Luke the Evangelist

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search
Saint Luke

Apostle and Evangelist
Born Antioch, Turkey
Died c. 84, near Boeotia, Greece
Venerated in Roman Catholic Church, Orthodox Church, Eastern Catholic Churches, Anglican Church, Lutheran Church, some other Protestant Churches
Major shrine Padua, Italy
Feast October 18
Attributes Apostle of Jesus, Evangelist, Physician, Bishop book, man accompanied by a winged ox, ox, painting an icon of Blessed Virgin Mary, brush or palette (referring to the tradition that he was a painter), winged calf, or a winged ox.
Patronage Artists and others[1]
Saints Portal

Luke the Evangelist (Hebrew: לוקא; Greek: Λουκᾶς Loukas) was an early Christian who is said by tradition to be the author of both the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, the third and fifth books of the New Testament.

Contents

[edit] Life

Saint Luke was born of Greek origin[2][3][4][5][6][7] in the city of Antioch. In Catholicism, he is the patron saint of physicians and surgeons, and his feast day is October 18.

His earliest notice is in Paul's Epistle to Philemon, verse 24. He is also mentioned in Colossians 4:14 and 2 Timothy 4:11, two works commonly ascribed to Paul. Our next earliest account of Luke is in the Anti-Marcionite Prologue to the Gospel of Luke, a document once thought to date to the 2nd century AD, but more recently has been dated to the later 4th century. However Helmut Koester claims the following part – the only part preserved in the original Greek – may have been composed in the late 2nd century:

“ Luke, a native of Antioch, by profession a physician.[8] He had become a disciple of the apostles and later followed Paul until his [Paul's] martyrdom. Having served the Lord continuously, unmarried and without children, filled with the Holy Spirit he died at the age of 84 years. (p.335) ”

Some manuscripts add that Luke died "in Thebes, the capital of Boeotia". All of these facts support the conclusion that Luke was associated with Paul.

Later tradition elaborates on these few facts. Epiphanius states that Luke was one of the Seventy (Panarion 51.11), and John Chrysostom indicates at one point that the "brother" Paul mentions in 2 Corinthians 8:18 is either Luke or Barnabas. J. Wenham asserts that Luke was "one of the Seventy, the Emmaus disciple, Lucius of Cyrene and Paul's kinsman." Not all scholars are as confident of all of these attributes as Wenham is, not least because Luke's own statement at the beginning of Acts freely admits that he was not an eyewitness to the events of the Gospel.

If we accept that Luke was in fact the author of the Gospel bearing his name and also the Acts of the Apostles, certain details of his personal life can be reasonably assumed. While he does exclude himself from those who were eyewitnesses to Jesus' ministry, he repeatedly uses the word "we" in describing the Pauline missions in Acts of the Apostles, indicating that he was personally there at those times.[9] There is similar evidence that Luke resided in Troas, the province which included the ruins of ancient Troy, in that he writes in Acts in the third person about Paul and his travels until they get to Troas, where he switches to the first person plural. The "we" section of Acts continues until the group returns to Troas, where his writing goes back to the third person. This change happens again the second time the group gets to Troas. There are three "we sections" in Acts, all following this rule. Luke never stated, however, that he lived in Troas, and this is the only evidence that he did.

The composition of the writings, as well as the range of vocabulary used, indicate that the author was an educated man. The quote in the Letter of Paul to the Colossians differentiating between Luke and other colleagues "of the circumcision" has caused many to speculate that this indicates Luke was a Gentile. If this were true, it would make Luke the only writer of the New Testament who can clearly be identified as not being Jewish. However, that is not the only possibility. The phrase could just as easily be used to differentiate between those Christians who strictly observed the rituals of Judaism and those who didn't. [9]

