Joyful Moments in Christ

As I begin a series that will dive into the book of Acts it seems appropriate to look at the author, Luke. Who was Luke? In addition to being the author to both the Acts of the Apostles and the Gospel According to Luke, he was also known as a doctor, the companion to Paul, and most likely a Gentile or Hellenistic Jew. Furthermore, while most people think that Paul was the author of Hebrews, other think it may have been written by Luke.

Luke, the Doctor

While a few details about Luke are somewhat uncertain, we do know that Luke was a doctor. This can be confirmed factually through Paul’s letter to the Colossians and circumstantially through Luke’s interest in the healing aspect of Jesus’ ministry.

Luke the beloved physician and Demas greet you.

Colossians 4:14 (WEB)

One significant implication of this is that Luke was likely much more educated than many of Jesus’ followers. This is can be confirmed through Luke’s writing style, which is much more advanced than most of the other books of the Bible. We also know that Luke was at least bilingual. His writing was in Greek, but given that Luke was traveling with people who spoke Aramaic, he must have known at least two languages, if not more. This academic ability bodes well for Luke’s research capabilities, which will be important later.

Luke, the Companion to Paul

We also know that Luke was a travel companion to Paul. In Acts 16, Luke uses the word “we” as he talks about where Paul was going next. This is a clear sign that he was physically present with Paul.

When he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go out to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the Good News to them.

Acts 16:10 (WEB)

Again, in Acts 28, Luke uses the word “we” as he talks about Paul’s arrival in Rome and the activities Paul was permitted while under guard.

¹⁰ They also honored us with many honors, and when we sailed, they put on board the things that we needed.

¹¹ After three months, we set sail in a ship of Alexandria which had wintered in the island, whose sign was “The Twin Brothers.” ¹² Touching at Syracuse, we stayed there three days. ¹³ From there we circled around and arrived at Rhegium. After one day, a south wind sprang up, and on the second day we came to Puteoli, ¹⁴ where we found brothers,^[a] and were entreated to stay with them for seven days. So we came to Rome. ¹⁵ From there the brothers, when they heard of us, came to meet us as far as The Market of Appius and The Three Taverns. When Paul saw them, he thanked God and took courage. ¹⁶ When we entered into Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard, but Paul was allowed to stay by himself with the soldier who guarded him.

Acts 28:10-16 (WEB)

As a verification of the authenticity of the book of Acts, if Luke was physically present during the events in this book, errors would have been much less likely.

Luke, the Gentile, Hellenistic Jew, or Religious Jew

Now, we get to a less known aspect of Luke. Was he a Gentile, Hellenistic Jew, or Religious Jew? What do these words even mean?

Gentile: a person who is not Jewish.

Hellenistic Jew: a Jewish person who spoke Greek and adopted at least some of the Greek ways of life and culture.

Religious Jew: a Jewish person who follows the Jewish religion.

When Paul writes to the Colossian church, he appears to lists Luke as being non-Jewish (NIV) and/or uncircumcised (ESV). A straight reading of the text seems to indicate that Aristarchus, Mark, and Justus were Jewish and that Epaphras, Luke, and Demas were either Gentiles or Hellenistic Jews. The NIV version points to the idea that Luke was a Gentile, while the ESV version could indicate that he was either a Gentile or a Hellenistic Jew.

¹⁰ Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, greets you, and Mark, the cousin of Barnabas (concerning whom you received commandments, “if he comes to you, receive him”), ¹¹ and Jesus who is called Justus. These are my only fellow workers for God’s Kingdom who are of the circumcision, men who have been a comfort to me.

¹² Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, salutes you, always striving for you in his prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. ¹³ For I testify about him that he has great zeal for you, and for those in Laodicea, and for those in Hierapolis. ¹⁴ Luke the beloved physician and Demas greet you.

Colossians 4:10-14 (WEB)

Digging deeper, it is also possible that only Epaphras is a Gentile or Hellenistic Jew, while Luke and Demas could be Jewish afterthoughts that were added after the first part was already written. There really is no way to know.

So now we move onto circumstantial evidence found in Luke’s name. Luke is the English translation of the Greek name, Loukas, or the Latin/Roman name, Lucas, both of which are Gentile names. Of course, there is always the possibility that Luke was a Hellenistic Jew or Religious Jew with a Roman or Greek name. If he was a Religious Jew, it is conceivable that the Lucias (another variation on the name Luke) mentioned in Romans 16 is a reference to Luke, which would make Luke either a Religious Jew (only if Luke was an afterthought in Colossians) or a Hellenistic Jew (if Luke was correctly listed in Colossians as uncircumcised).

