What is a summary of Luke's Gospel?

Answer 1

Luke is the only one of the four Gospels where the writer did not know about the life of Christ. He had never met Jesus yet as an educated man (Colossians 4:14), he chose to follow Him. Described as an excellent historian by many biblical scholars, Luke learned all that he could about Jesus and told all about Him. His Gospel provides a unique perspective on Jesus' birth, ministry, death, and resurrection.

The Gospel of Luke is the longest of the four and is the only one with a sequel - The Book of Acts. It records the Ascension of Christ, an event only he describes. Luke captures a wide variety of miracles, teachings, and parables which make it the fullest portrait of Jesus' ministry - one third of Luke's Gospel is unique - differing from the synoptic classification it has received.

Luke presents Jesus as the promised Messiah (1:31-35), the Son of God (9:35), the Servant whom God works through (4:16-18), and the Lord who sits at God's right hand exerting His authority and giving the Spirit of God (aka Christ) to those who believe (compare 22:69 to Acts 2:30-36). All aspects of God's Plan for Mankind have been fulfilled or will be fulfilled through Jesus alone (21:5-36; Acts 3:14-26).

Luke wrote this to Theophilus, a Gentile and new believer assuring him that God was still at work in the newly formed Christian community founded by Jesus. Luke presents God's grace as revealed in Jesus' ministry on Earth - emphasizing that His Grace is available to Gentiles even with the fact of the promises given to the Israelites. Their rejecting Jesus was in fact part of God's Plan to 'graft' the Gentiles onto the tree of Life.

Answer 2

The short answer is the book of Matthew proves Jesus legitimate authority by highlighting His wise teachings and righteous life (Matthew 7:28). He spoke to his Jewish readers to prove Jesus was their Messiah and promised King (Matthew 27:37). Finally he addresses the Church and its Great Commission (Matthew 28:20).

Answer 3

Luke's theme of community is the manner in which he presents the universality of the Gospel message. He emphasises that Christ was Messiah not only to Jewish people but to Gentiles as well. Luke focuses on Jesus' attention to those on the fringes of the society of the day - women, beggars, and outcasts. Jesus' message and compassion extended to all of the community regardless of social standing.

Answer 4

Luke's Gospel is traditionally attributed to Luke, the physician companion of the Apostle Paul, but was originally anonymous and was only attributed to Luke later in the second century, when the Church Fathers were attempting to define who probably wrote each of the gospels. Luke is believed to have been written at the end of the first century or quite early in the second century, making authorship by Luke most improbable.

This Gospel addressed to Theophilus, but the book must have been written for a wider audience, including converts and potential converts. Theophilus ("friend of God") may have been a real person, or may have simply symbolised the faithful. Some say that it signifies the author's recognition that he borrowed certain material from the works of the Jewish historian, Josephus, following a common convention of the time.

We now know that the author based his Gospel on Mark's Gospel and added material from a number of other sources (including the works of Josephus), along with his own embellishments. It seems unlikely that the anonymous author now known as 'Luke' was writing for the same Christian community as that within which Mark's Gospel was circulating.

He must have known that by adding material from other sources, along with his own embellishments, the resultant Gospel was not a true account of the life of Jesus. So, Luke may have been writing an apology (formal defence) for a wider audience than Christians and potential converts. Upstart religions were frowned upon by the Romans, obliging Christians to demonstrate antiquity and virtue. Virtue was claimed from demonstrations of high communal ethic, political respectability and cooperation with the Roman peace.

More than any other New Testament gospel, Luke was concerned with the message of helping the poor, and emphasised love even for one's enemies. Another important theme in Luke is that the Holy Spirit was especially active in the life of Jesus. The author was accomplished in the use of Greek rhetoric and knew how to use repetition to gain greater acceptance for a point he wished to make. Whereas the author of Matthew chose to look to the Old Testament to achieve acceptance of the historicity of his Gospel, this author blended in recent historical events to achieve the same objectives. He was a considerate man and omitted material from Mark that reflected poorly on those whom he respected.

Answer 5

Luke's account of the life of Jesus was written to confirm the certainty of events surrounding the life of Christ and in a manner that would appeal to people of all nations. Throughout his account, Luke continually points his reader to the Kingdom of God.

Answer 6

The Gospel of Mark was the first New Testament gospel to be written, and indeed the earliest narrative gospel. The Gospel of Thomas and the hypothetical 'Q' document were written around the same time as Mark, but they are purely sayings gospels, with no narrative around the life or mission of Jesus. The other New Testament gospels were actually based, directly (Matthew, Luke) or indirectly (John), on Mark. Thus, the message of Mark's Gospel is very much the story of Jesus, as we have come to know it.

