So the Gospel account was probably written by Luke in Caesarea about 56-58 C.E., after he returned with Paul from Philippi at the end of Paul’s third missionary journey and while Paul was waiting two years in prison at Caesarea before being taken to Rome for his appeal. Since Luke was there in Palestine, during this time he was well situated to ‘trace all things from the start with accuracy’ concerning the life and ministry of Jesus.

5. From what sources may Luke have ‘traced with accuracy’ the events of Jesus’ life?

⁵ Luke was not, of course, an eyewitness of all the events he records in his Gospel, not being one of the 12 and probably not even a believer until after Jesus’ death. However, he was very closely associated with Paul in the missionary field. (2 Tim. 4:11; Philem. 24) So, as might be expected, his writing shows evidence of Paul’s influence, as can be seen by comparing their two accounts of the Lord’s Evening Meal, at Luke 22:19, 20 and; 1 Corinthians 11:23-25. As a further source of material, Luke could have referred to Matthew’s Gospel. In ‘tracing all things with accuracy,’ he would be able personally to interview many eyewitnesses of the events of Jesus’ life, such as the surviving disciples and possibly Jesus’ mother, Mary. We can be sure that he left no stone unturned in assembling the reliable details.

7. What testifies strongly to the authenticity of Luke’s Gospel?

⁷ Throughout his writing, Luke proves to be an outstanding narrator, his accounts being well arranged and accurate. These qualities of accuracy and fidelity in Luke’s writings are strong proof of their authenticity. A legal writer once observed: “While romances, legends and false testimony are careful to place events related in some distant place and some indefinite time, thereby violating the first rules we lawyers learn of good pleading, that ‘the declaration must give time and place,’ the Bible narratives give us the date and place of the things related with the utmost precision.”b In proof he cited Luke 3:1, 2: “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was district ruler of Galilee, but Philip his brother was district ruler of the country of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was district ruler of Abilene, in the days of chief priest Annas and of Caiaphas, God’s declaration came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness.” There is no indefiniteness here as to time or place, but Luke names no less than seven public officials so that we can establish the time of the beginning of John’s ministry and that of Jesus.

8. How does Luke indicate the time of Jesus’ birth “with accuracy”?

⁸ Luke also gives us two pointers for fixing the time of Jesus’ birth when he says, at Luke 2:1, 2: “Now in those days a decree went forth from Caesar Augustus for all the inhabited earth to be registered; (this first registration took place when Quirinius was governor of Syria).” This was when Joseph and Mary went up to Bethlehem to be registered, and Jesus was born while they were there.c We cannot but agree with the commentator who says: “It is one of the most searching tests of Luke’s historical sense that he always manages to achieve perfect accuracy.”d We must acknowledge as valid Luke’s claim to have “traced all things from the start with accuracy.”

9. What prophecy of Jesus, recorded by Luke, had a remarkable fulfillment in 70 C.E.?

⁹ Luke also points out how the prophecies of the Hebrew Scriptures were accurately fulfilled in Jesus Christ. He quotes Jesus’ inspired testimony on this. (24:27, 44) Further, he accurately records Jesus’ own prophecies concerning future events, and many of these have already had remarkable fulfillments in all their foretold detail. For example, Jerusalem was surrounded by siegeworks of pointed stakes and perished in a frightful holocaust in 70 C.E., just as Jesus foretold. (Luke 19:43, 44; 21:20-24; Matt. 24:2) The secular historian Flavius Josephus, who was an eyewitness with the Roman army, testifies that the countryside was denuded of trees to a distance of about ten miles [16 km] to provide stakes, that the siege wall was four and a half miles [7.2 km] long, that many women and children died from famine, and that more than 1,000,000 Jews lost their lives and 97,000 were taken captive. To this day, the Arch of Titus in Rome portrays the Roman victory procession with spoils of war from Jerusalem’s temple.e We can be sure that other inspired prophecies recorded by Luke will be just as accurately fulfilled.