The Book of Luke

Luke's Gospel is the first of two books (the other one is the book of Acts) addressed to a man named Theophilus. The use of the title "most excellent" could mean that Theophilus was a Roman official or at least a person of high status or wealth. He may have been Luke's sponsor, financial supporter or the one responsible for seeing that the writings were copied and distributed. However, the book was also meant to instruct Theophilus personally. Although the author is not identified by name in either book (Luke or Acts), the united testimony of early Christianity and the fact that the writing style and structure are basically the same point to common authorship by Luke.

Luke was probably a Gentile who had become a follower of Christ. He is the only non-Jew author of a Bible book. The Holy Spirit inspired him to write to Theophilus (whose name means "one who loves God) in order to fill a need in the Gentile church for a full and accurate account of the beginnings of Christianity. To accomplish this purpose, Luke's writings included two parts: 1. The Gospel of Luke gives an account of Jesus' birth, life, and ministry, death, resurrection and ascension. 2. The book of Acts gives an outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Jerusalem and the events that followed involving the apostles. These two books contain more than one-fourth of the writings of the New Testament.

From Paul's letters to churches, we learn that Luke was a 'dear friend ... the doctor" and a loyal co-worker with Paul; also notice the use of the pronoun "we" throughout Acts, meaning that the author was with Paul when the events took place. From Luke's own writings we know he was a well-educated man, a skilled writer, a careful historian and an inspired theologian. When he wrote his Gospel, it would appear that the church outside the Jewish community had no complete, published or widely circulated message about Jesus. Matthew wrote his Gospel initially for the Jews, an Mark wrote his much shorter, but full version of the Gospel for the church in Rome. The Greek-speaking Gentile world did have oral accounts about Jesus from eyewitnesses, as well as short written digests, but no complete and orderly Gospel. For that reason, Luke set out to investigate everything carefully "from the beginning". He probably did research in Palestine while Paul was in prison at Caesarea and likely completed his Gospel toward the end of that time or soon after arriving in Rome with Paul.

Luke wrote this Gospel to the Gentiles to provide a full and accurate record about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day He was taken up to heaven. Writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Luke wanted Theophilus and other Gentiles who had accepted Christ - or were curious about His message - to know the exac truth about the testimonies and instruction they had heard. The fact that Luke wrote for Gentiles is apparent throughout the Gospel. For example, he traces Jesus' human genealogy all the way back to Adam, the first man, and not just to Abraham
as Matthew did. In Luke, Jesus is clearly seen as the divine-human (both God and man) Savior Who provided a way of spiritual salvation for all of Adam's descendants - the entire human race.