Gospel According To Luke

The Gospel According to Luke (Greek: Τὸ κατὰ Λουκᾶν εὐαγγέλιον, to kata Loukan euangelion), commonly shortened to the Gospel of Luke or simply Luke, is the third and longest of the four Gospels. This synoptic gospel is an account of the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. It details his story from the events of his birth to his Ascension.

According to the preface the purpose of Luke is to write a historical account, while bringing out the theological significance of the history. The writer divides history into three stages: the first ends with John the Baptist, the second consists of Jesus' earthly ministry, and the third is the life of the church after Jesus' resurrection. The author attests that Jesus Christ Is the Son of God, consistent with all the different authors of the books of the Bible. Here, Jesus' compassion extends to all mankind. The gospel is written as a historical narrative. Certain popular stories, such as the Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan, are found only in this gospel. This account also has a special emphasis on prayer, the activity of the Holy Spirit, women, and joyfulness. Jesus is presented as the Son of God, but attention especially paid to the humanity of Jesus, featuring his compassion for the weak, the suffering and the outcast.

The author is traditionally identified as Luke the Evangelist. Biblical Scholars are in wide agreement that the author of the Gospel of Luke also wrote the Acts of the Apostles. Many believe that these two books originally constituted a two-volume work, which scholars refer to as Luke-Acts. However, according to some scholars, it is not impossible that Luke was the author. While the traditional view that Luke authored the gospel is still often put forward, a number of possible contradictions between Acts and Paul's letters lead many scholars to dispute this account, and for some the author remains unknown.

Most modern critical scholarship concludes that Luke used the Gospel of Mark for his chronology and a hypothetical sayings source Q document for many of Jesus' teachings. Luke may also have drawn from independent written records. Traditional Christian scholarship has dated the composition of the gospel to the early 60s, while other critics date it to the later decades of the 1st century.