The eschatological discourses of our Lord, then, are essentially the same in all the Synoptists, and present the same difficulties, which can only be removed by assuming: (1) that they refer both to the destruction of Jerusalem and the end of the world, two analogous events, the former being typical of the latter; (2) that the two events, widely distant in time, are represented in close proximity of space after the manner of prophetic vision in a panoramic picture. We must also remember that the precise date of the end of the world was expressly disclaimed even by the Son of God in the days of his humiliation (Matt. 24:36; Mark 13:32), and is consequently beyond the reach of human knowledge and calculation. The only difference is that Luke more clearly distinguishes the two events by dividing the prophetical discourses and assigning them to different occasions (Luke 17:20-37 and 21:5-33); and here, as in other cases, he is probably more exact and in harmony with several hints of our Lord that a considerable interval must elapse between the catastrophe of Jerusalem and the final catastrophe of the world.
Place of Composition.
The third Gospel gives no hint as to the place of composition. Ancient tradition is uncertain, and modern critics are divided between Greece, [1030] Alexandria, [1031] Ephesus, [1032] Caesarea, [1033] Rome. [1034] It was probably written in sections during the longer residence of the author at Philippi, Caesarea, and Rome, but we cannot tell where it was completed and published. [1035]
[987] Origen, Eusebius, and Jerome erroneously supposed that Paul meant the written Gospel of Luke when he speaks of "my gospel," Rom. 2:16; 16:25; 2 Tim. 2:8. The word gospel is not used in the New Test. in the sense of a written record, except in the titles which are of post-apostolic date; and the preface of Luke is inconsistent with the idea that he composed his work under the direction of any one man.
[988] The name Loukas,Lucas, is abridged from lukanos .Lucanus or Lucilius (as Apollos from Apollonius, Silas from Silvanus). It is not to be confounded with Lucius, Acts 13:1; Rom. 16:21. The name was not common, but contractions in as were frequent in the names of slaves, as Lobeck observes. Dr. Plumptre (in his Com.)ingeniously conjectures that Luke was from the region of Lucania in Southern Italy, and called after the famous poet, M. Annaeus Lucanus, as his freedman. In this way be accounts for Luke's familiarity with Italian localities (Acts 28:13-15), the favor of the uncle of Lucanus, J. Annaeus Gallic, shown to Paul (18:14-17), the tradition of the friendship between Paul and Seneca (a brother of Gallio), and the intended journey of Paul to Spain (Rom. 15:28), where Seneca and Lucanus were born (at Corduba). But the chronology is against this hypothesis. Lucanus was born a.d. 39, when Luke must have been already about thirty years of age, as he cannot have been much younger than Paul.
[989] Jerome (Ep. ad Paulinum) says of Luke "Fuit medicus, et pariter omnia verba illius animae languentis sunt medicinae."
[990] Comp. Gal. 4:13; 2 Cor. 1:9; 4:10, 12, 16; 12:7.
[991] He is distinguished from "those of the circumcision," Col. 4:14; comp. 4:11.
[992] Eusebius, III. 4: Loukas to men genos hon ton ap Antiocheias, ten epistemen de iatros , k. t. l. Jerome, De vir. ill, 7: "Lucas medicus Antiochensis ... sectator apostoli Pauli, et omnis peregrinationis ejus comes.
[993] James Smith (l.c., p. 4) illustrates the argumentative bearing of this notice by the fact that of eight accounts of the Russian campaign of 1812, three by French, three by English, and two by scotch authors (Scott and Alison), the last two only make mention of the Scotch extraction of the Russian General Barclay de Tolly.
[994] Jerome, De vir. ill., 7: "Sepultus est Constantinopoli, ad quam urbem vicesimo Constantii anno ossa eius cum reliquiis Andreae apostoli translata sunt."
[995] Hence the ancient tradition that he was one of the Seventy Disciples, or one of the two disciples of Emmaus, cannot be true.
[996] As the account of the stilling of the tempest, Luke 8:22-25, compared with Mark 4:35-41; and the parable of the wicked husbandman, Luke 20:9-19, compared with Mark 12:1-12.
[997] Luke1:3: pasis--akribos--kathexes. Says Godet " Matthew groups together doctrinal teachings in the form of great discourses; he is a preacher. Mark narrates events as they occur to his mind; he is a chronicler. Luke reproduces the external and internal development of events; he is the historian, properly so called."
