Authorship and Date of Luke's Gospel
There are two main issues to be disscussed when considering authorship
and date of Luke- They are often put under two simple headings,
external evidence and internal evidence. However, the true strory is
much more complicated than this.
It is usually agreed that the writer of Acts is the same person who
wrote Luke. This is because in the preface of both books, they are
adressed to the same person, Theophilus. Also, both books share a
similar style of vocabulary.
Tradition unamimously says Luke as the author. This is sometimes
dismissed as no more than guesswork. Howeve, the point is put across
by many authors, Leon Morris included, that Luke was not an important
enough figure in the early church to have two considerable volumes
attributed to him without good reason- surely if people were guessing
they would be more likely to attribute it to an apostle. This provides
a weighty argument which ois further inforced by Martin Dibelius. He
points out that because of the address to Theophilus there must have
been a desire to circulate the book among the educated and for such
readers the name of the author would have certainly been included. So
it is extremley unlikely for tradition to attribute to Luke a book
which was known from its oublication to be written by someone else.
In Acts there are four passages in which the writer uses the pronoun
"we" (16:10-17; 20:5-10;21:1-18;27:1-28:16). These would appear to
have been taken from the diary of one of Paul's companions. The most
likely explanation of these passages is that a companion of Paul used
extracts from his own diary.
If this idea is accepted, we see the author as somebody who was with
Paul at the times he indicates by the "we" but not named in the
narrative, as the author would include himself in the "we"). When
these extracts are examined a small group is left: Titus, Demos,
Crescans, Jesus Justus, Epapharus, Epaphroditus and Luke. There seems
no reason why anyone else other than Luke could be considered as the
Luke was a Roman catholic before he converted over to Christianity. Luke was an eyewitness of the ministry, teaching, and life of Jesus. He made it his mission to teach the knowledge of Jesus and spread the religion Christianity. He wanted to reach the people in his communities and beyond. The Evangelist Luke wanted to tell the goods news that Jesus would return for his people. Luke’s concern was whether or not Christians could be good citizens of the Roman Empire, seeing that Jesus their founder had been killed for being a “political criminal”. Many people would have preceded them as revolutionaries (“From Jesus to Christ”). Christianity became a dominant way of life and worship in Europe many years after Luke wrote his gospel. In Medieval Europe, Luke’s gospel had greatly influenced the creators of many arts and dramas such as the Everyman play. Luke’s gospel opened many doors to help spread Christianity in Medieval Europe.
In the Gospel of Luke, it is emphasized that God cares for the poor and lowly.The Gospel of Luke was written on 80-90 AD. Luke was a Gentile who converted to Christianity. He is also the companion of Saint Paul and the author of Acts of the Apostles. Luke aims to reach to the lowly through Jesus, by bringing them liberty and good news that they too are welcomed in heaven. Jesus shows this in many acts such as recovering sight of the blind, releasing the imprisoned, and freeing the oppressed. As a result, Luke shows Jesus as a compassionate savior because he seeks to save those who are in need and give the lowly God’s mercy.
He makes the point that Acts develops the themes of the gospel, one reason for this is because Luke is the first to extend the story of Jesus to the apostles. Luke seems to extend on Marks gospel but in a different way then what Mathew does. Luke seems to focus on Jesus’s disciples, his calling of them, and his teachings to them. It seems that the reason Luke did this was to set up for the new church. However the most convincing reason that shows Luke believed his books ought to be read together is his writings in Luke 1:1-4 and in Acts 1:1-3. This is when in both books Luke gives us an intro stating that Acts is his second book to
Compare and contrast the birth narratives in the Gospel of Matthew and that of the Gospel of Luke.
