L U K 



afcenfion, and together with others was very ferviceable in 

 preaching the gofpel, at an early period, to Jews and Gen- 

 tiles out of Judea. And if the other difciple, who accom- 

 panied Cleopas in the way to Emmaus, be Luke the evan- 

 gelift, he was a difciple and eye-witnefs of Jefus Chrift ; 

 though we do not allow him to be one of the 70. It ap- 

 pears further, that St. Luke was for a confiderable time a 

 eonftant companion of St. Paul ; and that he was alfo ac- 

 quainted with other apoftles. It is probable, that St. Luke 

 died a natural death ; becaufe none of the mod ancient 

 writers, fuch as Clement of Alexandria, Irensus, Origen, 

 Eufebius, and Jerom, fay any thing of his martyrdom. 

 Gaudentius, bilhop of Brefcia, about the year 387, obferves, 

 that in his time it was generally faid, that Luke and Andrew 

 fini(hed their courfe at Patra; in Achaia, but without adding 

 that it was by martyrdom : and if St. Luke be called a 

 martyr, the appellation may be underilocd in a general fcnfe, 

 as equivalent to confefTor, or a great fuffcrer for the golpel. 

 Cave fays (Hill. Lit. p. 2J.) that Luke lived a ilngle life, 

 and died in the 84th year of his age, about the year of 

 Chrid 70, but of what death is uncertain. Phiioftorgius 

 informs us, that in the reign of the emperor Conflantius, 

 the reliques of St. Luke were tranllated from Achaia to 

 Conftantinople ; and therefore it mull have been a general 

 perfuafion in thofe times, that St. Luke had died, and had 

 been buried in Achaia, which, Gregory Nazianzen fays, 

 was the province affigne ! to St. Luke. I^ardner. 



Lvke's GofpeU St., HI Biblical Hiflory, the gofpel written 

 by the evangelill Luke. That the gofpel and the Afts were 

 written by St. Luke, is a fadl that is confirmed by the telli- 

 mony of the moil unexceptionable of ancient writers. To this 

 purpofe we may obferve, that this gofpel is often cited by 

 Juftin Martyr, who lived A.D. 140, and by the martyrs of 

 Lyons, A.D. 177. Irenaeus, A.D. 178, fays exprefsly, 

 that Luke, the companion of Paul,'' put down in a book 

 the gofpel preached by him. Clement of Alexandria, 

 A.D. 194, has borne ample teftimony to this gofpel, as 

 well as the Afts. TertuUian, A. D 2co, affcrts againd 

 Marcion the genuinenefs and integrity of the copies ut St. 

 Luke's gofpel, owned by himfelf and Chridians in general, 

 and for this he appeals to divers apodolical churches Lake's 

 diged, fays this ancient father, is often afcribed to Paul ; 

 it being eafy to take that for the mader's which the difci- 

 ples publidied. Origen, A. D 230, mentions the gofpels 

 according to the order in which they are now generally 

 received ; and " the third," he fays, " is that according to 

 Luke, the gofpel commended by Paul, publifhed for the 

 fake of the Gentile converts." Enlebius of Caeiarea, AD. 

 315, fpeaking of St. Paul's fellow-labourers, fays, " and 

 Luke, who was of Aiitioch, and by profeiBon a phyfician, 

 for the mod part a companion of Paul, whg had hkewife a 

 more than flight acquaintance with the red ot the apoitles, 

 has left us in two books, divinely infpired, evidence of the 

 art of healing fouls, which he had learned trom them. One 

 of thefe is the gofpel, which he profefleth to have written, 

 as they delivered it to him, " who from the beginning were 

 eye-witnedes and minilters of the word," with all whom he 

 fays Hkewife, he has been perfeftly acquainted from the 

 very fird. The other is the Atls of the Apodles, which 

 he compofed now, " not from what he had received by the 

 report of others, but from what he had feen with his own 

 eyes." In the Synopfis, alcribed to Athaiiafius, but fup- 

 pofed to be written about the end of the tifth century, it is 

 feid, •' that the gofpel of Luke was ditlated by the apodle 

 Paul, .and written and publillied by the bleffed apollle and 

 phyfician Luke." But it is neediefs in this place to cite a 

 greater number of authorities. 



