The Gospel According to Luke by G. Campbell Morgan
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www.gcampbellmorgan.com The Gospel According to Luke by G. Campbell Morgan The G. Campbell Morgan Archive http://www.gcampbellmorgan.com FOREWARD s in my volumes on Matthew, Mark and Acts, this consists of stenegraphically reported Lectures. he Introduction to the Book itself is found in the chapter dealing with Luke's own Preface. t goes without saying that these Lectures are not exhaustive. They are intended to be suggestive, an introduction to a more detailed study of this wonderful story of Jesus, so scientifically careful in statement, and yet radiant with artistic form and colour. ere the sovereignty of the King, and the sacrifice of the Servant , revealed in Matthew and Mark, are interpreted in the Presentation of the Person of the Word made flesh, the lonely, unique Being of the cycles of time, of our very humanity, and yet more, infinitely more. o I send it forth "at eventide," knowing its imperfections, but praying if may fulfil some ministry of helpfulness. G.C.M. Philadelphia, PA. The G. Campbell Morgan Archive http://www.gcampbellmorgan.com 1:1-4 S introducing the study of the Gospel according to Luke, two matters demand our attention, those namely of the Writer of the book; and his Writing, as he himself introduces it to us in the preface. OW, when I say that we are going to consider the writer, I do not mean by that I am going to enter into any debate as to who the writer was. We assume at the commencement that Luke wrote the book, and with that assumption today all scholarship agrees. We owe much to Sir William Ramsey for his scholarly examination of the documents, and also to the honesty of Harnack, who admitted the case proven as to the Lucan authorship. hat, then, do we know of Luke? We have no information other than that found in the New Testament. There, the only references to Luke are from the pen of Paul. We will begin by reading those references. The first in order is found at the close of the second of Paul's letters to the Corinthians, and the last chapter. In the King James' Version, we find a subscription, something not part of the letter. In the Revised Version, that subscription is omitted. We may, however, read it. "The second epistle to the Corinthians was written from Philippi, a city of Macedonia, by Titus and Lucas." he next reference is found in Colossians, chapter four, verse fourteen : "Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas salute you.” n Philemon, at verse twenty-four, he is named again. "Epaphras, my fellow-prisoner in Christ Jesus, saluteth thee; and so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, Luke, my fellow-workers." nce more, II Timothy, chapter four, verses nine to eleven. The G. Campbell Morgan Archive http://www.gcampbellmorgan.com "Give diligence to come shortly unto me; for Demas forsook me, having loved this present world, and went to Thessalonica, Crescens to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me. Take Mark, and bring him with thee; for he is useful to me for ministering." hese are the only direct references which we find to Luke in the New Testament. is name is suggestive. Loukas is really a pet name for Loukios. We have other illustrations of that nature in the New Testament. Silas is Silvanus; and Prisca is Priscilla; Apollonius is called Apollos; and Antipatris is called Antipas. It is a Greek name, and in the Colossian letter when Paul was ending with salutations, he said of some, these "are of the circumcision;" then he sent other salutations from others not of the circumcision; and Epaphras and Luke are named among those. Luke, then, was a Gentile, and in that the book is peculiar. gain, he appears in both his books as the friend of Theophilus. His method of addressing Theophilus in the preface to this book, and in the introduction to the Acts, "Most excellent Theophilus," might be accurately rendered, "Your Excellency Theophilus." This whole subject is dealt with fully in a book by Professor Robertson, Luke the Historian in the Light of Research. His suggestion is that probably Luke was a freed man, who had been in slavery, and that Theophilus was his patron. who gave him his freedom, and remained his friend after both had become followers of Jesus Christ. What is perfectly clear is that Luke wrote his story for a man whom he calls "Your Excellency," his patron; and also his friend. here are evidences in the style of Luke that he was a Greek, and an educated Greek. Experts agree that the dialect employed was employed with a literary perfection, which is lacking in the other writings. Dr. Robertson suggests that probably he studied in the Schools of Tarsus, as also did Apollos, and Saul. The suggestion is that all three may have been students there together. rom Paul we learn that Luke was a physician, and in his writings we constantly find medical terms. I believe also that he was a ship's doctor. Read again, merely from the literary standpoint, the account of the long voyage (Acts xxvii). That never could have been written except by a man familiar with a ship, and the methods of the sailor. Now, all this has a bearing on the study of the book. The Divine element in the Bible is never perfectly discovered and realized, until the human element is recognized. These men who wrote these books of the New Testament were not automata. God wrought through the personality, selected by the Holy Spirit. I am prepared to go The G. Campbell Morgan Archive http://www.gcampbellmorgan.com further. He always selected men who were by natural gifts, when controlled by Divine guidance, fitted for their work. et us go a step further at this point. There are those who believe that, even though a Greek, he was a proselyte to the Jewish faith, before he became a Christian. I do not believe it for a moment. I believe he came straight out of paganism to Jesus Christ. I do not think that he passed through the gateway of the Hebrew faith or religion at all. Trained in the Greek school, the university of Greece in Tarsus, or Athens, he had imbibed, from his youth up, all the Greek outlook on life, and that was entirely different from the Hebrew outlook on life. This man Luke, born a Greek, educated in Greek schools, had imbibed the Greek philosophy. The master passion of Greek idealism and Greek philosophy was that of the perfection of personality. The thinking, in those about three centuries of virile thought in Greek history, was not particularly concerned with human inter- relationships. but with personality, and the question of the perfecting of personality. Take the old- fashioned illustration, for it has been used very many times. Compare China with Greece. The history of China stretches back over millenniums. The history of Greece was virile for about three centuries only. In those three centuries, Greece flung up more outstanding personalities than China has in all the millenniums of her history. I am not speaking disrespectfully of China. I am comparing two great, but entirely different outlooks on life. China has stood through all the centuries and millenniums of her history for the solidarity of the race, the worship of ancestors has proved it, and reinforced it; her passion has not been that of the perfecting of individuals, but that of maintaining racial relationship. Greece was not so concerned; she sought for the perfecting of the individual; and she wrought her ideal out into marble, and until this day, the canon and criterion of all accuracy in presentation, and beauty in sculpture is that of Greece. his, then, is Luke, a man, somewhere, somehow, somewhen,-and none knows when it happened,-was led to Christ, and he found in Jesus--I am taking the human name for a moment resolutely,-he found in Jesus the Personality Who fulfilled all his dreaming. and smashed the mould of Greek thinking by His greatness, for it was too small to hold Him. This Gospel draws the personality of our Lord from that standpoint, as fulfilling the ideal of uttermost and absolute perfection. As far as I am concerned, I say without any hesitation, Matthew could not have written from that standpoint; Mark certainly could not have done so, neither could John. They all had the same material and Person ; but differing men, chosen of the Holy Spirit, saw different phases of truth. Here, then. is the writing of a Greek, cultured. educated, refined, with Greek idealism colouring his outlook, coming to Christ, and finding in Christ that which fulfilled the highest in his thinking before he found Christ, and correcting and destroying everything that was false in that thinking. This is the man who writes this story. wo elements merged in him, which are very rarely found in one person. He was a man of scientific mind. He claims that. This was a scientific treatise, the result of scientific examination of The G. Campbell Morgan Archive http://www.gcampbellmorgan.com the personality of Jesus. But he is also an artist. There is an old legend of the Church that a painting of the Virgin Mother was found in Jerusalem from the brush of Luke. The early Church writers all spoke of him as an artist. Somebody has said that he was a poet, too, and gives as a proof, that he caught and preserved for us the great songs that burst upon the world with the coming of Jesus into it.