Who was Luke in the Bible?
Luke never puts his own name in anything he wrote, yet he gave the church two of its longest books and stayed with Paul when almost everyone else had gone. What we know of him comes from a handful of passing remarks by Paul and from the quiet clues Luke left in his own history.
How Little Is Recorded
Everything the Bible tells us about Luke directly fits in a few lines. One writer counts them up:
C E Stuart"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, make up nearly all our knowledge of him, as far as it comes from the pen of the Apostle to the Gentiles. Other details about him must be gathered from himself.
Even the affectionate word Paul attaches to his name was not handed out to everyone:
C E StuartPaul alone has given us his name, and in Philemon 24 he calls him by the honourable title of "fellow-labourer"… Timothy, Tychicus, Onesimus, Epaphras and Philemon all receive 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 his imprisonment. Clearly then the term "beloved" was applied to individuals with discrimination.
A Doctor Who Stayed A Doctor
Paul identifies Luke by his trade, and writers see something freeing in that:
Hamilton SmithLuke is called "the beloved physician", which shows that his earthly calling as a doctor was not incompatible with his higher call to ministry as the companion of the Apostle in his travels, and as the inspired writer of the Gospel.
Another writer reads the title itself as a description of the man, not just his job:
Leslie M. GrantLuke is called "the beloved physician" (v.14), earning this title through a character of kind concern for the needs of others, which drew out a loving response.
Jew Or Gentile?
Most writers argue Luke was not Jewish, because of where Paul places his name in the list of greetings:
Arno Clemens GaebeleinFrom Colossians 4 we may also gather that he was not a Jew, but a Gentile, for in verse 11 Paul had already 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 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.
Not everyone treats this as settled. A Bible dictionary in the same collection notes the same verses and then adds: "It is supposed, from Col. 4:11, 14, that he was a Gentile, though these verses are no proof of it." So commentators differ on how firm the conclusion is.
Travelling With Paul
Luke tells us he was there only by slipping into the first person. He is the most self-effacing writer in the New Testament:
C E StuartHe was reticent about himself, and we only know he travelled with Paul from the change of pronouns in Acts from the third person to the first person plural — we, us, our. At Troas, when the Apostle first visited that town, Luke seems to have met him and travelled with him to Philippi (Acts 16:10-17), where he apparently stayed when Paul went on to Thessalonica… From that time he was Paul's travelling companion until he reached Rome.
The same restraint runs through the shipwreck account, where he reports everyone else's escape and says nothing of his own:
C E StuartIn common with the rest he got safely to land, though whether by swimming or by clinging to some part of the wreck he has not told us — keeping himself, as he always did, as much in the background as possible.
The Last Friend
Paul's final letter names Luke as the only one left with him. That sentence is where his character shows clearest:
Hamilton SmithDemas had forsaken the Apostle, having loved this present world. It does not say that Demas had forsaken Christ, but he found it impossible to go on with such a devoted representative of Christ and at the same time keep in with the present world. One or the other had to be given up… Only Luke was with him. This faithful companion of his active labours stayed with him in his dying moments, and the Apostle delights to record his devoted love.
Why He Was The Right Writer
Both his Gospel and Acts are traced to him, and the match between the man and the message is often noted:
William KellyFor the writing of the third Gospel, Luke was clearly the most fitting instrument. From Colossians 4 it seems he was a Gentile, and a physician by profession — both details, along with the dedication to Theophilus, fit wonderfully with the way our Lord is presented there: not so much the Messiah, nor the servant, but "the man Christ Jesus"… in His obedience and prayerfulness, in His social sympathies, in miracles of healing and cleansing, in parables of special tenderness towards the lost.
His personal service to Paul ended at Rome; his other service did not.
C E StuartLuke's ministry to the saints is shown in his writings. The trusted, personal and beloved friend of the Apostle Paul was the sacred historian of apostolic days, and one of the four evangelists to whom we owe an inspired account of the life of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Summary
- Hidden — Named only three times by Paul, Luke never writes his own name; we learn he was travelling with Paul only from the pronoun shifting to "we."
- Physician — His trade is the title Paul gives him, and it never stopped his higher service; writers read the word "beloved" as an earned mark of kind concern.
- Gentile — Placed after the men "of the circumcision" in Colossians 4, he is widely held to be a non-Jew, though one source cautions those verses prove nothing.
- Faithful — When Demas chose the present world and others went, Luke stayed to the end of Paul's life: "Luke alone is with me."
- Enduring — The friend who stood by one man in a Roman prison left the church a Gospel and a history that still serve everyone.