Luke the Evangelist was one of the Four Evangelists—the four traditionally ascribed authors of the canonical gospels. The Early Church Fathers ascribed to him authorship of both the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles. Prominent figures in early Christianity such as Jerome and Eusebius later reaffirmed his authorship. Scholarly opinion on the tradition is roughly evenly divided near the end of the 20th century.
The New Testament mentions Luke briefly a few times, and the Epistle to the Colossians refers to him as a physician (from Greek for 'one who heals'); thus he is thought to have been both a physician and a disciple of Paul.
Since the early years of the faith, Christians have regarded him as a saint. He is believed to have been a martyr, reportedly having been hanged from an olive tree, though some believe otherwise. The Eastern Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic church and other major denominations venerate him as Saint Luke the Evangelist and as a patron saint of artists, physicians, bachelors, notaries, butchers, brewers, and others; his feast day is 18 October.
He is also described in the New Testament as a Doctor.
Many scholars believe that Luke was a physician who lived in the Hellenistic city of Antioch in Ancient Syria, born of a Greek family, although some scholars and theologians think Luke was a Hellenic Jew. While it has been widely accepted that the theology of Luke–Acts points to a gentile Christian writing for a gentile audience, some have concluded that it is more plausible that Luke–Acts is directed to a community made up of both Jewish and gentile Christians since there is stress on the scriptural roots of the gentile mission (see the use of Isaiah 49:6 in Luke–Acts).
Whether Luke was a Jew or gentile, or something in between, it is clear from the quality of the Greek language used in Luke–Acts that the author, held in Christian tradition to be Luke, was one of the most highly educated of the authors of the New Testament. The author's conscious and intentional allusions and references to, and quotations of, ancient Classical and Hellenistic Greek authors, such as Homer, Aesop, Epimenides, Euripides, Plato, Thucydides, and Aratus indicate that he was familiar with actual Greek literary texts. This familiarity most likely derived from his experiences as a youth of the very homogenous Hellenistic educational curriculum (ἐγκύκλιος παιδεία, enkyklios paideia) that had been, and would continue to be, used for centuries throughout the eastern Mediterranean.
Luke's earliest mention is in the Epistle to Philemon, chapter 1, verse 24. He is also mentioned in Colossians 4:14 and 2 Timothy 4:11, both however viewed as deutero-Pauline epistles (see Authorship of the Pauline epistles).
Epiphanius states that Luke was one of the Seventy Apostles (Panarion 51.11), and John Chrysostom indicates at one point that the "brother" that Paul mentions in the Second Epistle to the Corinthians 8:18 is either Luke or Barnabas (Homily 18 on Second Corinthians on 2 Corinthians 8:18).
If one accepts that Luke was indeed the author of the Gospel bearing his name and the Acts of the Apostles, certain details of his personal life can be reasonably assumed. While he does exclude himself from those who were eyewitnesses to Jesus' ministry, he repeatedly uses the word we in describing the Pauline missions in Acts of the Apostles, indicating that he was personally there at those times. According to these inferences, the author meets up with the Apostle Paul in Troas (Acts 16:10) to cross to Macedonia and is left for some time in Philippi, then around 52AD rejoins Paul in Philippi (Acts 20:6) on their return to Syria and Jerusalem, and stays by his side on the perilous third missionary journey to Italy (Acts 27:1).
The composition of the writings, as well as the range of vocabulary used, indicate that the author was an educated man. A quote in the Epistle to the Colossians differentiates between Luke and other colleagues "of the circumcision".
10My fellow prisoner Aristarchus sends you his greetings, as does Mark, the cousin of Barnabas. 11Jesus, who is called Justus, also sends greetings. These are the only Jews among my co-workers for the kingdom of God, and they have proved a comfort to me. [...] 14Our dear friend Luke, the doctor, and Demas send greetings.
This comment has traditionally caused commentators to conclude that 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. Although Luke is considered likely to have been a gentile Christian, some scholars believe him to have been a Hellenized Jew. The phrase could just as easily be used to differentiate between those Christians who strictly observed the rituals of Judaism and those who did not.
Luke's presence in Rome with the Apostle Paul near the end of Paul's life was attested by 2 Timothy 4:11: "Only Luke is with me". In the last chapter of the Book of Acts, widely attributed to Luke, there are several accounts in the first person also affirming Luke's presence in Rome, including Acts 28:16: "And when we came to Rome..." According to some accounts, Luke also contributed to the authorship of the Epistle to the Hebrews.
Luke died at age 84 in Boeotia, according to a "fairly early and widespread tradition" cited in Butler 1991, but Butler does not provide any specific source. According to Nikephoros Kallistos Xanthopoulos, Greek historian of the 14th century (and others), Luke's tomb was located in Thebes, whence his relics were transferred to Constantinople in the year 357.
Critical opinion on the traditional attribution to Luke the Physician was assessed to be roughly evenly divided near the end of the 20th century. The Gospel of Luke does not name its author, which is similar to other Greco-Roman bios. The Gospel does not claim to be written by a direct eyewitness, but states dependence on eyewitnesses and information passed down. While Acts beginning in the sixteenth chapter implies that its author was a traveling companion of Paul, Some scholars argue that Acts thus represents a forgery. However, in most translations the author suggests that they have investigated the book's events and notes the name (Theophilus) of that to whom they are writing.
The earliest manuscript of the Gospel (Papyrus 75 = Papyrus Bodmer XIV-XV), dated c. AD 200, ascribes the work to Luke; as did Irenaeus writing c. AD 180, and the Muratorian fragment, a 7th-century Latin manuscript thought to be copied and translated from a Greek manuscript as old as AD 170.
The Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles make up a two-volume work which scholars call Luke–Acts. Together they account for 27.5% of the New Testament, the largest contribution by a single author.
Most scholars understand Luke's works (Luke–Acts) in the tradition of Greek historiography. Luke 1:1–4, drawing on historical investigation, identified the work to the readers as belonging to the genre of history. There is disagreement about how best to treat Luke's writings, with some historians regarding Luke as highly accurate, and others taking a more critical approach.