Who was St Luke and what will we learn about him?

18 October is St Luke’s Day. But who was St Luke, and what will we learn about him? This is the story …

Spelling

The English name Luke comes from the Greek spelling Λουκᾶς (Lukas), related to the Roman name Lucius. In Germanic languages it is frequently spelt Lukas, and in Romance languages Lucas. It is Luca in Hungarian, Luc in Welsh and French, and Lukáš in Czech and Slovak.

Famous Lukes

Two of essentially the most famous people called Luke within the English-speaking world are each fictional: Luke Skywalker from Star Wars, who first appeared on film in 1977, and Luke Duke from The Dukes of Hazzard, who first appeared on television in 1979. As a result, the name Luke shot up in popularity as a boy’s name across the English-speaking world from the late Nineteen Seventies into the Nineteen Nineties.

Luke within the Bible

The name Luke appears only 3 times within the New Testament, and all check with the identical person. In the King James Version, the name is spelt Luke in Colossians 4:14 and a couple of Timothy 4:11, but as Lucas within the twenty fourth verse of Philemon, which could also be an oversight in updating the text. Modern English Bible versions use the spelling Luke.

The Early Christian Fathers wrote that Luke was a Gentile from Antioch, a health care provider by career, and a disciple of the apostles who later accompanied St Paul. Since the Early Church, it has been the tradition that Luke wrote each the Gospel of Luke and Acts of the Apostles, the latter being the follow-up book.

Dr Luke

Luke is named “the beloved physician,” or “doctor,” depending in your translation, and he brings greetings to the church at Colossae (Colossians 4:14). That the creator of Luke’s Gospel was a health care provider is maybe suggested by the undeniable fact that the Gospel uniquely includes the proverb “Physician, heal thyself!” (Luke 4:23), and that within the parable of the Good Samaritan, Luke mentions the Samaritan tending the Jewish man’s wounds.

The word physician, present in the KJV, is used more in American English than in British English and sounds somewhat archaic to British ears. Bible translations originating within the USA are likely to use physician, while those originating in Britain use doctor. Either way, he is usually referred to as Dr Luke.

Luke the Gentile

The concept that Luke the Gentile is the creator of the Gospel and Acts is sensible because Luke reads as if written from a Gentile somewhat than a Jewish perspective. Paul implies that Luke shouldn’t be Jewish in Colossians 4:14 because he shouldn’t be listed amongst those “men of the circumcision amongst my fellow staff” (Colossians 4:11) mentioned immediately before. The Book of Acts goes into great detail concerning the church at Antioch, as if written by someone from there, and it describes the conversion of St Paul as if written by someone who knew him.

Luke and Acts

Luke shouldn’t be mentioned by name in either of his books, but each the Gospel of Luke and Acts are dedicated to the identical person, Theophilus (Luke 1:3 and Acts 1:1). In the primary verse of Acts, the creator states that it follows a previous book concerning the teachings of Jesus (Acts 1:1). The connection between these two books is usually lost on readers because they don’t follow each other within the New Testament; the Gospel of John is placed between them in the normal order.

Unique Stories within the Gospel of Luke

The writers of the 4 Gospel accounts were traditionally called “Evangelists,” and so Luke is usually referred to as St Luke the Evangelist. Much of Luke’s Gospel closely resembles Mark and Matthew’s Gospels but includes additional material. One common theory is that Luke could have taken Mark’s Gospel and augmented it, as Matthew also did. His unique contributions appear to be accounts obtained from talking to eyewitnesses, as suggested in Luke 1:2.

It is simply Luke who records parts of the Christmas story, corresponding to the Annunciation to Mary, the birth of John the Baptist, the visit of the shepherds, and the story of Jesus’ childhood. These suggest that he had spoken to people in Jesus’s family, even perhaps Mary herself.

Luke also includes a few of Jesus’ most famous parables not found elsewhere, corresponding to the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25–37), the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11–32), the Lost Coin (Luke 15:8–10), and the Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19–31), suggesting that he collected them from eyewitnesses or from early Christian tradition.

Luke alone records three of the sayings of Christ on the Cross: “Father, forgive them” (Luke 23:34), “Thou shalt be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43), and “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit” (Luke 23:46). These suggest that he heard them from someone who was there—perhaps John, Mary, and even considered one of the Roman soldiers. Luke can be the one author to incorporate the story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus after Jesus’ resurrection (Luke 24:13–35), which suggests that he had met them and obtained the story directly.

