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Introduction to the Gospel of St. Luke

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Introduction to the Gospel of St. Luke Introduction to The Gospel of St. Luke By: Father Luka Wassif Author Name: Luke, a Greek name (Latin) and is written in Greek as Loukas. We should differentiate between Luke and both Lucius in (Acts 13:1) and Lucius in (Romans 16:21). The name means: The carrier of light or the glaring Origin : light. • Saint Luke is of non-Jewish origins, he is the only among the authors of the New Testament who was of the Gentiles, and directly converted into Christianity without becoming a Jew. • In the epistle to the Colossians our teacher St. Paul mentions Aristarchus, Mark the cousin of Barnabas and Jesus who is called Justus (are of the circumcision) (Col. 4:10, 11) • St. Yacoub Elrahawy suggested that St. Luke was from Alexandria, but the most supported opinion that he was from Antioch in Syria, according to the following : •The book of Acts, which was written by St. Luke, gives much credit to the city of Antioch being one of the cities that early accepted Christianity. St. Paul took it as a starting point for his evangelical trips. •And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch (Acts 11:26) -St. Luke writes about the seven servants chosen by the Apostles, among them Nicholas whom he wrote about saying “a proselyte of Antioch ” (Acts 6:5). St. Luke wouldn’t have added this clause unless he was Antiochian himself. St. Luke one of the Seventy Apostles ?? supporting opinions: 1) According to the church tradition St. Luke is among the seventy apostles. It worth mentioning that St. Luke is the only evangelist reporting about Jesus Christ appointing the seventy apostles (Luke 10). [Coptic Synxarium recorded this on 22nd of Paopi (Babah) and the 1st of Hathor (Hatour)] 2) Some supported the opinion that St. Luke was one of the two disciples met the Lord after Resurrection on their way to the village called Emmaus. Again St. Luke was the only evangelist to report this (Luke 24:13-35). 3) It was said about the reason made him to follow Christ that he heard about Christ (The Messiah) preaching in Palestine, healing all diseases with no medicine. In the beginning he though of it as if deception or illusion, so he decided to check for himself, consequently met with Christ and believed and became a disciple, one of the seventy. St. Luke one of the Seventy Apostles ?? contradiction opinions: 1) He himself confessed that he didn’t meet with Christ and he depended in writing his Gospel on what he received from people who preceded him in faith. [“ just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us ” (Luke 1:2)] 2) This means that St. Luke was neither of the twelve disciples nor of the seventy apostles, he doesn’t claim being an eyewitness of the news he reported in his gospel, on the contrary he states that he collected all what he wrote with effort and care from those who eye witnessed and served the Word of God. This never denies his gospel its value as all what he wrote was done with the guidance of the Holy Spirit. 3) As for the matter concerning him becoming Christian it is believed that he was a Gentile and accepted the Christian faith from one of the disciples who left Jerusalem to preach the word in Antioch early on around the year 36 A.D. following the dispersion after stoning St. Stephen. Also some believe that he accepted Christianity as a disciple of St. Paul (according to Tertullian) Luke the Physician It was known about Luke that he was a physician: Before he becomes a disciple of Christ he was a disciple of a great physicians at that age. [During that time no one was allowed to practice medicine unless he has passed a number of difficult exams] . St. Paul kept on calling him “ the physician ” as it can be seen in St. Paul’s epistle to the Colossians “Luke the beloved physician … ” (Col. 4:14). We can see St. Luke the physician behind some of the medical advices that St. Paul gave in some of his epistles, as example his saying to Timothy “No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for your stomach’s sake and your frequent infirmities ” (1Tim. 5:23) and “For bodily exercise profits a little” (1Tim 4:8). Luke the Physician His profession influenced his writings both his Gospel and the Book of Acts: In his gospel he portrays Jesus Christ as the physician for the entire humanity, the world savior using many medical terms and talking accurately about many of the diseases that Jesus Christ healed people from. The British writer W.K. Hobbart cared much about this and addressed it in his book “The medical language of St. Luke”. Hobbart highlighted terms showed in the Gospel of St. Luke and cross referenced them with the writings of many of the Greek physicians such as Hippocrates, Galen and Dioscorides, concluding that if the author of the gospel wasn’t a physician he wouldn’t have used (known) any of theses terms. In the following we’ll be able to see some of these terms used by St. Luke while writing his gospel; these were not mentioned by any of the other evangelists when narrating the same events. Luke the Physician 1- (Luke 4:35) “… And when the demon had thrown him in their midst, it came out of him and did not hurt him” 2- (Luke 4:38) “… sick with a high fever …” also a similar phrase in the Book of Acts about the father of Publius “sick of a fever and dysentery” (Acts 28:8) 3- (Luke 5:18, 24 & Acts 8:7, 9:23) the word “paralyzed” Luke the Physician 4- And between the writings of St. Luke and the above mentioned physicians a) The parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-35) i. half dead ii. his wounds iii. bandaged iv. pouring on oil and wine b) The Parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:20-25) i. full of sores ii. tormented iii. cool my tongue (Luke 16:24) c) Maimed (Luke 14:13) (Anapyrous) d) perfect soundness (health) (Acts 3:16) healing the lame man (Oloklyrian) e) faint (from terror) (Luke 21:26) (Apopsychonttwn) f) refreshing (times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord) (Acts 3:19) (Anapsuxews) g) Insane (Much learning is driving you insane) (Acts 26:24) (Mania) Luke the Physician 5- Him describing the illness of Peter’s mother in law (Luke 4:38-39), the demon-possessed man (Luke 8:27), the woman with the issue of blood (Luke 8:43-49), the boy seized with the spirit used to bruise him (Luke 9:38-43), and the woman who had a spirit of infirmity who was bent over and could in no way raise herself up (Luke 13:11-17), all of these witness that their writer is a physician. 6- St. Luke is the only evangelist who pointed out that Jesus Christ’s own people assimilated him to physicians “…Physician, heal yourself! …” (Luke 4:23) 7- Luke as a physician gives more respect when talking about physicians as one of them, this can be seen when we compare what he said with what St. Mark said. As St. Luke says, “Now a woman, having a flow of blood for twelve years, who had spent all her livelihood on physicians and could not be healed by any ” (Luke 8:43) While St. Mark says “25 Now a certain woman had a flow of blood for twelve years, 26 and had suffered many things from many physicians. She had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse ” (Mark 5:25-26) 8- St. Luke as a physician was impressed by all the miracles of healing that Jesus Christ performed, and hence these became a good part of his evangelism. We can see when St. John the Baptist (by sending his disciples) asked Jesus if He is the Messiah, Jesus answered them saying “… Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard: that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them ” (Luke 7:22) Luke the Painter St. Luke was not only a physician, but a painter as well, according to many of the Christian historians, Nicophorus is one of them. Hence St. Luke is always portrayed with an ox on one side and painting tools on the other. Theodore the Reader mentioned that around the year 400 A.D. Queen Evdokia sent from Jerusalem to Bulgaria of Constantinople a painting of The Virgin Mary, this painting was made by St. Luke. Also St. Thomas of Equinas says, “according to the tradition we know that St. Luke made a painting of Jesus Christ that’s currently placed in Rome in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore”. In the book (Students’ light to solve the problems of the Book) by Abba Esidorous we read “St. Luke portrayed the Virgin Mary holding the Baby Jesus, and the word spreading around tells us that three copies are available of this painting, one in Jerusalem, the second in Rome, while the third is in Egypt” Luke the Historian St. Luke was a precise historian who presented an accurate narrations of events in his writings . His resources, as he addressed them, were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word, no doubt that he meant St.
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