THE GOSPEL OF LUKE (Part I)

The author of the Gospel of Luke has been identified traditionally as a missionary companion of the Apostle Paul. As we shall see later on this causes some difficulties today. However, whoever wrote Luke made the largest contribution to the composition of the New Testament. When this document is added to its companion document The Acts of the Apostles, they make up together more than a quarter of the New Testament.

By his writing of the Act as a sequel to his Gospel,  Luke extended the narrative beyond the time of Jesus, which no other author did. To conceive the Gospel of Luke and the Acts as two separate works by the same author distorts and misleads. Rather they are two parts of a single literary work. Luke composed them as a unity, intending that they be read as such. The prefaces to the two volumes make this plain (Luke 1; 1 - 4; Acts 1: 1 - 5).This intent has been obscured by the order of the New Testament, with John’s Gospel intruding between the two parts of Luke. Because of this many people will overlook the continuity that exists within these two works.

(to be continued)