L U K 



As to the time in which this gofpel was written, it may 

 be fettled without much difficulty. Thi.- Aits of the apodlet 

 were publilhed A.D. 63 or 64, and not long after the gof- 

 pel, as is generally allowed. Accordingly Dr. Mill fup- 

 pofes, thofe books to have been two parts of one and the 

 fame volume, and to have been publilhed in the year of 

 Chrid 64. The gofpel itfelf bears internal charafters of the 

 time in which it was written. As to the place where it was 

 written, learned writers have differed. Jerom fays, that 

 Luke, the third evangelift, publidied his gofpel in the coun- 

 tries of Achaia and Bueotia. Gregory Nazianzen alfo fays, 

 that Luke wrote for the Greeks, or in Achaia. Grotim 

 fays, that about the time when Paul left Rome, Luke de- 

 parted to Achaia, and there wrote his books, which we 

 have. Cave thought that they were written at Rome, and 

 before the termination of Paul's captivity. But it is faid 

 by Mill, Grabe, and Wetdein, that Luke publidied his 

 gofpel at Alexandria in Egypt. Dr. Lardner has parti- 

 cularly examined thefe different opinions; and he concludes, 

 that " upon the whole, there appears not any good reafon 

 to fay, that St. Luke wrote his gofpel at Alexandria, or 

 that he preached at all in Egypt. It is more probable, 

 that when he left Paul, he went into Greece, and there 

 compofed, or finidied, and pubhdied his gofpel, and the 

 Acts of the apodles." Origen was of opinion that this gof- 

 pel was written for gentile converts ; Jerom fays, that of 

 all the evangelids Luke was bed Ikilled in the Greek lan- 

 guage, and that he wrote his gofpel more efpecially for 

 gentiles, but Chryfodom maintains that he wrote for all in 

 general. Luke himfelf, at the beginning of his gofpel, 

 alligns the reafon of his writing, declaring, that whereas 

 many others had raOiiy undertaken to give a' relation of the 

 matters which he moll furely believed, he thought himfelf 

 obliged, in order the better to divert us from the uncertain 

 relations of others, to deliver in his gofpel a certain account 

 of thofe things, which he was well affured of from his inti- 

 mate acquaintance and familiarity with Paul, and his con- 

 verfation with the other apodles. So fays Eufebius. 



St. Luke has infcribed his two books, his gofpel, and the 

 Ads to Theophilus, by whom fome underdand any good 

 Cliridian in general, others a particular perfon. Aucrudin, 

 Chryfodom, and many others, have underdood Theophilus 

 to be a real perfon. Cave fuppofed him to be a nobleman 

 of Antioch ; but it feems more probable, that if St. Luke 

 publilhed his books in Greece, as we have already dated, 

 Theophilus, to whom they are addreded, was a man of the 

 fame country. It is of greater importance to afcertain, 

 who are delignated by the many mentioned by the evan- 

 gelill, who before him had attempted to write hidories of 

 Jelub Chriil. Epiphanius fuppofcs, that St. Luke here 

 refers to Cei'inthus, Merinthus, and others of that defcrip- 

 tion. Origen and Jerom fay, that many attempted to write 

 gofpels, as B-ilibdes, Apelles, and others ; and they men- 

 tion feveral fuch, not received by the church ; fuch as the 

 gofpel of Thomas and Matthias, the gofpel of the Egyp- 

 tians and of the Twelve. Theophyladt fee;ns to imagine, 

 that the evaugclid referred to the two latter golpels now 

 named. Grabe, while he allows that St. Luke did not 

 refer to the gofpels of Balilides or Thomas, or fome others 

 mentioned by Origen, for they were no publilhed till after 

 St. Luke's death, thinks, that St. Luke might refer to the 

 golpels according to the Egyptians, and according to the 

 twelve, and fome oihers. But againfl this opinion it might 

 be urged, that the gofpel according to the Egyptians was 

 not compofed before the fecond century. Dr. Mill is of 

 opinion, that of the many :,arratious to which St. Luke 

 refers, the two principal were the gofpels according to the 



Hebrew*, 



