Authorship of Luke–Acts
For biblical exegetes, the question of who wrote the New Testament is a hot topic. Traditionally, the text was thought to have been written by Luke, Paul’s companion (named in Colossians 4:14), but this view has been challenged by many modern scholars.
Common authorship of Luke and Acts
Both the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles are addressed to Theophilus, the author’s patron, and Luke means “Beloved of God,” and the preface of Acts explicitly references “my former book.”
Views on authorship
Traditional views on the author of Luke-Acts include: Luke the physician as author. Anonymous non-eyewitness. View that Acts in particular was written using existing written sources, such as a travelogue by an eyewitness.
Traditional view – Luke the physician as author
The traditional view is that the Gospel of Luke and Acts were written by the physician Luke, a companion of Paul, who is mentioned in Paul’s Epistle to Philemon (v.24) and two other traditionally ascribed to Paul epistles. The traditional view is that Luke was not an eyewitness of the events in the Gospel. The level of detail in the narrative describing Paul’s travels suggests that Luke was not an eyewitness of the events in the Gospel.
Critical view – Authentic letters of Paul do not refer to Luke as a physician
The name “Luke” appears among other “co-workers” of Paul who are sending greetings to the letter’s recipients in the Epistle to Philemon; the identification of Luke as a physician comes from Colossians 4:14, but many New Testament scholars believe it is pseudonymous.
Critical view – the “we” passages as fragments of earlier source
The narrative is written in the first person plural in the “we” passages of Luke-Acts, but the author never refers to himself as “I” or “me,” leading some[who?] to believe that the “we” passages are fragments of a second document, part of an earlier account.
Interpretation of the “we” passages in authorship discussions
The “we” passages in Acts were first interpreted by Irenaeus as evidence that the writer was a personal eyewitness of Paul’s travels; however, by the middle of the twentieth century, this interpretation had come under sustained criticism, with Bart Ehrman arguing that the “we” passages are deliberate deceptions, designed to persuade readers that the author was a traveling companion of Paul.
Historical eyewitness
In today’s biblical studies, two interpretations of the “we” in Paul’s letters to the Philippians are among the most influential.
Redactor
Some scholars have interpreted the “we” passages in Acts as an earlier written source incorporated into Acts by a later redactor, but this view has been criticized for failing to provide sufficient evidence of a distinction between the source text and the document into which it was incorporated.
Stylistic convention
Some scholars have interpreted the “we” passages in Acts as a literary convention common in shipboard voyages in nineteenth-century travel romance literature; however, this interpretation has been criticized for failing to draw appropriate parallels, and distinct differences between Acts and works of fiction have also been noted.
Forgery
According to Bart D. Ehrman, the “we” passages in the Acts of the Apostles were written by someone falsely claiming to have been a traveling companion of Paul, and they present the false impression that the author had firsthand knowledge of Paul’s views and activities.
See also
The Lost Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, published by Oxford University Press and included in the New International Version (NIV) of the Bible with emphasis on the New Testament, is one of the most important documents in the study of the Pauline epistles.
Notes
The church fathers insisted a century ago that the Gospel of Matthew was the source for the Gospels of Luke and John, but scholarly consensus now holds that the two gospels are not one and the same thing – at least in the eyes of most scholars.
References
Strelan, Rick – Luke the Priest – the Authority of the Author of the Third Gospel. Harris, Stephen L., Understanding the Bible. “The Gospels” pp 266u2013268. Metzger, Bruce, and Michael Coogan (1993). The Oxford Companion to the Bible. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
How many books did Luke write?
Luke’s Gospel is clearly written for Gentile converts: it traces Christ’s genealogy back to Adam, the “father” of the human race, rather than Abraham, the Jewish people’s father.
Why did Luke write Theophilus?
The Gospel of Luke was written with the intention of leading Theophilus, a lost man, to faith in Christ by presenting Christ’s claims to him in written form so that Theophilus could have a clear understanding of everything he needed to know about Jesus.
Who did Luke write letters to?
Because of linguistic and other similarities with the Gospel and Acts, some scholars have associated Luke with the Pastoral Letters and the Letter to the Hebrews, either as author or as amanuensis.
Who wrote the book of Luke in the Holy Bible?
The traditional view is that the physician Luke, a companion of Paul, wrote the Gospel of Luke and Acts. Many scholars believe Luke was a Gentile Christian, while others believe he was a Hellenic Jew.
What is the shortest gospel?
Most scholars take these observations as a strong clue to the literary relationship among the synoptics and Mark’s special place in that relationship. The triple tradition itself is a complete gospel, similar to the shortest gospel, Mark. Mark, unlike Matthew and Luke, adds little to the triple tradition.
Did Matthew Mark Luke and John know Jesus?
None of them met Jesus, and none of them wrote the Gospel, which was written many years after Jesus’ crucifixion. The Gospel is anonymous, with only Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John as names. None of them ever met Jesus, and none of them wrote the Gospel.
Who is Jesus according to Luke?
In the gospel of Luke, Jesus is primarily depicted in the image of the divine man, a person in whom divine powers are visible and exercised, both in his teaching and in his miracle-working. The image of the divine man also has a place in Jesus’ travel narrative.
What is the main message in the Gospel of Luke?
He emphasized that all humans are sinners in need of salvation, and that Jesus was the supreme example of what God’s power can accomplish in a human life.
Is Theophilus in the Bible?
Theophilus /ifls/ is the name or honorary title of the person addressed in Luke’s Gospel and Acts of the Apostles (Luke 1:3, Acts 1:1). Theophilus’ true identity is unknown, with several conjectures and traditions surrounding him.
Which apostle was a twin?
His name means “twin” in Aramaic (Teoma) and Greek (Didymos); John 11:16 refers to him as “Thomas, called the Twin.” The Syrians refer to him as Judas Thomas (i.e., Judas the Twin).
What is the summary of the book of Luke?
The Gospel According to Luke and Acts of the Apostles, which were originally written by the same author in a single two-volume work, were separated by the final editors of the New Testament. The Gospel of Luke is the first half of the unit and tells the story of Jesus’ birth, ministry, death, and resurrection.
What books of the Bible did Paul write?
Most scholars agree that Paul wrote seven of the Pauline epistles ( Galatians, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Romans, Philemon, Philippians, and 1 Thessalonians), but that three of the epistles in his name are pseudepigraphic (First Timothy, Second Timothy, and Titus) and three others are of unknown authorship.
Is there a Joanna in the Bible?
Joanna (Greek: also) is a woman mentioned in the gospels who was healed by Jesus and later supported him and his disciples in their travels. She is one of the women mentioned in Luke’s Gospel as accompanying Jesus and the twelve and a witness to Jesus’ resurrection.