Bible Book: Luke

Because the Bible is practical, here is an overview of the book.

Author: Luke

Type of Book: Gospel

Theme: Jesus: the Divine-Human Savior

Date of Writing: A.D. 60-63

Background
Luke’s Gospel (i.e., his account of the “good news” and true story of Jesus Christ) is the first of two books (the other is the book of Acts) addressed to a man named Theophilus (1:3; Ac 1:1). 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 (i.e., not a Jew) who had become a follower of Christ. He is the only non-Jewish 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 account of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit (i.e., God sending his Spirit to collectively empower Christians in the early church) at Jerusalem and the events that followed involving the apostles (i.e., the pioneer leaders of the early churches). These two books contain more than one-fourth of the writings of the NT.
From Paul’s letters to churches (i.e., several of the NT “books”), we learn that Luke was a “dear friend... the doctor” (Col 4:14) and a loyal co-worker with Paul (2Ti 4:11; Phm 1:24; also notice the use of the pronoun “we” throughout Acts, meaning that the author was with Paul when the events took place; see the introduction to Acts). From Luke’s own writings, we know he was a well-educated man, a skilled writer, a careful historian and an inspired theologian (i.e., one who studied about God and God’s relationship to humanity). When he wrote his Gospel, it would appear that the church outside of the Jewish community had no complete, published or widely circulated message about Jesus. Matthew wrote his Gospel initially for the Jews, and Mark wrote a 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 (i.e., summary versions), but no complete and orderly Gospel (see 1:1-4). For that reason, Luke set out to investigate everything carefully “from the beginning” (1:3). He probably did research in Palestine while Paul was in prison at Caesarea (Ac 21:17; 23:23-26:32) and likely completed his Gospel toward the end of that time or soon after arriving in Rome with Paul (Ac 28:16).

Purpose
Luke wrote this Gospel to the Gentiles (i.e., people who are not Jewish) 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” (Ac 1:1b-2a). 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 exact truth about the testimonies and instruction they had heard (1:3-4). The fact that Luke wrote for Gentiles is apparent throughout the Gospel. For example, he traces Jesus’ human genealogy (i.e., ancestry, family history) all the way back to Adam, the first man (3:23-38), and not just to Abraham as Matthew did (cf. Mt 1:1-17). 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.

Survey
Luke’s Gospel begins with the most complete account of events surrounding the births of John the Baptist (whose preaching prepared the way for Christ, 1:5-2:40) and Jesus. Luke also provides the only glimpse in the Gospels of Jesus’ boyhood (2:41-52). After describing John the Baptist’s ministry and giving Jesus’ family history, Luke divides Jesus’ ministry into three major sections: (1) his ministry in and around Galilee (4:14-9:50), (2) his ministry during the final journey to Jerusalem (9:51-19:27) and (3) his last week in Jerusalem (19:28-24:43).
While Jesus’ miracles are often highlighted in Luke’s record of Jesus’ ministry in Galilee, the main focus in this Gospel is on Jesus’ teaching and parables during his extended ministry on the way to Jerusalem (9:51-19:27). This section contains the greatest block of material unique to the book of Luke and includes many well-known stories and parables. The book’s pivotal verse (i.e., the turning point when Jesus sets out for the last time toward Jerusalem, 9:51) and the key verse (stating Jesus’ primary purpose in coming to earth, 19:10) occur at the beginning and toward the end of this section, which describes many things found only in Luke.

Special Features
Eight major elements characterize Luke’s Gospel. (1) It is the most comprehensive, or complete, Gospel, recording events in Jesus’ life from pre-birth to his ascension back to heaven, making it the longest NT book. (2) It is the most literate of the Gospels, revealing a unique style and content, a rich vocabulary and an excellent mastery of the Greek language. (3) It stresses the universal scope of the gospel-that Jesus came to bring salvation for all people, Jews and Gentiles alike. (4) It stresses Jesus’ concern for the underprivileged, including women, children, poor people and social outcasts. (5) It stresses Jesus’ prayer life and his teaching about prayer (see article on Effective Praying). (6) The title most often used to describe Jesus in this Gospel is “Son of Man,” which emphasizes his humanity as well as his divinity (i.e., that he is God). (7) It provides a record of the joyful response and attitude of those who accept Jesus and his message. (8) It stresses the great importance of the Holy Spirit’s role in the life of Jesus and his followers (e.g., 1:15, 41, 67; 2:25-27; 4:1, 14, 18; 10:21; 12:12; 24:49; see article on Jesus and the Holy Spirit).   

Giving credit where credit is due.  These informational notes about this book come from the Full Life Study Bible, also known as the Fire Bible.  Don Stamps, editor.  Originally published by Life Publishers.