01 — Foundations
The historical and ecclesial ground on which the figure of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist Luke stands: who he was, where he came from, and how he is bound to the Apostle Paul. The New Testament names Luke only three times, and never in his own two volumes; almost everything else — his Antiochene birth, his medical vocation, his place among the Seventy, his painting of the Theotokos — is supplied by patristic notice and Church tradition. These files establish what the sources actually say and how securely.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Apostle and Evangelist)
Luke is the only Gentile among the writers of the New Testament and the author of its single longest contribution — the Gospel that bears his name together with the Acts of the Apostles, nearly a quarter of the canon. Yet he is also its most self-effacing author: he never names himself, telling his story instead through the silent first-person plural of the “we” passages of Acts. This section assembles the foundations of his identity: the tradition that he was a Gentile physician of Antioch, educated in Greek and numbered among the Seventy; and the classic case that he was the inseparable companion of the Apostle Paul, drawn from the “we” passages and the three Pauline letters that name him. The fuller treatment of authorship and its critical alternatives is reserved for section 09, Historical Questions (see Authorship and History); here the core is stated.
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| The Physician of Antioch | Luke the Gentile — the only Gentile New Testament author, argued from Colossians 4:11 versus 4:14; “the beloved physician” (Col. 4:14) and the disputed thesis of his medical vocabulary; his Antiochene birth (Eusebius; the Anti-Marcionite Prologue); his traditional place among the Seventy and on the road to Emmaus; the educated Greek of his preface. |
| Companion of Paul | The “we” passages of Acts and the classic argument that the author traveled with Paul; the three Pauline notices (Col. 4:14; 2 Tim. 4:11; Philem. 24); Irenaeus on Luke the inseparable follower of Paul; the Muratorian Canon; and the critical dispute over what the “we” sections prove. |
See Also
- The Third Gospel — the first of Luke’s two volumes, whose polished preface this section introduces
- The Acts of the Apostles — the second volume, whose “we” passages are the load-bearing evidence for Luke’s identity
- Luke the Iconographer — the tradition that the physician was also a painter
- Authorship and History — section 09’s critical treatment of the authorship question
- St. Apostle Paul — the apostle whose gospel Luke set down and whose journeys he shared
- The Church Fathers — Eusebius, Irenaeus, and the patristic notices on which Luke’s biography rests
References
- Eusebius of Caesarea. The Ecclesiastical History. Trans. Arthur C. McGiffert, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series II, Vol. 1. 1890.
- Irenaeus of Lyons. Against Heresies. Trans. in Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1. Buffalo: Christian Literature Company, 1885.
- Fitzmyer, Joseph A. The Gospel According to Luke I–IX. Anchor Bible 28. Garden City: Doubleday, 1981.
- Cadbury, Henry J. The Style and Literary Method of Luke. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1920.