Who was Luke in the Bible?

The writer of the third Gospel does not mention his name, though he speaks of himself in the opening verses of the first chapter. The first verse in the Book of Acts makes known that the same writer who wrote the Book of Acts also wrote the third Gospel and that both mention the same person, who is addressed, that is Theophilus. Furthermore, we learn from Acts 1:1, that the third Gospel had been written, when the writer of Acts began his work. Inasmuch as Luke is undoubtedly the writer of the Book of Acts, he is also the penman of the third Gospel. "It has been generally and almost unanimously acknowledged that the Gospel, which we now possess is that written by Luke." (Dean Alford.)

Luke did not belong, as some hold, to the seventy our Lord sent forth to minister. His own words answer this statement. (Read Luke 1:2.) The Epistles give us the only reliable information about his person. In Colossians 4:14 we read of him as "the beloved physician." In the Epistle to Philemon he is called a fellow laborer of the Apostle Paul. From Second Timothy we learn that he was in Rome when Paul was a prisoner and remained faithful to him when others forsook the Apostle. He had also joined the Apostle during his second missionary journey at Troas (Acts 16:10). The evidence of it is found in the little word "we." He went with Paul to Macedonia and remained sometime in Philippi. In Colossians, chapter 4 we find also the fact brought out that he was a Gentile. First Paul mentions those of the circumcision (Colossians 4:11). Then Epaphras, a Colossian Gentile, is mentioned, followed by the names of Luke and Demas, both undoubtedly Gentiles. He is therefore the only writer in the Bible who was a Gentile. The reason that he was selected to write the Gospel, which pictures the Lord Christ, as the perfect Man, and the Book of Acts is more than interesting. The Gospel of Luke, a Gentile, addressed to a gentile (Theophilus) is the Gospel for the Gentiles. And the same Gentile instrument was chosen to relate the history of the Gospel going forth from Jerusalem to the Gentiles. Other critical questions, such as the time it was written, where it was written, etc., we are obliged to pass by.

There is no doubt that the writer of the third Gospel record is the one whom the Holy Spirit selected to write this account of the establishment of the Church on earth and the events connected with it. This becomes clear if we read the beginning of that Gospel and compare it with the beginning of Acts. The writer in the third Gospel says: "It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus, that thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed" (Luke 1:3-4). The Acts of the Apostles begin: "The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach." The former treatise known to Theophilus is the third Gospel, called the Gospel of Luke. The writer of that Gospel must therefore be the penman of the Book of Acts.

Though we do not find Luke's name mentioned in the Gospel, nor in the second Book, he was entrusted to write by inspiration, there is no doubt that he wrote them both. We find his name mentioned a number of times in the Epistles, and these references give us the only reliable information we have. In Colossians 4:14 we read of him as "the beloved physician." In the Epistle of Philemon he is called a fellow laborer of the Apostle Paul, and from the last Epistle the great Apostle wrote, the second Epistle to Timothy, we learn that Luke was in Rome with Paul and was faithful to him, while others had forsaken the prisoner of the Lord. From Colossians 4 we also may gather that he was not a Jew, but a Gentile, for with the eleventh verse Paul had mentioned those of the circumcision. Epaphras was one of the Colossians, a Gentile, and then follow the names of Luke and Demas, both of them undoubtedly Gentiles. The reason that the Holy Spirit selected a Gentile to write the Gospel which pictures our Lord as the Man and the Saviour and the Book of Acts, is as obvious as it is interesting. Israel had rejected God's gift, and the glad news of salvation was now to go to the Gentiles. The Gospel of Luke addressed by a Gentile to a Gentile (Theophilus) is the Gospel for the Gentiles, and Luke the Gentile was chosen to give the history of the Gospel going forth from Jerusalem to the Gentiles.

Fellow labourer with Paul, and called 'the beloved physician.' He is only three times mentioned by name. Col. 4:14; 2 Tim. 4:11; Philemon 24. He was the writer of the Gospel bearing his name, and also of the Acts of the Apostles, the introduction to both being addressed to a certain Theophilus. It is supposed, from Col. 4:11, 14, that he was a Gentile, though these verses are no proof of it.

"Luke, the beloved physician" (Col. 4:14). These few words of the Apostle Paul, with the additional notices of the evangelist in Philemon 24 and 2 Tim. 4:11, constitute nearly all our knowledge of him, as derived from the pen of the Apostle of the Gentiles. Other details about him must be gleaned from himself.

In common with Mark, he never names himself. St. Paul alone has furnished us with his name, whom he designated, in Philemon 24, by the honourable title of "fellow-labourer." An honourable title we say, considering who Paul was, but one borne in common with others, as we see in that Epistle and elsewhere (Rom. 16:3, 9, 21; Phil. 2:25; 4:3; Col. 4:11). Further he was "beloved" of Paul. Now, though the Apostle thus characterises the saints collectively at Corinth, Ephesus, Philippi, and Thessalonica, he does not bestow this appellation on every individual among them. Of saints in Rome, Epaenetus, Ampliatus, Stachys and Persis are thus described; but not Aquila, nor Priscilla, though he knew them well, and valued them much. Timothy, on the other hand (1 Cor. 4:17; 2 Tim. 1:2); Tychicus (Ephes. 6:21; Col. 4:7); Onesimus (Col. 4:9; Philemon 16); Epaphras (Col. 1:7); with Philemon (Phil. 1), come in for that same term of endearment, which is never applied to Titus, Paul's own son in the faith, nor to Aristarchus, who like Epaphras had shared in his imprisonment (Col. 4:10). Evidently then the term "beloved" was applied to individuals with discrimination. And though Luke never, that we read of, shared in the Apostle's imprisonment, Paul writes of him in a way which intimates marked endearment for the physician. He was Paul's fellow-labourer, and one beloved of him likewise, and must be carefully distinguished from Lucius (Rom. 16:21), a kinsman of the Apostle. The two names are really distinct, though to an English reader there might seem some resemblance.