[998] Luke 1:4: kratiste Theophile. In Acts 1:1 the epithet is omitted. Bengel infers from this omission that when Luke wrote the Acts he was on more familiar terms with Theophilus. The same title is applied to Governors Felix and Festus, Acts 23:26; 24:3; 20:25. The A. V. varies between "most excellent" and "most noble;" the R. V. uniformly renders "most excellent," which is apt to be applied to moral character rather than social position. "Honorable" or "most noble" would be preferable. Occasionally, however, the term is used also towards a personal friend (see passages in Wetstein).
[999] For other conjectures on Theophilus, which locate him at Alexandria or at Rome or somewhere in Greece, see the Bible Dicts. of Winer and Smith sub Theophilus. Some have fancied that he was merely an ideal name for every right-minded reader of the Gospel, as a lover of truth.
[1000] Luke 1:4: hina epignos peri on katechethes ten asphaleian.
[1001] Luke 1:26; 4:31; 23:51; 24: 13 (Acts 1:12).
[1002] For a full analysis of contents see Van Oosterzee, Com., 8-10; Westcott, Introd. to the G., 370-372 (Am. ed.); McClellan, Com. on N. T., I. 425-438; Farrar, Com., 31-36; Lange, Bibelkunde, 187-193.
[1003] Lange (Leben Jesu, I. 258) gives as the theme of Luke: "the revelation of divine mercy;" Godet (Com.) "the manifestation of divine philanthropy" (Tit. 3:4); McClellan (I. 436): "salvation of sinners, by God's grace, through faith in Jesus Christ, and him crucified;" Farrar (p. 17): "who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil" (Acts 10:38, better suited for Mark); Van Oosterzee: "as Paul led the people of the Lord out of the bondage of the law into the enjoyment of gospel liberty, so did Luke raise sacred history from the standpoint of the Israelitish nationality to the higher and holier ground of universal humanity." .
[1004] The term soter occurs, Luke 1: 47; 2:11; John 4:42, and often in the Acts and the Epistles of Paul, but neither in Matthew nor Mark; soteria occurs, Luke 1:69, 77; 19:9; John 4:22, and repeatedly in the Acts and the Epistles; soterios,Luke 2:30; 3:6; Acts 28:28; Eph. 6: 17; Tit. 2:11
[1005] Luke 4:25-27; 9:52-56; 10:33; 15:11 sqq.; 17:19; 18:10; 19:5.
[1006] See § 80, this vol.
[1007] Lange (Bibelkunde, p. 187) calls it "das Evangelium des Menschensohnes, der Humanität Christi, der Verklärung aller Humanität."
[1008] Farrar (p. 23) calls Luke "the first Christian hymnologist" (better hymnist), and quotes the lines from Keble: "Thou hast an ear for angel songs, A breath the gospel trump to fill, And taught by thee the Church prolongs Her hymns of high thanksgiving still."
[1009] This is the judgment of Renan, which is worth preserving in full. "L'Evangile de Luc," he says (in Les Evangiles, p. 282 and 283), "est le plus littéraire des évangiles. Tout y révèle un esprit large et doux, sage, modéré, sobre et raisonnable dans l'irrationnel. Ses exagérations, ses invraisemblances, ses inconséquences tiennent à la nature même de la parabole et en font le charme. Matthieu arrondit les contours un peu secs de Marc. Luc fait bien plus;il écrit, il montre une vraie entente de la composition. Son livre est un beau récit bien suivi, à la fois hébraîque et hellénique, joignant l'émotion du drama à la sérènité de l'idylle. Tout y rit, tout y pleure, tout y chante; partout des larmes et des cantiques; c'est l'hymne du peuple nouveau, L'hosanna des petits et des humbles introduits dans le royaume de Dieu. Un esprit de sainte enfance, de joie, de ferveur, le sentiment évangélique dans son originalité première répandent sur toute la légende une teinte d'une incomparable douceur. On ne fut jamais moins sectaire. Pas un reproche, pas un mot dur pour le vieux peuple exclu; son exclusion ne le punit-elle pas assez ? C'est le plus beau livre qu'il y ait. Le plaisir que l'auteur dut avoir à l'écrire ne sera jamais suffisamment compris."
