iv. 22. Col. iv. 6; Eph. iv. 29. iy. 32. 1 Cor. ii. 4.
Wie o0. 2 Cor: 1.38; Rom. xii. 1. vi. 39. Rom. ii. 19.
vi. 48. 1 Cor. iti. 10.
viii. 15 Col. 1./10, 11.
16
Luxe. Pavt.
ix. 56. 2 Cor. x. 8.
5 [Sh j 1 Cor. x. 27.
5 PALS Philip. iv. 3.
x. 21 Corer O27. Sah, aul ‘Mins aby lls
Xil, poe Eph. vi. 14.
xy Alyy alts), Rom. ix. 33.
Luke’s long residence in Greece makes it probable that he had Greek readers especially in mind. The same humanitarian and Gentile character of his writings, as distinguished from Jew- ish writings, appears in the Acts as in the Gospel. Of the Acts, although attempts have been made to assign its composi- tion to Timothy and to Silas, and to identify Silas with Luke, the universal testimony of the ancient church, no less than the identity of style, declare Luke to be the author. About fifty words not found elsewhere in the New Testament are common to both books.
From a purely literary point of view Luke’s Gospel has been pronounced, even by Renan, to be the most beautiful book ever written. He says: “The Gospel of Luke is the most literary of the gospels. Everywhere there is revealed a spirit large and sweet ; wise, temperate, sober, and reasonable in the irrational. Its exaggerations, its inconsistencies, its improbabilities, are true to the very nature of parable, and constitute its charm. Matthew rounds a little the rough outlines of Mark. Luke does better: he writes. He displays a genuine skill in compo- sition. His book is a beautiful narrative, well contrived, at once Hebraic and Hellenic, uniting the emotion of the drama with the serenity of the idyl. . . . A-spirit of holy infancy, of joy, of fervor, the gospel feeling in its primitive freshness, dif- fuse all over the legend an incomparably sweet coloring.”
Luke is the best writer of Greek among the evangelists. His construction is rhythmical, his vocabulary rich and well selected, considerably exceeding that of the other evangelists. He uses over seven hundred words which occur nowhere else in the New Testament. He substitutes classical words for many which are used by Matthew and Mark, as \uvn, lake, for Idracoa, sea,