Luke, the Gentile gospel

 Whereas Matthew identifies with Jewish thought, Luke (Ancient Greek: Λουκᾶς, Loukâs; Hebrew: לוקאס, Lūqās; Aramaic: /ܠܘܩܐ לוקא, Lūqā') is decidedly Greek. At the very least, Luke was a Gentile non-Palestinian writing to an audience of his peers.

 Luke is the second most literary gospel, starting with the artifice of addressing his works to one Theophilus (or “God lover,” from theo = God; philos = love).

 The gospel text is traditionally divided into 8 “chapters,” as follows: Introduction and Dedication (1:1–4); Infancy (1:5–2:52); Preparation for the Public Ministry (3:1–4:13); Ministry in Galilee (4:14–9:50); Journey to Jerusalem: Luke’s Travel Narrative (9:51–19:27); Teaching Ministry in Jerusalem (19:28–21:38); Passion (22:1–23:56); Resurrection (24:1–53).

 Of these, the most distinctive are the Infancy stories. These include John the Baptist’s conception, indicating kinship to Jesus; Mary’s visit to Elizabeth; the annunciation by the Angel Gabriel and Mary’s Magnificat (or Canticle of Acceptance of Motherhood of the Messiah); the canticle of the Baptist’s father, Zechariah; the birth (with shepherds, full orchestration, but no magi), Temple presentation, and Jesus’ boyhood episode with the rabbis in the Temple — all of which Mary “his mother kept all these things in her heart” (2:51).

 How did a Gentile author — one who makes obvious mistakes concerning Jewish customs and rituals — get so much inside information about Jesus’ early years that the actual apostles, who witnessed his ministry as an adult, knew very little about?

 Part of the answer must go back to the four distinguishing marks of Luke, apart from being the only Gentile author of the NT, is that he was 

• a scientist (Paul in Colossians 4:14 relays the greetings of “Luke the beloved physician”);
• a writer in the tradition of Greek historiography going back to Thucydides, the 4th century BC historian who wrote the classic story of the Peloponnesian War;
• a witness of the missionary work of Paul of Tarsus, which led him to author the first church history, the NT’s Acts of the Apostles;
• a visitor with Paul to Ephesus, where he recounted with incredible accuracy an anti-Pauline riot in that city (Acts 19), precisely at the time that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was in exile there with the apostle John.

 This is not to say that Luke is flawless as a historian. Although, clearly, he was the first Christian to dabble in the history of the faith, from Jesus through the apostles, with concepts in mind that were remarkably timeless.

 Notably, his works, which scholars often refer to as the two-volume Luke-Acts (27.5% of the NT), center not only on the person of Jesus, his preaching, his death, and his resurrection. They touch extensively upon the early Church itself — or what one might call Jesus’ preaching in action by people who knew him or were his contemporaries.

 This explains the widespread veneration by the Catholic Church, which regards him as Saint Luke the Evangelist, patron saint of artists, physicians, bachelors, surgeons, students and butchers. Meanwhile, Eastern Orthodoxy has spread a post-apostolic tradition that Luke painted icons of Mary (in Ephesus?) and Jesus. 

 The Luke as artist tradition has support from the Saint Thomas Christians of India, who claim to still have one of the icons of Mary Theotokos (or “God-bearer,“ from the Greek Θεός = God; and τόκος = childbirth, parturition; offspring) that St. Luke painted, and which the doubting apostle brought to India.