Introduction St. Luke, normally considered a physician from Antioch, seems an early companion of St. Paul because of his apparent unknowingness about Paul’s letters. In addition, St. Irenaeus and Origen corroborate Luke’s gospel authorship. Luke’s writing style is the most articulate of the gospels (packing one-third of the NT). The common dating of Luke’s gospel is around 80 AD because he greatly borrowed from Mark’s gospel, which is normally dated around 70 AD.
Context
The Gospel of Luke starts with a prologue dedication to Theophilus and then transitions into the foretelling of John the Baptist and the Annunciation to Mary. The chapter closes with the birth of John the Baptist and the Canticle of Zachariah. Luke opens with the classic style of a prologue to a biblical style of writing commonly used in the Greek OT. Luke wrote his gospel to appeal to gentile and Jewish converts with numerous allusions to the OT. This Gospel “is alone in describing the Annunciation, the Visitation, the prophecies of Sts. Simeon and Anna at the time of the presentation of Christ, the finding of the Christ in the Temple, and the prayers of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Zechariah.” Luke uses a great amount of history and historical perspectives to connect salvation and contemporary world history. The Infancy Narratives in Luke “present chronologically, parallel scenes, between John the Baptist and Jesus from their birth, circumcisions, and presentations.”
Formal Analysis The
The Gospel of Luke was also written around eighty CE, written somewhere outside of Palestine (Tatum, 1999, p.34). The author may have been Luke the Gentile Christian, writing to another Gentile, Theophilus. Like Matthew, Luke is strongly believed to be written after Mark, with references from him, “Q” and “L” if following the Two (Four)-Document Hypothesis. The authors of Luke and Matthew are believed to be written during the same time without the knowledge of knowing. As mentioned before, Luke is about fifty percent longer than Mark is, making it important source since it contains more information about the historic life of Jesus. There is also a second part to Luke which is the book Acts, but is separate in Bible. Both include the beginnings
Luke was a medical doctor, a missionary, and evangelist, a historian, a researcher, and the writer of the third Gospel. The book of Luke was written in a formal literacy introduction noting his purpose in writing, his methodology, and the attempts others had made in such writing. Luke is the author of the book and it was written in AD 60 in Caesarea. According to Hindson and Elmer Luke’s purpose is to give “an orderly sequence” of the events about Christ’s birth, life, and sacrificial death followed by his resurrection and ascension back to heaven. The occasion calling for Luke to write his Gospel was that Theophilus, and other new believers like him, needed a clear account of the life and ministry of Jesus as an aid to confirm his faith
The main theme of the Book of Luke is “the Universal Scope of the Gospel” (Strauss, p. 2011, 5807). Luke breaks down cultural, ethnic, gender and economic barriers to bring the gospel and God’s promises to all. Thus, “God’s end-times salvation predicted by the prophets has arrived through the coming of Jesus the Messiah, the Savior of the world, and this salvation is now going forth to the whole world” is Luke’s key theme (Strauss, p. 2011, 5807). It differs from the other Gospel’s because it predominately promotes a global message of faith for all not just Israel (Strauss, p. 2011, 5807). Matthew focuses on Jesus as the Messiah for His Jewish people and Mark’s focus is Jesus is the “Suffering Servant” (Strauss, 2011, p.
The foundation of the Christian faith is cradled within truth of the virgin birth, life, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. As diverse as the world-wide Christian culture is, the truth in the birth and life of Jesus stands without border and language limitations. Just as each individual life story can be adapted to be relevant for a variety of audiences, the birth story of the Messiah was also. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke are an example of the well-rounded and diverse narration of the birth story of Jesus—Matthew’s narration spoke to the history of the Jewish people and Luke presented to the citizen of Rome.
I chose to read The Gospel of Luke for my project. It is said that The Gospel of Luke was written somewhere between 80 CE - 90 CE. The Gospel of Luke was written for Theophilus, who was called “Friend of God”. But The Gospel was also written for a wider audience, including converts and potential converts.
It can be argued that the similarities and differences of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke can cause the reader to either see both of these accounts to complement one another with their different perspectives or that they contradict one another by certain events being mentioned in one birth narrative but not the other. Different aspects of both of these birth narratives such as the way Matthew and Luke treat Mary, the extent to which they use the Old Testament and the audience to whom they are writing to reveals the authors’ agenda as they allow their culture and own personal beliefs to influence what they write. These factors could be argued to have an effect on the historical authenticity of these texts as it could be possible that they could have caused the authors to twist the truth to fit in with their own beliefs.
The Gospel of Luke focuses on the conception and the birth of John the Baptist and Jesus. It also provides the histories of Elizabeth and Zachariah. It also describes Angel Gabriel’s announcement to Zachariah and the Virgin Mary.