[edit] Iconography

Another Christian tradition states that he was the first iconographer, and painted pictures of the Virgin Mary (The Black Madonna of Częstochowa) and of Peter and Paul. Thus late medieval guilds of St Luke in the cities of Flanders, or the Accademia di San Luca ("Academy of St Luke") in Rome, imitated in many other European cities during the 16th century, gathered together and protected painters. There is no scientific evidence to support the tradition that Luke painted icons of Mary and Jesus, though it was widely believed in earlier centuries, particularly in Eastern Orthodoxy. The tradition also has support from the Saint Thomas Christians of India who claim to still have one of the Theotokos icons that St Luke painted and Thomas brought to India.[10]

[edit] New Testament books

See also Gospel of Luke: Author and Acts of the Apostles: Authorship

Conservative Christian scholars attribute Luke as being author of the third Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles, which is clearly meant to be read as a sequel to the Gospel account. However, other scholars are more skeptical about Luke's authorship of these books. Both books are dedicated to one Theophilus and no scholar seriously doubts that the same person wrote both works, though neither work contains the name of its author.

Many argue that the author of the book must have been a companion of the Apostle Paul, due to several passages in Acts written in the first person plural (known as the We Sections). These verses (see Acts 16:10-17, 20:5-15, 21:1-18, etc) seem to indicate the author was travelling with Paul during parts of his journeys. Some scholars report that, of the colleagues that Paul mentions in his epistles, the process of elimination leaves Luke as the only person who fits everything known about the author of Luke/Acts.

Additionally, the earliest manuscript of the Gospel (Papyrus Bodmer XIV/XV = P75), dated circa AD 200, ascribes the work to Luke; as did Irenaeus, writing circa AD 180; and the Muratorian fragment from AD 170.[11] Scholars defending Luke's authorship point out that there is no reason for early Christians to attribute these works to such a minor figure if he did not in fact write them, nor is there any tradition attributing this work to any other author.

Luke and the Madonna, Altar of the Guild of St. Luke, Hermen Rode, Lübeck 1484
Luke and the Madonna, Altar of the Guild of St. Luke, Hermen Rode, Lübeck 1484

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  • Helmut Koester. Ancient Christian Gospels. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Trinity Press International, 1999.
  • Burton L. Mack. Who Wrote the New Testament?: The Making of the Christian Myth. San Francisco, California: HarperCollins, 1996.
  • J. Wenham, "The Identification of Luke", Evangelical Quarterly 63 (1991), 3-44

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Luke the Apostle. Star Quest Production Network. Retrieved on 2008-12-27.
  2. ^ The New Testament Documents: Their Origin and Early History, George Milligan, 1913, Macmillan and co. limited, p.149
  3. ^ Saint Luke Catholic Online article
  4. ^ Saints: A Visual Guide, Edward Mornin, Lorna Mornin, 2006, Eerdmans Books, p.74
  5. ^ Saint Luke Catholic Encyclopedia article
  6. ^ New Outlook, Alfred Emanuel Smith, 1935, Outlook Pub. Co., p.792
  7. ^ New Testament Studies. I. Luke the Physician: The Author of the Third Gospel, Adolf von Harnack, 1907, Williams & Norgate; G.P. Putnam's Sons, p.5
  8. ^ A Commentary on the Original Text of the Acts of the Apostles, Horatio Balch Hackett, 1858, Gould and Lincoln; Sheldon, Blakeman & Co., p.12
  9. ^ a b Encyclopedia Britannica, Micropedia vol. 7, p.554-555. Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc, 1998. ISBN 0-85229-633-0.
  10. ^ Father H. Hosten in his book Antiquities notes the following "The picture at the mount is one of the oldest, and, therefore, one of the most venerable Christian paintings to be had in India. Other traditions hold that St. Luke painted two icons which currently reside in Greece: the Theotokos Mega Spileotissa (Our Lady of the Great Cave, where supposedly St. Luke lived for a period of time in asceticism) and Panagia Soumela, and Panagia Kykkou which resides in Cyprus."
  11. ^ Brown, Raymond E. An Introduction to the New Testament, p. 267. Anchor Bible; 1st edition (October 13, 1997). ISBN 978-0385247672.

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luke_the_Evangelist"
Personal tools