Faith Works Summer Devotions

Background of the Gospel of LUKE: 1. Who: Luke, a Gentile Physician who “writes with the compassion and warmth of a family doctor” as he carefully documents the life of Jesus. The “we” portions of Acts (16:1-17; 20:5-21:18, 27:1-28:16) subtly reveal that Luke was a traveling companion of Paul. Luke was with Paul during both of his Roman imprisonments as Paul’s “beloved physician” (Col. 4:14, Philemon 24, 2 Tim. 4:11), evidence of Luke’s loyalty even in the face of personal danger. Luke is the only Gentile contributor to the New Testament. Church tradition tells us that Luke was from Syrian Antioch, remained unmarried, and died at 84 years old. 2. When: Luke wasn’t an eyewitness of the events in his gospel, but he relied on the testimony of eyewitnesses and written sources (1:1-4). It’s highly likely that during Paul’s 2- year imprisonment in Caesarea Philippi that Luke gathered information from eyewitnesses for his gospel, especially from Mary, mother of Jesus. Luke likely wrote during Paul’s first imprisonme