The two Gospels that I 've decided to compare are Luke and John. Luke is considered a Synoptic Gospel and presents the human side of Jesus. Luke takes us through the longer version of his birth and his childhood and focuses on the humanity of Jesus. There was a debate in this story whether or not Jesus was human and raised many question to potential followers. Many said that Jesus was just a spirit but by reading Luke, there was great detail of his humanity. Luke directed this book directly to Gentiles and focused more on the teachings and miracles that Jesus created rather than the law. Stated in the text, Luke’s Gospel also depicts more clearly the way in which the proclamation of the kingdom of God and the accompanying mighty works of Jesus brought the benefits of salvation to marginalized people. Luke also highlights the concern of Jesus for the materially poor, and the duty of his followers to be free from love of possession and to give generously to those in need. John was considered a different story in the Bible and in the Gospel. It was the last story of the Gospels and does not repeat any of the other stories from Matthew, Mark, or Luke. John had the opportunity to see the gospel and its affect it had and based that off the
Luke presents the human/natural man of Jesus. Luke used a longer description of Jesus birth, and childhood. Luke was written after Mark and in all probability Matthew also. The book of Luke focuses primarily on Jesus' humanity. The deliberation in the church was not over rather Jesus was God (that was acknowledged by
There are many similarities between the Gospel of Luke, Mark, and Matthew. But one difference is the way in which they are written. Luke unlike the other two begins his Gospel with a introduction called a historiographic preface. This is a Greco-Roman literary device used by authors to express the depth of the research and scholarship included in the work. Ehrman states "they commonly refer to the sources that were at his disposal, and they not infrequently suggest that the final product of the author's labors, the volume being written on the subject." (Ehrman 96). This brings up another difference which is the style in which Luke writes. The text states that the author of the Gospel of Luke was much elequate and fluent in ancient greek
This essay will show contrasts in views on the Gospel of John regarding authorship,dates, and the relationship between John's Gospel and the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. Some comparison of thought, concerning composition and life setting, will also be presented.
In this article Harold Attridge examines Luke’s background, the scriptures Luke wrote, Jesus’s values, the context and purpose of Luke’s gospel and the treatment of Christians at the time of Luke’s writings. The article expresses that Luke’s Gospel was written before the destruction of Jerusalem and at a time when Christians were being persecuted for practicing their faith so consequently the purpose of his Gospel was to show an ethical example and imply that Christians could be good citizens. This source is relevant to the topic as it suggests the purpose of Luke's Gospel and the treatment of Christians before the fall of Jerusalem. A limitation of the website is that it has not been recently published, it’s publish date is April 1998 so it may not be up to date with the latest, accurate information. Nonetheless, this source is very beneficial and appropriate to the task as it provides facts and research on the chosen sacred text. This source will not be the cornerstone of my research but will add a good understanding to the purpose of the sacred text.
In the Bible, the four Gospels push different ideologies, views, lessons and different stories that center around the central figure of Jesus. The Gospel of Luke main themes center on Universalism, social justice, compassion for outcasts, the role of woman and the Holy Spirit.(Hauer and Young) These parables are able to connect to the context of when Luke was able bring these stories together in 85 CE. The Gospel was most likely written in Greek speaking area located in the Roman empire.(Coogan et al.) This time of stability allowed for the proliferation of Christianity and Gospels such as Luke. The passages that will be discussed will mainly focus on compassion for outcast seen in Luke 16:19–31 and warning against greed in Luke 12:13-34. Luke 13:6-9 focuses on a fig tree talks of the opportunities people and if they use them properly. Finally, the last parable is 7:11-17, which focuses on holy spirit and the possibilities for miracles and the importance of life. These parables in Luke are able to give a social justice commentary that can make a person feel compassionate for the poor and the reckoning they would receive in the afterlife if they didn’t follow Jesus’s teachings. As, well the story is able to push across a message that will everlasting importance to people. This has led to the Gospels of Luke becoming one of the main 4 Gospels and one of the most highly regarded of the Gospels. (Hauer and Young)
The word "gospel" is a translation of the Greek word "euangelion" which means "good news. The first three books in the New Testament (Mark, Matthew, and Luke) are often referred to as the Synoptic Gospels (from Greek synoptikos, "seen together") They bear greater similarity to each other than any of the other gospels in the New Testament. Along with these similarities come some differences among the gospels, suggesting that each gospel was written for a specific audience and for a specific purpose. This paper will examine the resurrection of Jesus, while identifying the significant differences between Mark, Matthew and Luke. This paper will also analyze the differences to suggest the prominent theological perspective each gospel author
The theme of the gospel of Luke talks about the journey of the life of Jesus, Christ. His death, burial, and resurrection. Moreover, his ministry, teachings and parables. As a historian, and physician, Luke was not only eloquent in his writing about Jesus; he also took interest in his early life. The Gospel of Luke also depict Jesus as compassionate, caring, and loving. Likewise, Luke not only put Jesus at the heart of the Jewish world during the first century, but also at the heart of the Roman world, where with the Christian gospel exploded.