| 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, and others, see [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. Saint Luke was born of Greek
origin[1][2][3][4][5][6] in the city of Antioch. In Catholicism, he is 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.[7] 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 accepted that Luke was the author of the Gospel bearing his name and the Acts of the Apostles, certain details of
his personal life can be reasonably assumed. He does exclude himself from those who were eyewitnesses to Jesus' ministry. He does
however repeatedly use the word "we" in describing the Pauline missions in Acts of the Apostles, indicating that he was
personally there at those times.[8] There is evidence
that Luke resided in Troas, the province which included the ruins of ancient Troy. Evidence of
this is, 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. [8]
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.[9] .
Luke and the New Testament books
See also Gospel of Luke: Authorship and audience 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
sceptical 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 Acts 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.[10] 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
See also
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
Footnotes
- ^ The New Testament Documents: Their Origin and Early
History, George Milligan, 1913 Macmillan and co. limited, p.149
- ^ Saint Luke Catholic Online article
- ^ Saints: A Visual Guide, Edward Mornin, Lorna Mornin, 2006
Eerdmans Books, p.74
- ^ Saint Luke Catholic Encyclopedia article
- ^ New Outlook, Alfred Emanuel Smith, 1935 Outlook Pub. Co,
p.792
- ^ 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
- ^ A Commentary on the Original Text of the Acts of the
Apostles, Horatio Balch Hackett, 1858 Gould and Lincoln ; Sheldon, Blakeman & Co, p.12
- ^ a b Encyclopedia Britannica, micropedia vol. 7, p.554-555. Chicago:Encyclopedia
Britannica, Inc, 1998. ISBN 0-85229-633-0.
- ^ 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."
- ^ Brown, Raymond E. An
Introduction to the New Testament, p. 267. Anchor Bible; 1st edition (October
13, 1997). ISBN 978-0385247672.
External links
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