Luke—Introduction

Introduction—This is a marvelously written book, and probably my favorite in all of the New Testament. There is so much rich material here, and I suspect most, if not all of my chapter summaries will be divided into two or three—or perhaps even four—parts. Much of the necessity for breaking up the chapters into more than one part comes simply from the length of the gospel. This is longest book in the New Testament—word-wise. And when combined with Acts, Luke becomes the most prolific writer in the New Testament, unless Paul authored Hebrews. Regardless, several of the chapters in Luke are of unusual length (chapter one, for example, has 80 verses) and I want to cover them as effectively as possible for a short summary.

Luke tells us to whom he is writing—“most excellent Theophilus” (1:3). We don’t know who this man was; his name is Greek, and the “most excellent” title suggests he might be an official of some sort. Luke is a Gentile, and a doctor (see Colossian 4:11-14); he is one of only two Gentile writers in the Bible (Job being the other, if indeed Job authored the book bearing his name). Luke was a companion of Paul on some of the latter’s missionary journeys, as we shall see when we survey the book of Acts. He is an excellent historian, and the only reason many people today do not believe what he wrote is because of his conclusion—Jesus Christ is the Son of God. But none of the information in Luke’s writings which can be verified by other, independent sources can be gainsaid. He is factual in all points.

Including his conclusion.