In such a short gospel, the author of Mark covered an vast amount of information about Jesus, so there is no one theme in the Gospel. Instead, by looking at the structure of Mark's Gospel, we can begin to see how the author developed various themes. The entire gospel was based around a parallel structure, an ancient literary form that creates emphasis or develops themes that would otherwise not be apparent. The important events in this structure are:

A . John explains the coming of Jesus (Mark 1:1-8)

B .The baptism of Jesus (1:9)

C . The voice of God from heaven, "Thou art my beloved son" (1:11)

D . The forty days in the wilderness as an allusion to Elijah and Moses (1:13)

E . The people were astonished at what Jesus taught (1:22)

F . Jesus casts out an unclean spirit (1:23-26)

G . Pharisees took counsel with the Herodians how they might destroy Jesus (3:6)

H . Demons, whenever they see Jesus, fall down and say that he is the Son of God.

-- Jesus commands that they tell no one of this (3:11-12)

I .. Jesus calls the 12 disciples (3:13-19)

J .. Jesus rejects his own family: he has a new family, his followers (3:31-35)

K . Jesus rebukes the wind (4:36-41)

L . The demoniac, wearing no clothes (5:15), cries out that Jesus not torment him and Jesus sends out the demons (5:1-20)

M . Jesus comes into his own country (6:1)
-- Where he was brought up

N . The people misunderstand Jesus and he can do no mighty work (6:2-6)

O . Jesus sends out the disciples and curses those who will not receive them (6:7-11)
-- in sending the disciples with authority and expecting all to receive them, Jesus is asserting his own authority

P . Herod thinks that Jesus is John the Baptist risen from the dead (6:14)

Q . Herodias and her daughter conspire to kill John the Baptist (6:16-29)

R . Feeding the thousands, and related miracles and discourses (6:33-8:21)

S . Who do people say that I am (8:27)

T . Peter affirms faith in Jesus as the Christ (8:29)

U . Whosoever shall be ashamed of me: of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed (8:38)

V . The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and scribes (8:31a)

W . Be killed and after three days rise again (8:31b)

X . Prophecy of second coming (9:1)- Jesus tells the disciples that some of them would not taste death until they saw the kingdom of God coming with power.

B' .The Transfiguration of Jesus (9:2-3)

C' .The voice of God from heaven, "This is my beloved son" (9:7)

D' . Jesus talks to Elijah and Moses then to the disciples about Elijah (9:4-13)

E' .A great multitude was amazed at Jesus (9:15)

F' .Jesus cast out a dumb spirit (9:17-27)

G' .They shall kill the Son of man and he shall rise on the third day (9:31)

H' .Jesus clarifies his divine status, saying that he is not God: "Why call me good? There is none good but God" (10:18)

I' . Peter says the disciples have left all and followed Jesus (10:28)

J' . Those who have left their family for Jesus have a new family: all Jesus' followers (10:29-30)

K'. Jesus rebukes the 'sons of thunder', James and John (10:35-45 - cf 3:17)

L' .Blind Bartimaeus cries out for mercy and casts off his clothes, then Jesus heals him (10:46-52)

M' .Jesus comes into Jerusalem (11:1-10)
-- Where he will die

N' .Jesus misunderstands the fig tree that can provide no fruit (11:13-14)

O' .Jesus casts out them that sold and bought in the Temple and curses them for making the Temple a den of thieves (11:15-17)
-- Jesus is asserting his authority

P' .Jesus asks whether the baptism of John is from heaven or of men, and the priests, scribes and elders can not answer (11:30-33)

Q' .Parable of husbandmen who conspire to kill the vineyard owner's son (12:1-9)

X' .Prophecy of second coming (chapter 13)

-- on clouds of glory, within the lifetimes of some of those to whom he was speaking

R' .The Last Supper (14:17-25)

S' .Art thou the Christ, Son of God (14:61)

T' .Peter denies Jesus three times (14:66-72a)

U' .And when he thought thereon, Peter wept (14:72b)

V' .The chief priests, elders and scribes delivered Jesus to Pontius Pilate (15:1)

-- Delivering Jesus is a similar concept to rejecting him.
-- Both parts of the pair involve chief priests, elders and scribes

W' .Jesus dies and on the third day rises again (15:37, 16:6)

A' .The young man explains the departure of Jesus(16:6-8)

Now, for example, we can see the theme of Jesus as God's beloved son in events C and C'. This is given added emphasis when we relate events B (baptism of Jesus), C and D to events B' (transfiguration of Jesus), C' and D'. Once again in events S and S' we see the theme of who others believe Jesus to be.

Then in event T, we see that Peter calls Jesus the Christ, but in event T' he denies Jesus three times. Many other themes are developed in the framework structure and in the chiastic structures built around events within the overall structure.

Answer 7

The theme of the four gospels is that Jesus was the son of God and they are a chronicle of his life and wisdom.

Answer 8

The main theme of ALL FOUR gospels is the life and death of Jesus.

Answer 9

The ''Kingly Messiah''