Bible Question: Who is Luke? |
Bible Answer: Below is an excerpt from Adam Clark's Commentary. I hope it's helpful. PREFACE TO THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE. WITH A SHORT ACCOUNT OF HIS LIFE. THERE is little certain known of this evangelist: from what is spoken in the Scriptures, and by the best informed of the primitive fathers, the following probable account is collected:- Luke was, according to Dr. Lardner, a Jew by birth, and an early convert to Christianity; but Michaelis thinks he was a Gentile, and brings Col 4:10,11,14, in proof, where St. Paul distinguished Aristarchus, Marcus, and Jesus, who was called Justus, from Epaphras, Lucas, and Demas, who were of the circumcision, i.e. Jews. Some think he was one of our Lord's seventy disciples. It is worthy of remark that he is the only evangelist who mentions the commission given by Christ to the seventy, Lu 10:1-20. It is likely he is the Lucius mentioned Ro 16:21, and if so he was related to the Apostle Paul, and that it is the same Lucius of Cyrene who is mentioned Ac 13:1, and in general with others, Ac 11:20. Some of the ancients, and some of the most learned and judicious among the moderns, think he was one of the two whom our Lord met on the way to Emmaus on the day of his resurrection, as related Lu 24:13-35; one of these was called Cleopas, Lu 24:18, the other is not mentioned, the evangelist, himself, being the person and the relator. St. Paul styles him his fellow-labourer, Phm 1:24. It is barely probable that he is the person mentioned, Col 4:14, Luke, the beloved physician. All the ancients of repute, such as Eusebius, Gregory Nyssen, Jerome, Paulinus, Euthalius, Euthymius, and others, agree that he was a physician, but where he was born, and where he exercised the duties of his profession, are not known. Many moderns have attributed to him the most profound skill in the science of painting, and that he made some pictures of the Virgin Mary. This is justly esteemed fabulous; nor is this science attributed to him by any writer previously to Nicephorus Callisti, in the fourteenth century, an author who scarcely deserves any credit, especially in relations not confirmed by others. He accompanied St. Paul when he first went into Macedonia, Ac 16:8-40; 20:1ff;Ac 27:1ff;Ac 28:1ff. Whether he went with him constantly afterwards is not certain; but it is evident he accompanied him from Greece through Macedonia and Asia to Jerusalem, where he is supposed to have collected many particulars of the evangelic history: from Jerusalem he went with Paul to Rome, where he stayed with him the two years of his imprisonment in that city. This alone makes out the space of five years, and upwards. It is probable that he left St. Paul when he was set at liberty, and that he then went into Greece, where he finished and published this Gospel, and the book of the Acts, which he dedicated to Theophilus, an honourable Christian friend of his in that country. It is supposed that he died in peace about the eightieth or eighty-fourth year of his age. Some suppose he published this Gospel fifteen, others twenty-two years after the ascension of Christ. See much on this subject in Lardner, Works, vol. vi. p. 104, c., and in Michaelis's Introduction to the New Testament |
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JamesCastle | ||
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kang | ||
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goldie76 | ||
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