[1010] Jerome, who had a great genius for language, says, Epist. ad Dam., 20 (145): "Lucas qui inter omnes evangelistas Graeci sermonis eruditissimus fuit, quippe et medicus, et qui Evangelium Graecis scripserit." in another passage he says that Luke's "sermo saecularem redolet eloqueiatiam."
[1011] See the Version of Delitzsch in his Hebrew New Testament, published by the Brit. and For. Bible Society.
[1012] Luke 4:38: hen sunechomene pureto megalo. sunechomeneis likewise a medical term.
[1013] Acts 28:8: puretois kai dusenterio sunechomenon . Other instances of medical knowledge are found in Luke 8:46; 22:44; Acts 3:7; 9:18; 10:9, 10. Dr. Plumptre even traces several expressions of Paul such as "healthy doctrine" (1 Tim. 1:10; 6 3), " gangrene" or " cancer" (2 Tim. 2:17), the conscience " seared," or rather " cauterized"(1 Tim. 4:2), and the recommendation of a little wine for the stomach's sake (1 Tim. 5:23), to the influence of " the beloved physician," who administered to him in his peculiar physical infirmities. Rather fanciful. Rev. W. K. Hobart, of Trinity College, Dublin, published a work (1882) on The Medical Language of St. Luke, in which he furnished the proof from internal evidence that the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles were written by the same person, and that the writer was a medical man. He has compared over four hundred peculiar words and phrases of these books with the use of the same words in Hippocrates, Aretaeus, Dioscorides, and Galen.
[1014] Among these are seven compounds of pleo, describing the motion and management of a ship, as follows: pleo, to sail, Luke 8:23; Acts 21:3; 27:6, 24. apopleo, to sail from, Acts 13:4; 14:26; 20:15; 27:1.braduploeo (from bradus, slow), to sail slowly, Acts 27:7. diapleo, to sail through (not " over," as in the A. V.), Acts 27:5. ekpleo, to sail away, Acts 15:39; 18:18; 20:6. katapleo, to arrive, Luke 8:26. hupopleo, to sail under the lee, Acts 27:4, 7. parapleo, to sail by, Acts 20:16. Add to these the following nautical terms: hanagomai, to get under way, to put to sea, Acts 27:4. diaperao to sail over, Acts 21:2. diapheromai, to be driven to and fro, Acts 27:27. epikello, to run the ship ashore, Acts 27:41. euthudromeo , to make a straight course, Acts 16:11; 21:1. paralegomai (middle), to sail by, Acts 27:8, 13. hupotrecho (aor. 2, hupedramon), to run under the lee, Acts 27:16. pheromai (pass.), to be driven, Acts 27:15, 17. Also, ekbolen epoiounto, Acts 27:18, and ekouphizon to ploion, 27:38, which are technical terms for lightening the ship by throwing cargo overboard.
[1015] See James Smith, i.e., and Schaff's Companion to the Gr. Test., pp.57-61.
[1016] As chara, Luke 1:14; 2:10; 8:13; 10:17; 15:7, 10; 24:41, 51.
[1017] pneuma hagion or pneuma alone, Luke 1:15, 34, 35, 41, 67; 2:25, 26, 27; 3:16, 22, 4:1, 14, 18; 12:10, 12; and still more frequently in the Acts, which is the Gospel of the Holy Spirit.
[1018] See Holtzmann, Syn. Evang., pp. 316-324, copied in part (without acknowledgment) by Davidson, Introd., I. 437 sqq. Holtzmann enumerates about two hundred expressions or phrases common to Luke and Paul, and more or less foreign to the other writers of the New Testament.
[1019] As charis, eleos , pistis, dikaiosune, dikaios , agion, gnosis, dunamis kuriou.
[1020] As agnoein, adikia, athetein, aichmalotizein, anapempein, antapokrinesthai, antikeimenos, antilambanesthai, apelpizein, apologeisthai, atenizein, ekdiokein, epiphainein, eugenes , echein, katargein, kinduneuein, kurieuein, panoplia,paradeisos, sunchairein, suneudokein, husterema, charizesthai, psalmos also the particlesall oude, ei kai, ei meti, tis oun.The word kuriosas a substitute for Jesus occurs fourteen times in Luke and often in the Epistles, but only once in the Synoptists (the closing verses of Mark, 16:19, 20).