Gospel of Luke

The Gospel of Luke (Gk. Κατά Λουκάν Ευαγγέλιον ) is a synoptic Gospel, and is the third and longest of the four canonical Gospels of the New Testament. The text narrates the life of Jesus of Nazareth, with particular interest concerning his birth, ministry, death, and resurrection. It ends with an account of the ascension.

The author is characteristically concerned with social ethics, the poor, women, and other oppressed groups.Harris, Stephen L., Understanding the Bible. Palo Alto: Mayfield. 1985.] Certain popular stories on these themes, such as the prodigal son and the good Samaritan, are found only in this gospel. This gospel also has a special emphasis on prayer, the activity of the Holy Spirit, and joyfulness. [Donald Guthrie, "New Testament Introduction" (Leicester, England: Apollos, 1990), p. 105.] D. Guthrie stated, “it is full of superb stories and leaves the reader with a deep impression of the personality and teachings of Jesus." [Donald Guthrie, "New Testament Introduction" (Leicester, England: Apollos, 1990), p. 102.] The introductory dedication to Theophilus, The two major hypotheses that hold this position are the Griesbach hypothesis and the Augustinian hypothesis.

The traditional view of Lukan authorship is “widely held as the view which most satisfactorily explains all the data.” [Donald Guthrie, "New Testament Introduction" (Leicester, England: Apollos, 1990), p. 119.] The list of scholars maintaining authorship by Luke the physician is lengthy, and represents scholars from a wide range of theological opinion. [To list just some: I. H. Marshall, "Acts" (1980), pp. 44-45; F. F. Bruce, "The Acts of the Apostles" (1952), pp. 1-6; C. S. C. Williams, "The Acts of the Apostles", in "Black’s New Testament Commentary" (1957); W. Michaelis, "Einleitung", pp. 61-64; Bo Reicke, "Glaube und Leben Der Urgenmeinde" (1957), pp. 6-7; F. V. Filson, "Three Crucial Decades" (1963), p. 10; M. Dibelius, "Studies in the Acts of the Apostles" (1956); R. M. Grant, "A Historical Introduction to the New Testament" (1963), pp. 134-135; B. Gärtner, "The Aeropagus Speech and Natural Revelation" (1955), W. L. Knox, "Sources of the Synoptic Gospels"; R. R. Williams, "The Acts of the Apostles"; E. M. Blaiklock, "The Acts of the Apostles", in "Tyndale New Testament Commentary" (1959), W. Grundmann, "Das Evangelium nach Lukas", p. 39.] But there is no consensus, and the current opinion concerning Lukan authorship has been described as ‘about evenly divided’. [ for gentile or non-Jewish Christians. The Gospel is addressed to the author's patron, Theophilus, which in Greek simply means "friend of God" [ [http://cf.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G2321&Version=KJV Strong's G2321] ] or "(be)loved by God" or "loving God" [Bauer lexicon, 2nd edition, 1958, page 358] , and may not be a name but a generic term for a Christian. The Gospel is clearly directed at Christians, or at those who already knew about Early Christianity, rather than a general audience, since the ascription goes on to state that the Gospel was written "so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught" (, provides the only gospel support for the doctrine of the New Covenant. Verses ; ), but no Syriac or Hebrew words except "sikera", an exciting drink of the nature of wine but not made of grapes (from Heb. "shakar", "he is intoxicated"; Lev with 1 Corinthians [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20corinthians%202:4;&version=31; 2:4]
* Luke with 2 Corinthians [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20corinthians%2010:8;&version=31; 10:8]
* Luke with 2 Thessalonians [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20thessalonians%201:11;&version=31; 1:11]
* Luke with 1 Corinthians [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20corinthians%2015:5;&version=31; 15:5]

Luke's writing style

The main characteristic of this Gospel, as Farrar ("Cambridge Bible", Luke, Introd.) remarks, is expressed in the motto, "Who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil" (Acts ), and details the experience of pregnancy (). These two verses disrupt the literary structure of the scene (the chiasmus), they are not found in all the early manuscripts, and they are the only place in Luke where Jesus is seen to be in agony. Ehrman concludes that they were inserted in order to counter doceticism, the belief that Jesus, as divine, only "seemed" to suffer. While probably not original to the text, these verses reflect first-century tradition.May, Herbert G. and Bruce M. Metzger. The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha. 1977.]

ee also

*List of Gospels
*List of omitted Bible verses
*Luke-Acts
*Order of St. Luke
*Luke 1
*Luke 2
*Luke 3
*Luke 4

References

External links

Online translations of the Gospel of Luke:
* [http://www.biblegateway.com "Bible Gateway 35 languages/50 versions" at GospelCom.net]
* [http://unbound.biola.edu "Unbound Bible 100+ languages/versions" at Biola University]
* [http://www.gospelhall.org/bible/bible.php?passage=Luke+1 "Online Bible" at gospelhall.org]
* [http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/luke.html Early Christian Writings;] "Gospel of Luke: introductions and e-texts"
* [http://www.ifrance.com/bezae/index.html French; English translation]

Related articles:
* [http://www.katapi.org.uk/4Gospels/Ch8.htm#II B.H. Streeter, The Four Gospels : A study of origins 1924.]
* [http://www-user.uni-bremen.de/~wie/TCG/TC-Luke.pdf Willker,W (2007), "A textual commentary on the Gospel of Luke", Pub. on-line] A very detailed text-critical discussion of the 300 most important variants of the Greek text (PDF, 467 pages)
* [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09420a.htm Gospel of Saint Luke @ Catholic Encyclopedia]
* [http://22.1911encyclopedia.org/L/LU/LUKE_GOSPEL_OF_ST.htm Luke, Gospel of St.] in the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica

----"This article was originally based on text from [http://www.site-berea.com/dicionarios.html Easton Bible Dictionary of 1897] and from M.G. Easton M.A., D.D., "Illustrated Bible Dictionary", Third Edition, published by Thomas Nelson, 1897."