke I also have access to two commentaries: The Gospel of Luke, by William Barclay, and The Gospel According to St. Luke, by Leon Morris.

We will begin Luke tomorrow.  Since Luke 1 is so long (80 verses) we will spend three days on it, violating our "chapter-a-day" mantra....