09/28/2020- Day 127 – Luke 1 – An intro – summary as we start
I am going to pull the introduction summary out of my “Halley’s Bible Handbook” , fast becoming a new habit for me. So unless I put my name within parenthesis for my own words, this will be verbatim from the book.
“Luke – Jesus the Son of Man
The special emphasis of Luke is the Humanity of Jesus. Representing Jesus as the Son of God, Luke features His Kindness toward the Weak, the Suffering and the Outcast.
While each of the Gospels was intended ultimately for All Mankind, Matthew seems to have had in immediate view the Jews; Mark, the Romans; and Luke, the Greeks.
Jewish civilization had been built around their Scriptures. Therefore Matthew appeals to their Scriptures.
Roman civilization gloried in the idea of Government, Power. Therefore Mark calls particular attention to the Miracles of Jesus as exhibiting His Superhuman Power.
Greek civilization represented Culture, Philosophy, Wisdom, Reason, Beauty, Education. Therefore to appeal to the Thoughtful, Cultured Philosophic Greek Mind, Luke , in a complete, orderly and classical story, which has been called the “Most Beautiful Book Ever Written.” depicts the Gloriious Beauty and Perfection of Jesus, the Ideal, Universal Man.
Then, to these three Gospels, John added his, to make it clear and unmistakable that Jesus was GOD in Human form.
Luke
His name is mentioned only three times in the New Testament: Colossians 4:14, where he is called the “Beloved Physician,” Philemon 24, where he is called Paul’s “Fellow-Worker”; and II Timothy 4:11, indicating that he was with Paul in the darkest hours of approaching martyrdom.”
(Jimmy note – in the 2018 movie Paul, Apostle of Christ, Luke visits Paul in prison in Rome, funneling messages back and forth between Paul and early Christian leadership. To the side – a very good movie – I would rate it 8.5 on a 1-10 scale. In all-time favorites, I would only put these movies ahead of it, in order from the top: “Passion of the Christ” – Mel Gibson / “Chariots of Fire” / “The Robe” -50s with Richard Burton & Jean Simmons / Recent & still evolving “The Chosen” series – web on demand / XV: Temptation of Christ (only 1 year dated)- Producer Douglas Vail , also web on demand.) / “The Visual Bible: The Gospel of John” – 2003 starring Henry Ian Cusack and narrated by Christopher Plummer. On this last one, we’re thinking starting our 8 week Monday night study , commencing perhaps in the New Year 2021, which would be roughly a 2 week delay from our current study. As with our study of the book of Jeremiah in progress in Saturday, we will encourage brothers to join us in just that book of the Bible, that heretofore have not participated in our 365 day schedule. The movie dialogue, from “Gospel of John”, start to finish can be read directly out of the gospel of John, no modifications. (cool) Ok, back to our summary:..)
“In the latter part of the book of Acts, the varying use of the pronouns “they” and “we” indicate that Luke was with Paul from Troas to Philippi, in the early part of Paul’s Second Missionary Journey, and that, about 6 years later he re-joined Paul at Philippi at the close of Paul’s Third Missionary Journey, and was with him, through his Imprisonment in Caesarea and Rome, to the end (see further page 559).
Date
Quite commonly it is thought that Luke wrote his Gospel about the year A.D. 60 while Paul was in prison at Caesarea, and followed it with the Book of Acts during Paul’s imprisonment in Rome the next two years; for the two books, addressed to the same person, are, in a sense, two volumes of one work.
Luke’s two year sojoun in Caesarea, A.D. 58 – 60, afforded him abundant opportunity to get,firsthand, from the original companions of Jesus, the first founders of the Church, accurate information concerning all details.
Caesarea was only a few miles from Jerusalem. Jesus’ Mother may have been still alive, at John’s home in Jerusalem. Luke may have spent many precious hours with her, listening to her reminiscences of her. Wondrous Son. And James, Bishop of Jerusalem, Jesus’ own Brother, could have supplied Luke with full details of the whole story of Jesus’ Life.
The “Synoptic Problem”
Matthew, Mark and Luke are called the Synoptic Gospels, because they give the same general view of Christ’s Life, recording, to some extent, the same things. Their authorship, mutual relations and the possible connection with a “common original” is called the “Synoptic Problem.”
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It is not necessary to think that Matthew, Mark or Luke quoted from or in any way made use of the others. The events of Jesus’ Life and His Sayings were repeated orally for years by the Apostles and others and were in common circulation among Christians. They were the substance of the daily preaching of the Apostles.
Blessings!