The Book of Luke: Physician and Historian

By Matthew A Knight

It is to Luke that we are indebted for the historical account of the circumstances surrounding the birth of John the Baptist and the Lord Jesus. Luke writes to a colleague, Theophilus, who was evidently a citizen of high position in Rome. Lukes account to Theophilus was not merely for his eyes but to promote an orderly account of the birth, growth, public ministry, atoning death, and ascension of the Lord Jesus as the Son of Man.

I have written a summary of each of the twenty-four chapters of Luke. The summary I have given is intended to be read after a study of each chapter. I have also set a series of five to seven questions at the back of each chapter, which are intended to promote discussion. It is my hope that those taking the trouble to read my summary will also read through the Gospel of Luke itself and thus benefit from this.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris NZ
• Release date: Mar 27, 2018
• ISBN: 9781514466728

Book preview

LUKE 1:1–80

Historical Background

T he opening chapter of Luke is one of straight narrative. It tells of the way God intervened in the lives of ordinary people. How could Zachariah have had any inkling when he went into the temple to do his religious duties that he would meet an angel that would predict that his wife, barren and now well on in years, would bear him a child and then when Zachariah dared dispute the angel’s message, he would be struck deaf and dumb? The people around him obviously knew something important had happened to Zechariah, but they had no idea what.

How would Mary have known to visit Elizabeth, now six months along? The angel merely said that Elizabeth was pregnant and was in her sixth month. Perhaps she visited Elizabeth to escape wagging tongues because she was betrothed to Joseph and was already pregnant—pregnant with the earthly manifestation of the Holy Spirit! Certainly, Elizabeth welcomed Mary, who would have been a great help to Elizabeth at this time, assisting with the never-ending round of household chores in the days when there were no labour-saving devices. It tells the story of Mary visited by Gabriel, an angelic being far beyond anything that she had ever before experienced, who announced to the bewildered and frightened woman that she would bear a child. And he gave precise instructions as to how she was to name this child, namely Jesus, that she was highly favoured by God, and that the child she would carry in her womb would be called the Son of the Most High.

In another book, it tells the story of Joseph, a man of principle being ordered not to put aside his betrothed because she was already pregnant to the Holy Spirit but to take her as his wife as originally planned. This man, direct in line to the throne of David yet far removed from all pretentions of kingship, was a mere carpenter. His betrothed was to bear a child—not an ordinary child but the Saviour of the world conceived not by human intervention but by the Holy Spirit. None of us could ever completely understand why God chose to send his only Son into the world in such a way.

Elizabeth’s child was to be no ordinary child but one of very special significance. He was to be a Nazarene, and he was to be a precursor of the Lord Jesus. There was something of singular importance about the meeting of Mary and Elizabeth because at her presence, the child leapt for joy in Elizabeth’s womb. Then Elizabeth, under the influence of a powerful spiritual force, spoke these words to Mary: ‘Blessed are you among women and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favoured that the mother of my Lord should come to me?’ She somehow knew the momentous occasion of this visit.

Then Mary said these words under the influence of the Holy Spirit: ‘My soul magnifies the Lord and my Spirit rejoices in God my Saviour.’ This passage is prosaically called the Magnificat as recited by the mainline churches. But at that time, it was an outpouring of praise and gratitude to the holy and awesome God, who chose to intrude into the lives of two very ordinary women. The words of praise welled up within her till she could no longer hold it back, and then it burst forth to gladden the hearts of Mary and Elizabeth and then the hearts of all who read these words, telling of a Lord who would uplift the humble and feed those who are spiritually starved yet have no regard for those who are haughty or proud of their earthly achievements.

This passage tells us, through Mary, of God, who stooped so low to comfort and redeem us as to come in the flesh. He intruded so poignantly into our human condition to lift all who believed into another plane of belief so that those who truly believed would catch a glimpse of ultimate eternity. We have here a glimpse of our eternal destiny, of God intervening in the affairs of men.

The Holy Spirit also visited Joseph, a man of principle, in a dream advising him to take Mary as his wife even though she was already pregnant.

We catch a glimpse of Zechariah under the influence of the Holy Spirit and suddenly released from his bondage of deafness and muteness when he acknowledged that his newborn son was to be called John in obedience to the angel of the Lord’s instructions. Zechariah, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, prophesied of the coming of the salvation to the Lord’s people through the coming of his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, not specifically named here in this prophecy. He also prophesied over his own son, who would become known as John the Baptist, that this child would be called ‘a prophet of the Most High and that he would go before Him to prepare the way for Him, to give His people the knowledge of salvation’. Zechariah’s prophecy is often referred to as the Benedictus.

The chapter concludes that Zechariah’s son, John, grew in strength and favour and that he came to live in the desert.

Who was this man Theophilus? We don’t really know. He may have been a colleague of Luke, the physician by profession (Col. 4:14). One can almost visualize Luke placing the tips of his fingers together as he considered a well-written, historical, and orderly account of the circumstances surrounding the birth of John, who came to be known as the Baptist, and of the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. That this is indeed an orderly, well-researched account is beyond question. The motive behind this account is that his friend and colleague might be strengthened in his faith. The name Theophilus, literally translated, means ‘one who loves God’ and points to an individual rather than to lovers of God in general. The words most excellent give the impression that Theophilus had a prominent secular position because the term most excellent is also used for governors Felix (Acts 24:3) and Festus (Acts 26:25).

Questions

1. Both Zechariah and Mary questioned the angel of the Lord (verses 18 and 34), yet Zechariah was punished because of his apparent unbelief and Mary wasn’t. Why was this?

2. What strikes you as different between the words of Mary now called the Magnificat and the words of Zechariah now called the Benedictus?

3. Is there anything in this ‘orderly’ account of the birth of John the Baptist and the Lord Jesus Christ that might portray Luke’s profession?

4. What in this passage might give the impression that Zechariah was deaf as well as dumb?

5. What do you think Luke’s attitude to women was?

6. Why did Mary, after being visited by the angel Gabriel, go to stay with Elizabeth for three months when Elizabeth was six months along?

LUKE 2:1–52

The Birth of Jesus (Verses 1–7)

T hat the Son of God was born in a situation of extreme poverty, there is no doubt. Jesus was born in a stable. The world had no time for a poor woman in extreme travail. There was no room at the inn, but the innkeeper permitted Joseph and Mary the use of his stable. And so it came to pass that the baby was born in a stable, wrapped in swaddling clothes, and laid in an animal’s feeding trough, with Joseph no doubt presiding over the birth in some way. The scene has been re-enacted in countless nativity plays, with oxen standing by and shepherds present. It set the scene for the Son of Man coming in humility to serve mankind, not being born in a palace and coming in splendour. His arrival was not announced to kings and rulers but to ‘certain poor shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night’. The shepherds were terrified at the sudden appearance of angels, who announced the birth of the Son of God and gave precise instructions as to where he lay. The shepherds immediately hurried to the stable, saw the Christ child, and worshipped him as he lay. They then went on their way, rejoicing and telling everyone who would listen of the marvellous thing that they had seen till all of Galilee and the surrounding district marvelled.

Caesar Augustus carried out a census during the time that Quirinius was governor of Syria, and this has been confirmed by archaeological evidence. He decreed that a census be taken of the conquered nations, and this meant that everyone had to return to their place of birth. This set the scene for Jesus being born in Bethlehem. This census was no doubt taken so that a tax might be levied on the conquered populace. Jesus was born at a strategic time in the midst of the Pax Romanus; the Roman rule had been established around the entire Mediterranean basin and people could move freely between what had previously been separate