|
Introduction on Gospel of Luke 1:1 to 24:53 - Luke,
Gospel of
Luke, Gospel according
to
— was written by Luke. He does
not claim to have been an
eye-witness of our Lord's
ministry, but to have gone to
the best sources of information
within his reach, and to have
written an orderly narrative of
the facts (Luke
1:1-4).
The authors of the first three
Gospels, the synoptics, wrote
independently of each other.
Each wrote his independent
narrative under the guidance of
the Holy Spirit.Each writer has some things,
both in matter and style,
peculiar to himself, yet all the
three have much in common.
Luke's Gospel has been called
"the Gospel of the nations, full
of mercy and hope, assured to
the world by the love
of a suffering Saviour;" "the
Gospel of the saintly life;"
"the Gospel for the Greeks; the
Gospel of the future; the
Gospel of progressive
Christianity, of the
universality and gratuitousness
of the gospel; the historic
Gospel; the
Gospel of Jesus as the good
Physician and the Saviour of
mankind;" the "Gospel of the
Fatherhood of God and the
brotherhood of man;" "the Gospel
of womanhood;" "the Gospel of
the outcast, of the Samaritan,
the publican, the
harlot, and the prodigal;" "the
Gospel of tolerance."
The main
characteristic of this Gospel,
as Farrar (Cambridge
Bible, Luke, Introd.) remarks,
is fitly expressed in the motto,
"Who went about doing good, and
healing all that were oppressed
of the devil" (Acts
10:38;
comp. Luke
4:18).
Luke wrote for the "Hellenic
world." This Gospel is indeed
"rich and precious."
"Out of a total of 1151 verses,
Luke has 389 in common with
Matthew and Mark, 176 in common
with Matthew
alone, 41 in common with Mark
alone, leaving 544 peculiar to
himself. In many instances all
three use identical
language." (See MATTHEW; MARK;
GOSPELS.)
There are seventeen of our
Lord's parables peculiar to this
Gospel. (See List of Parables in
Appendix.) Luke also
records seven of our Lord's
miracles which are omitted by
Matthew and Mark. (See List of
Miracles in Appendix.)
The synoptical Gospels are
related to each other after the
following scheme. If the
contents of each Gospel be
represented by 100, then when
compared this result is
obtained:
Mark has 7 peculiarities, 93
coincidences.
Matthew 42 peculiarities, 58
coincidences.
Luke 59 peculiarities, 41
coincidences.
That is, thirteen-fourteenths of
Mark, four-sevenths of Matthew,
and two-fifths of Luke are taken
up in describing the
same things in very similar
language.Luke's style is more finished
and classical than that of
Matthew and Mark. There is less
in it of the Hebrew idiom.
He
uses a few Latin words (Luke
12:6; 7:41;
8:30; 11:33; 19:20),
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", Leviticus
10:9),
probably palm wine.
This Gospel contains
twenty-eight distinct references
to the Old Testament.
The date of its composition is
uncertain. It must have been
written before the Acts, the
date of the composition of
which is generally fixed at
about 63 or 64 A.D. This Gospel
was written, therefore, probably
about 60 or 63, when
Luke may have been at Caesarea
in attendance on Paul, who was
then a prisoner. Others have
conjectured that it
was written at Rome during
Paul's imprisonment there. But
on this point no positive
certainty can be attained.
It is commonly supposed that
Luke wrote under the direction,
if not at the dictation of Paul.
Many words and phrases
are common to both; e.g.,
compare:
Luke 4:22; with Colossians
4:6.
Luke 4:32; with 1
Corinthians 2:4.
Luke 6:36; with 2
Corinthians 1:3.
Luke 6:39;
with Romans
2:19.
Luke 9:56;
with 2
Corinthians 10:8.
Luke 10:8;
with 1
Corinthians 10:27.
Luke 11:41;
with Titus
1:15.
Luke 18:1;
with 2
Thessalonians 1:11.
Luke 21:36;
with Ephesians
6:18.
Luke 22:19,20;
with 1
Corinthians 11:23-29.
Luke 24:46;
with Acts
17:3.
Luke 24:34;
with 1
Corinthians 15:5. |