Timothy, my fellow worker, greets you, as do Lucius, Jason, and Sosipater, my relatives.

Romans 16:21 (WEB)

One more piece of circumstantial evidence is that, the Gospel According to Luke was originally written in Greek, which indicates that Luke’s favored language was Greek. Most Religious Jews spoke Aramaic as their primary language, so this would point to Luke being either a Hellenistic Jew or a Gentile, both of which favored the Greek language.

In the end most scholars think that Luke was either a Gentile or a Hellenistic Jew that converted to follow Jesus either while Jesus was alive or sometime shortly after Jesus’ ascension.

The Problem

So, why does this matter? The problem with this is that if Luke were a Gentile, the Gospel of Luke would be unlikely to be an eyewitness account. So why is this gospel give such authority and included with the others?

The Possible Solutions

If Luke was a religious Jew, it is possible that Luke was one of the 72 disciples mentioned in Luke’s Gospel. On the other hand, if Luke truly was uncircumcised, this would be highly improbable. On the other hand, if he was a religious Jew, this answer would be the most straightforward answer and there wouldn’t be any problem.

Now after these things, the Lord also appointed seventy others, and sent them two by two ahead of him into every city and place where he was about to come.

Luke 10:1 (WEB)

The next best answer would be if Luke was a member of the 120 believers at Pentecost in Acts 1. But again, this really only makes sense if Luke was a religious Jew. At this point in time, Christianity had not yet spread to the gentiles, so if Luke was in this category, he still was unlikely to have been included in this group. And there is still the problem of not being an eyewitness to Jesus’ ministry.

In these days, Peter stood up in the middle of the disciples (and the number of names was about one hundred twenty)

Acts 1:15 (WEB)

If Luke was a Gentile or a Hellenistic Jew, the best argument for why Luke’s Gospel was published in the Bible is due to Luke’s status as a close companion to Paul. After Paul’s conversion to Christianity, the other apostles, particularly Barnabas, spent a lot of time training Paul in the ways of Jesus. Depending on when Luke joined Paul, Luke could have been party to some very interesting conversations about Jesus’ ministry.

²⁶ When Saul had come to Jerusalem, he tried to join himself to the disciples; but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he was a disciple. ²⁷ But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles, and declared to them how he had seen the Lord on the way, and that he had spoken to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus. ²⁸ He was with them entering into Jerusalem, ²⁹ preaching boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus. He spoke and disputed against the Hellenists, but they were seeking to kill him. ³⁰ When the brothers knew it, they brought him down to Caesarea, and sent him off to Tarsus.

Acts 9:26-30 (WEB)

When we add in the fact that Luke was a highly educated doctor, it is reasonable to assume that Luke was able to put together a very competent investigative gospel based on his research. If the research was of high enough quality, it is reasonable to assume that this was the reason that Luke’s Gospel was permitted to be included in the Bible.

Now we have the question as to when Luke started traveling with Paul. First, we should consider Paul’s personality and strong feelings about religion. It is unlikely that when Paul was a Pharisee, he would have associated with a Gentile or an uncircumcised Hellenic Jew. Luke probably would not have started his association with Paul until after Paul’s conversion, which would mean that the first few chapters of Acts may have been based on Paul’s testimony, rather than eyewitness events. If this was okay for the book of Luke, it is also probably okay for the book of Acts.

After Paul’s conversion, Paul spent time early in his ministry debating with the Hellenistic Jews. The good news is that if Luke was a Hellenistic Jew and joined Paul at this time, it is likely that Luke would have had a lot of access to the original apostles and would have been able to collect a lot of eye witness facts from them about Jesus’ ministry. See Acts 9:26-30. Even if he would have joined a little later, Barnabas was also one of Paul’s travel companion and could have taught both Paul and Luke quite a bit.

Regardless of the answer to this question, the Gospel of Luke seems to match the other three gospels and Paul seems to hold a lot of respect for Luke when he uses terms like “fellow-worker” (Philemon 1:24) and “beloved physician” (Colossians 4:14) If Luke were going rouge, it is unlikely that Paul would have used phrases like this!

Response Activity

As you consider the person of Luke, can you think of any more Bible verses that might help us understand who he was? If so, add a comment at the end of this post!

Related Resources

Read: Acts 1:1-11 – A Bible Study about the Ascension

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English Standard Version (ESV): Unless otherwise noted, scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.