Writer: Luke

1. What kind of Gospel did Luke write?

THE Gospel of Luke was written by a man with a keen mind and a kind heart, and this fine blend of qualities, with the guidance of God’s spirit, has resulted in an account that is both accurate and full of warmth and feeling. In the opening verses, he says, “I resolved also, because I have traced all things from the start with accuracy, to write them in logical order to you.” His detailed, meticulous presentation fully bears out this claim.​—Luke 1:3.

2, 3. What external and internal evidence points to the physician Luke as writer of this Gospel?

² Although Luke is nowhere named in the account, ancient authorities are agreed that he was the writer. The Gospel is attributed to Luke in the Muratorian Fragment (c. 170 C.E.) and was accepted by such second-century writers as Irenaeus and Clement of Alexandria. Internal evidence also points strongly to Luke. Paul speaks of him at Colossians 4:14 as “Luke the beloved physician,” and his work is of the scholarly order one would expect from a well-educated man, such as a doctor. His fine choice of language and his extensive vocabulary, larger than that of the other three Gospel writers combined, make possible a most careful and comprehensive treatment of his vital subject. His account of the prodigal son is regarded by some as the best short story ever written.

³ Luke uses more than 300 medical terms or words to which he gives a medical meaning that are not used in the same way (if they are used at all) by the other writers of the Christian Greek Scriptures.a For example, when speaking of leprosy, Luke does not always use the same term as the others. To them leprosy is leprosy, but to the physician, there are different stages of leprosy, as when Luke speaks of “a man full of leprosy.” Lazarus, he says, was “full of ulcers.” No other Gospel writer says that Peter’s mother-in-law had “a high fever.” (5:12; 16:20; 4:38) Although the other three tell us of Peter’s cutting off the ear of the slave of the high priest, only Luke mentions that Jesus healed him. (22:51) It is like a doctor to say of a woman that she had “a spirit of weakness for eighteen years, and she was bent double and was unable to raise herself up at all.” And who but “Luke the beloved physician” would have recorded in such detail the first aid rendered to a man by the Samaritan who “bound up his wounds, pouring oil and wine upon them”?​—13:11; 10:34.