The book of Luke, found after the books Matthew and Mark, focuses on the ministry of Jesus Christ but it also gives us a look into His birth and growth in totality. In this chapter we see a historical account of some of the journeys that Christ experienced. It is important to keep in mind that the Bible and all of its books do serve as historical accounts but each book is unique in the fact that they incorporate a theological timeline. The Bible is, conceivably, the most important book that has ever been written. It gives the world eyewitness accounts to historical events that helped not only shaped a region of the world but the whole entire world. It is nearly impossible to go through some formal societal education and have never once read a part of the bible or have heard a story that adapts from the stories within the bible. The bible has helped formed institutions, associations and so much more. By reading the Gospel of Luke we are truly reading what is meant for us to read as Christians. The principal plot in the book of Luke is the life of Jesus Christ, his sacrifice, His ability to beat death and remain perfect as the son of GOD despite being human as well. Jesus is seen as the perfect savior for humans in the book of Luke. Luke not only gives multiple examples of the power of Jesus but also it gives us a look at The Lord’s triumph over temptation. Luke also depicts Jesus as a man/GOD who had a very deep concentration on people and relationships. The book of Luke gives Jesus a loving characteristic but doesn’t shy away from showing that at times Jesus got angry too. Jesus showed a great deal of compassion to the sick, those in pain, the poor, and unambiguously the sinful. Jesus had genuine love for everyone. Throughout this...
I found quite a few sites that believe that Paul did not write II Thessalonians but don’t get me wrong there are also some who do believe the he did write this book but I will not make a decision because there because it is not clear from my readings of both books who is the actual writer is. I agree that this is an important part of Biblical history because it helps us date the writing of II Thessalonians.
Since Matthew and Luke are not modern day biographies, they do not follow the standard that we imagine. I think the explanation for the combination of similarities and differences comes from the fact that the Matthew and Luke are styled differently and also have different audiences. Since Matthew and Luke are interpreting history for a specific audience, this would explain why Matthew and Luke contains differing details. For example, Matthew tells of the Wise Men that came to visit Jesus in Matt.2:1-12 while Luke tells of shepherds that came to visit Jesus in Luke 2:8-20. Since Matthew is styled for a Jewish audience, perhaps it is considered more impactful and stunning that wise philosophers came to worship a child. On the other hand,
Mark was Peter's son (I Peter 5:13, possibly spiritual son), who wrote down what Peter said about who Jesus was, what He did, where He went and what happened; Mark's gospel is therefore Peter's account, an eye-witness account, written down by Mark.
...rning the declination of invitations, whereas Luke goes further into detail. Also, the Gospel of Matthew offers a shorter summary in comparison to Luke and includes the second part of the parable, Mt 22:11-14. (Lester 308)
However, the essay will start by looking at who the authors of these letters were. Looking at the authors of both the letters of II Peter and Jude, helps in showing the letters similarities. The author of the letter of II Peter was Simon Peter, one of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ. We know from what the Bible tells us that Peter was close to Jesus, and he was also the first to get the revelation of who Jesus really was, (Matthew 16:16). The author of the letter of Jude was Jude the brother of James.
is special in its own way. It is their work that makes them happy and
how to get in to the Kingdom of God, what it is, and what it means to
The Gospel According to St. John was written during the first century AD in Asian Minor. The author of the book cannot be definitively proven according to the Zinderfan Pictorial Bible Dictionary but there is strong evidence that the author was John the apostle. The author had an intimate knowledge of Jewish traditions and the geography of Palestine. The gospel goes into many explanations of these things because its intended audience was gentiles. It is unlikely a gentile would have had the knowledge to give the background information that the author presents. The writer of the gospel identifies himself as the "disciple who Jesus loved." In the gospel most of the disciples were mentioned by name and so can be eliminated as the author of the gospel. Those not mentioned included Mathew, James the less, Simon the Zealot, James, and John.
One of the major differences we can see in both of the text is the idea of Jesus. Who he was, how he died and how he severed his purpose here on earth. The
The development of the Gospel as described by Luke referred to “eyewitnesses” an “account of the things” and “an orderly account”. These stages correlate to the Oral tradition, the period of written sources, and the period of final composition. Lea and Black, The New Testament, Its Background and Message 2003:115. • The Urevangelium Theory by G. E. Lessing, a German critic, suggests that the relationships from the Gospels derived from a single Gospel written in Hebrew or Aramaic. He believed that Matthew wrote the Aramaic Gospel of the Nazarenes, the germs of which originated in the time immediately following the death of Jesus Christ.