Where did Luke begin and end his gospel?

Answer 1

A:

By placing the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke in parallel and reading them synoptically ('with the same eye) in the original Greek language, scholars have established that the Gospels of Matthew and Luke were substantially based on Mark's Gospel. So, Luke contains much of the narrative of Mark, excluding the 'Missing Block', a group of consecutive passages of which the author of Luke appears to have been unaware. Although subsequently attributed to Luke, the Gospel was originally anonymous, so we do not really know the author's name nor where it was written. It was probably written quite late in the first century or in the first years of the second century.

Luke begins its narrative even earlier than Mark, since it contains a nativity account intended to inform the readers about the births of John the Baptist in Jerusalem and of Jesus in Bethlehem.

Luke ends the narrative somewhat later than Mark did, as Mark originally ended at verse 16:8 , with the young man telling the women that Jesus was risen and they fled, telling no one, with no resurrection appearance of Jesus. Verses 16:9-25 form what is now known as the "Long Ending" (there was also, at one stage, a "Short Ending") and were added to the Gospel at a later stage. Luke's Gospel continues after the resurrection to tell of Jesus meeting the two men on the road to Emmaeus, then appearing to the disciples at a meal in the upper room. Finally, on the evening of his resurrection, Jesus took the disciples on the road to Bethany, where he was taken bodily up to heaven.

Acts of the Apostles, by the same author but written some time later, extends to forty days the period between the resurrection and the ascension to heaven.