Forasmuch as many have undertaken to draw up a relation concerning the matters fully believed among us,
Luke's Gospel does not open with a prophecy or a family tree. It opens with a writer explaining himself. Others had already tried to write the story of Jesus down, and he is adding his own account. That raises the questions this verse has always raised. Who were these "many"? Why was another record needed? Is what follows human research, or the word of God?
Why So Many Wrote
Writers point out that many accounts were to be expected, once such a Person had lived among people.
The life of the Lord Jesus Christ on earth showed the Word made flesh... The only Son of the Father, who made God known by all He did and said, was walking about among people. No wonder then, as Luke has told us, that "many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us." It was only natural that people wrote accounts, to keep the memory of what the Lord Jesus said and did... Records about Him were clearly many.
What Became of Those Accounts
None of those earlier accounts has survived. One commentator draws a conclusion from that.
He lets us know that there were many of these accounts. They rested on what was handed down by those who were eyewitnesses from the beginning and servants of the word. These works have gone; they were human. They meant well, no doubt. These were not people twisting the truth on purpose. They were people trying, in their own wisdom, to set out what only God could make known rightly.
"It Seemed Good to Me Also"
The word "also" links Luke to the many. But readers have long noticed what he does not say about his own sources.
"It seemed good to me also" stands in contrast with these many that had taken it in hand. They had done the work in their own way; he did it in another... He states that they depended on those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word. He says nothing of the kind about himself, though some have hastily read that into the phrase "to me also"... he does not say that his account came from eyewitnesses. He says he knows everything thoroughly from the very first, but never tells us how he came to know it.
Commentators differ here. Others read the same verses as the work of a man doing careful research, with God's inspiration working behind his own intention.
Luke's introduction shows that he wanted to give exact information in this letter to Theophilus. Yet he had not thought of himself as a man whom God was inspiring... But God had decided that Luke would write Scripture, and took hold of him for that purpose. Luke did not realise that God was inspiring him. So we may expect depths and beauties in this book that Luke himself had not designed.
Human Motive, Divine Authorship
Both sides land in the same place: a personal letter turns out to be a gift to everyone.
In this way God has taught the whole church. He teaches it through the picture of the Lord's life that this man of God gives us. Christian motives moved Luke himself, while the Holy Spirit guided and inspired him for the good of all believers.
Certainty as the Aim
The goal of the preface is not to tell something new. It is assurance. One writer stretches that goal from Theophilus, the man Luke wrote to, out to us.
In the opening verses Luke states why he is writing his Gospel. He wanted to bring certainty to the mind of one man who had come to faith from outside Israel... Understanding that order, and having the facts in writing, would bring certainty to Theophilus. It will bring the same certainty to us. We see here how certainty comes with the Holy Writings — the Word of God. If we did not have the Holy Writings, we should have certainty about nothing.
The writing itself carries that certainty. No other authority stands between the reader and the text.
The Gospels were written for believers — this one first of all for a man named Theophilus, so that he could be sure of the things he had been taught. He had the instruction, and this was to make it all quite certain to him. No church stands in between to interpret it for him.
What This Account Sets Out to Show
The preface is the doorway into a book with its own character. One writer describes the shape of that book as a movement from silence to song.
Luke presents the Man of Sorrows — the Man who knew grief — and the good pleasure of God... It has been well said that the story begins with a silent priest, an empty temple and a childless home. It ends with a fruitful company praising God in the temple.
Summary
- Many — Records about Jesus were many and well-meant, but they were human work. They have not survived. Luke neither attacks them nor sends Theophilus back to them.
- Also — Luke joins himself to those writers by that one word. But he describes himself in another way: he knows everything thoroughly from the very first, and never says how.
- Inspired — Commentators read his own words about himself in different ways. They agree that the Holy Spirit stood behind the human motive, so the book holds more than its writer planned.
- Certainty — The purpose is assurance for one named reader. The same written words give the same certainty to every reader after him.
- Praise — What starts in a silent temple with a childless home ends with a company praising God. The certainty Luke aims at is meant to end in worship.