Travels with Paul. — He was a physician; but his parentage, birthplace, the time of and circumstances connected with his conversion, the place and manner of his death, — these personal details are unnoticed in the Word; so we leave them among the things of which we have no certain knowledge. He may have been a Roman freedman, though of that there is no certainty. Most probably he was a Gentile, and not, like Paul, one of the circumcision (Col. 4:11). Certainly he was a man of education, and he has by his writings greatly enriched the vocabulary of the Greek New Testament. He was reticent, however, about himself, for we only know of his having travelled with Paul by the change of pronouns in the Acts from the third person to the first person plural, viz., we, us, our. At Troas, when the Apostles first visited that town, Luke seems to have met him, and travelled with him to Philippi (Acts 16:10-17), where he apparently remained when Paul went on to Thessalonica, and subsequently to Achaia. Watching perhaps over the newly-formed assembly at Philippi, which was early noted for its thoughtful care of Paul when labouring elsewhere (Phil. 4:15), Luke appears to have attached himself again to the Apostle, when the latter passed through Macedonia from Greece on his last recorded journey to Jerusalem (Acts 20:5). From that time he was Paul's travelling companion till he reached Rome, that hurried journey 'by night from Jerusalem to Caesarea excepted (Acts 23:23-33). He therefore witnessed many events of deep interest. He was present at the affectionate leave-taking between the Ephesian elders and Paul (Acts 20:37). He was one of the company who held that prayer-meeting outside the city of Tyre (21:5-6); and, in common with the rest in the house of Philip the evangelist at Caesarea, attempted, but ineffectually, to dissuade Paul from going forward to Jerusalem (21:12). At Jerusalem he lodged with him in the house of Mnason of Cyprus, probably in former days a Hellenistic Jew, though then an old disciple; and he was present at that memorable interview with James and the elders, and heard doubtless their proposals, compliance with which nearly cost Paul his life, and led to his prolonged enforced cessation from active missionary work, owing to the Apostle's subsequent appeal to the Emperor at Rome (Acts 21:18-25).

Luke, “the beloved physician” was no apostle and probably no Jew either (compare Col. 4:11 and 14; the brothers of Jewish background are mentioned separately in verse 11. Therefore, we may conclude, that Luke and Demas, the co-workers mentioned in verse 14, were Christians who had a heathen background).

Luke was a faithful companion and co-worker of the apostle Paul for years: At first Luke accompanied Paul during his second journey from Troas to Philippi (Acts 16:10) and during his third journey from Philippi to Jerusalem (Acts 20:6. Note the word “we”). Finally Luke accompanied Paul (when he was a prisoner) to Rome (Acts 27:1). There he was in immediate company of the apostle Paul when he wrote the letters to the Colossians and to Philemon and at last he was the only one to remain with the apostle when he wrote his second letter to Timothy.

Luke, the "beloved physician," historian, and evangelist appears to have joined Paul at this particular time. From verse 10 he writes in the first person plural: "We endeavoured to go into Macedonia." It is supposed that he was a Gentile by birth and converted at Antioch. He seems to have remained the faithful companion of the apostle till the close of his labours and his afflictions. (2 Timothy 4:11)

Luke, "the beloved physician" and companion of Paul.

Luke was probably the only non-Jew called of God to write a Bible book. The Gospel bearing his name is the longest of all. If we include the Acts of the Apostles Luke has written the greatest part of the NT after the Apostle Paul.

First, as to the authorship of the third of the Gospels, which, like the rest, is anonymous. This has been traditionally ascribed to LUKE; in the manuscript copies that have come down to us, the shortest form of title, "according to Luke," is borne by the two oldest, the so-called "Sinaitic" () and "Vatican" (B). The Apostle Paul names in his Epistles, as a close companion in his labours, a Luke, described by him as "the beloved physician" (Col. 4:14). Comparison of the Preface to the Gospel with the introductory words of the "Acts of the Apostles" — also traditionally connected with the name of the same writer — in which (Luke 1:1) reference is made to a "former treatise," seems to determine the authorship without dispute, for, although the later book does not name its writer, the common style and dedication support the belief that these two books were produced by one and the same person, each of them affording indication that he was a physician.

And I might observe the fitness of the penman to the peculiar task assigned him. For we hear of Luke in the divine history as the companion of the apostle of the Gentiles. Acts 16:11; Col. 4; 2 Tim. 4; Philem. 24. He became associated in labour with one whose ministry, I may say, respected neither Jew nor Greek, but addressed itself to man as such. And indeed I believe that he himself had been a Gentile. His name is of Gentile character, and he seems to be distinguished in Col. 4:14 from brethren who were of the circumcision.