The Book of Acts

Arguably, Luke is much more necessary because the creator of the Acts of the Apostles. Commonly known simply as Acts, the book recounts the primary three a long time of the Early Church’s history. The story begins with the Ascension of Jesus (Acts 1:6–11), the apostles gathering in Jerusalem and waiting for forty days (Acts 1:12–14), the election of Matthias (Acts 1:15–26), the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (Acts 2), after which the expansion of the Church, the story of Paul, and his missionary journeys.

In each Luke and Acts, the creator doesn’t use his own name, but he seems to incorporate himself not directly, as he often writes “we” to point that he was present with Paul. The sections written from this attitude are present in Acts 16:10–17, Acts 20:5–15, Acts 21:1–18, and Acts 27:1–28:16. Luke was with Paul in Rome (Acts 28:16), and near the top of Paul’s life he wrote that only Luke was with him (2 Timothy 4:11).

Luke makes many casual references throughout Acts to events, local customs, and practices, demonstrating a keen eye for detail and offering compelling evidence that he was there. The book of Acts ends in Rome, which suggests to many historians that it predates Nero’s persecutions and Paul’s death, helping thus far the book to around AD 60.

What Happened to Luke?

After the top of Acts, Luke disappears from the story. He is mentioned in Paul’s epistles, confirming that he travelled with Paul, however the New Testament doesn’t tell us what happened to him afterwards. As is usually the case, the gap within the biblical narrative is filled by ancient tradition. According to tradition, after the martyrdom of St Paul in AD 67, St Luke continued to evangelise throughout the Mediterranean. He is claimed to have lived an extended life and was eventually martyred on the age of 84 within the Greek city of Thebes.

Tomb

The Church of Luke the Evangelist at Thebes was built around his tomb and relics, even though it now only incorporates a rib. In AD 357 most of Luke’s stays were said to have been moved to the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople by order of Emperor Constantine. They were reportedly moved for safety to Padua in northern Italy in the course of the iconoclastic revolt, where they rest on the Basilica di Santa Giustina. In 1354, the skull was taken as a relic to Prague Cathedral. Confusingly, there’s also a tomb reputed to be Luke’s in Ephesus. In any case, all of those places attract tourists and pilgrims in memory of St Luke.

St Luke’s Day

Luke is venerated as a saint, and his feast day is universally marked as St Luke’s Day on 18 October within the Orthodox, Catholic, Anglican, and Lutheran traditions, although the explanation for that specific date is lost within the mists of time. St Luke’s Day was traditionally when farmers would either prepare cattle for winter or butcher them.

Patron Saint

St Luke is the patron saint of physicians, doctors, and surgeons. He can be the patron saint of notaries, due to his meticulous documentation in writing an orderly account of Jesus’ life and the early Church. He is further thought to be the patron saint of artists and painters, resulting from an Orthodox legend that he was the primary icon maker. He can be the patron saint of butchers, as he is usually symbolised by the logo of a calf or ox, sometimes depicted with wings.

Churches Dedicated to St Luke

In the Orthodox, Catholic, and Anglican traditions, many church buildings are dedicated to St Luke. There are 242 parish church buildings dedicated to St Luke within the Church of England alone. St Luke’s Day on 18 October typically sees special services and community events in a lot of these churches, referred to as patronal festivals.

Importance

St Luke’s Gospel is the just one with a sequel. The two books of Luke and Acts make up just over 1 / 4 of the entire New Testament, meaning that Luke wrote more words of the New Testament than anyone else. Without him, we might not know a number of the Christmas story, a number of the most loved parables, nor the expansion of the Early Church and Paul’s missionary journeys. He could have been accountable for much more of the New Testament, as he could have helped Paul to jot down his later letters—referred to as the Pastoral Epistles—particularly those to Timothy and Titus.

Collect for St Luke’s Day

The Anglican collect prayer for St Luke’s Day is:
“Almighty God, you called Luke the physician, whose praise is within the gospel, to be an evangelist and physician of the soul: by the grace of the Spirit and thru the healthful medicine of the gospel, give your Church the identical love and power to heal; through Jesus Christ our Lord.”