The priests in Israel had the great privilege of intimate association with God through their worship and service in the sanctuary. Luke pointed out that both of John’s parents had a priestly heritage. Herod the Great ruled over Judea, the large Roman province that included all of Israel, from 37 B.C. Luke was the only Gospel writer who stated his purpose at the beginning of his book (cf. The gospel tradition was and is reliable. Luke wrote his introduction to assure his readers that there was a factual basis for their faith. The Christian faith does not require believing things that are contrary to the facts but believing things that are true. Luke’s introduction promised a factual foundation. We do not know either if Theophilus was in danger of abandoning the faith or if he just needed a strong foundation for immature faith. He had received some information about Christianity, specifically reports of the words and works of Jesus Christ. Luke did not address Theophilus in a way that enables us to know if he was a believer in Jesus when Luke penned these words. He may have been Luke’s patron or publisher. kratiste) suggests that Theophilus was a real person of some distinction (cf. Theophilus’ name means "lover of God." This fact has led to some speculation about whether "Theophilus" was really a substitute for the real name of Luke’s addressee, or perhaps Luke wrote generally to all lovers of God. He did this with some passages (e.g., Exodus 20:1-17 et al.) but not most. That view is the dictation theory of inspiration. This is one of the clearest proofs in the Bible that God did not always dictate the words of Scripture to the writers who simply copied them down. All the Gospel writers seem to have departed from a strictly chronological arrangement of events occasionally for thematic purposes. It probably means that Luke wrote according to a plan that God led him to adopt. kathexes, "orderly" NIV) does not necessarily imply chronological order. Significantly Luke did not describe himself as an eyewitness of Jesus’ ministry but as a researcher of it. He, too, had done careful research and proceeded to write an orderly account. Until now Luke had described the work of previous writers. This verse is a claim to careful research using reliable sources of information. Paul also claimed to communicate faithfully what others had "handed down" to him ( 1 Corinthians 11:23 1 Corinthians 15:3). Luke used the Greek word logos, "word," often in his Gospel, especially in the sections that are unique to it. These people were the apostles and other eyewitnesses, such as Jesus’ mother (cf. It had come from eyewitness testimony of people who accompanied Jesus from the beginning of His public ministry and who were servants of the word, namely, the gospel message. ![]() The writer wanted to assure Theophilus ( Luke 1:3) that the information that he and other writers had included in their accounts was valid. The things accomplished or fulfilled refer to God’s purposes for Jesus’ life and ministry. He simply wanted to write one that was orderly and based on reliable research ( Luke 1:3). Luke’s statement here does not imply that the existing accounts were necessarily deficient. There were probably other uninspired accounts of Jesus’ life and ministry circulating when Luke wrote his Gospel. I think it is most probable that Matthew wrote in the late 40s, Mark in the late 60s, and Luke in the late 50s. ![]() Luke tells us that when he wrote his Gospel there were already several written accounts of Jesus’ ministry, perhaps including the Gospels of Matthew (A.D. because), occurs only here in the New Testament, though other major Greek writers such as Thucydides, Philo, and Josephus used it.
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