Luke: A Physician's Account of Jesus
In the Gospel of Luke, one finds the longest and most detailed of the
life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. Written in koine or common
Greek sometime after the composition of the Gospel of Mark, authorship
of the Gospel of Luke is usually attributed to Luke, a Gentile
physician from Antioch in Syria.
Like the Gospel of Matthew, Luke also presents the lineage of Jesus,
but there are notable differences in the two accounts. While Matthew's
genealogy is traced from Joseph to the patriarch, Abraham, the
Lucan lineage is traced from Mary all the way to Adam and Eve. Since
Luke is writing for a Gentile audience, his purpose is to show that
Jesus of Nazareth is the savior of all humankind.
All throughout the Gospel of Luke, one encounters touches of the
physician. For example, when describing how Jesus heals diseases among
the people, Luke uses the technical terms to name the diseases while,
in some of the other Gospel accounts, more generic names are provided.
Luke also provides the most detailed descriptions of all the gospel
stories. In the Gospel of Mark, which is the shortest of the four
gospels, deeds are often narrative with an economy of words. In
contrast, the Gospel of Luke often provides the longest accounts.
Because Luke is not writing primarily for a Jewish audience, the Lucan
account does not employ a great variety of scripture to demonstrate
messianic claims for Jesus. His Gentile audience would not have been
very familiar with the Old Testament prophecies that were much more
widely known among Jewish readers. According to Luke, Jesus is the
savior who was presented first to Israel, but is not available to all
people.