New Testament

Luke

Luke is an orderly account of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. It was written so that a reader named Theophilus, and every reader after him, could be sure of what they had been taught (). It is the first of two volumes, with Acts as the sequel. It shows Jesus as the Savior promised in Israel's Scriptures, who came to seek and to save the lost () and whose good news reaches the poor, the outsider and finally the nations.

Author: The Gospel is traditionally attributed to Luke, the physician and coworker of Paul (Colossians 4:14; Philemon 24), though the book itself never names its writer. Early church writers agree on Luke, and the same author wrote Acts (Acts 1:1).
Audience: It is addressed to Theophilus, a real person of some standing (Luke 1:3). Through him it speaks to a wider, largely Gentile church that needed confidence in what it had heard.
When: The date is uncertain. Many place it in the early 60s AD, before Acts closes with Paul in Rome, while others suggest the 70s or 80s.
Where: The place of writing is unknown. Ancient tradition suggested Achaia in Greece (Jerome) or Rome.
Genre: Luke is ancient historical narrative, close to a Greco-Roman biography. It opens with a formal preface like the histories of its day (Luke 1:1–4), and it is written in Greek that often echoes the style of the Greek Old Testament. Inside the story are songs (Luke 1:46–55; 1:68–79; 2:29–32), parables, sermons and meal scenes. Read it as real history told with purpose. Luke selects and arranges events to show what God was doing, so ask why a scene sits where it does, and not only what happened.

Shape of the book

Prologue and the Births of John and Jesus · ch 1–2After stating his purpose, Luke sets the births of John and Jesus side by side in the temple world of faithful Israel, with songs that announce God keeping his promises.
Preparation and the Nazareth Announcement · ch 3–4John prepares the way, Jesus is baptized, traced back to Adam, tested in the wilderness, and announces his mission from Isaiah at Nazareth before beginning to heal and preach.
The Ministry in Galilee · ch 5–9Jesus calls disciples, heals, forgives, teaches the Sermon on the Plain and reveals who he is, until at Luke 9:51 he sets his face toward Jerusalem.
The Journey to Jerusalem · ch 10–19On the long road south, Jesus trains his followers in prayer, money, mercy and readiness, tells most of Luke's best-known parables, and arrives weeping over the city (Luke 19:41).
Teaching and Conflict in the Temple · ch 20–21In the temple courts Jesus answers his challengers, honors a poor widow, and warns of Jerusalem's fall and his own return.
The Last Supper, Arrest and Crucifixion · ch 22–23Jesus shares the Passover, gives the bread and cup, is betrayed, tried and crucified as an innocent man who forgives his executioners and promises paradise to a dying thief.
Resurrection, Emmaus and Ascension · ch 24The risen Jesus opens the Scriptures to his disciples, commissions them as witnesses to all nations, and is carried up to heaven.

Themes

Good News for the Lost and the Left Out. Shepherds hear first of the birth (). Jesus eats with tax collectors, praises a Samaritan (; ), welcomes a sinful woman () and calls Zacchaeus down from a tree (). The three lost-and-found parables of answer the complaint that this man welcomes sinners. His mission sentence is plain: to seek and to save the lost ().
The Great Reversal. Mary sings that God brings down rulers and lifts up the humble, fills the hungry and sends the rich away empty (). The pattern runs through the book: blessings and woes (), the rich man and Lazarus (), and the tax collector who goes home justified while the Pharisee does not (). God's kingdom turns the world's ranking upside down.
The Holy Spirit and Prayer. The Spirit fills John, Elizabeth and Zechariah (, , ) and leads Jesus into his ministry (, , ). Luke shows Jesus praying at his baptism, before choosing the Twelve, at the transfiguration and on the cross (; ; ; ). The Father gives the Spirit to those who ask ().
Money, Possessions and the Heart. Luke returns again and again to wealth: the rich fool (), the shrewd manager (), the rich ruler (), Zacchaeus giving half away (), the widow's two coins (). How people handle money shows what they love.
God's Plan Fulfilled Today. Luke begins with things fulfilled among us () and keeps saying that events must happen as Scripture said (). The word today marks salvation arriving now: in a manger, in a synagogue, in a tax collector's house and on a cross (; ; ; ).
From the Temple to the Nations. The book opens with a priest in the temple () and closes with disciples praising God in the temple (). Along the way Simeon calls Jesus a light for the Gentiles () and the risen Jesus sends repentance and forgiveness to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem (). Acts picks up the story at exactly that point.

Where Christ is

Luke presents Jesus as the Savior, Christ and Lord (), the Son of David and Son of God, who fulfills what Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms wrote about him (). Luke's Christ is the anointed servant who brings good news to the poor, walks deliberately toward a cross in Jerusalem, and rises to send forgiveness to the world. The book ends by teaching readers how to read the whole Old Testament: with Jesus as its key.

The Promised Son of David. Promise. Gabriel tells Mary her son will receive the throne of his father David and reign without end (), language that recalls God's covenant with David in . Zechariah praises God for raising up a horn of salvation in David's house (). Jesus is born in Bethlehem, the town of David (, ). (; ; ; )
The Anointed Servant of Isaiah. Fulfillment. At Nazareth Jesus reads , about the Spirit-anointed one who brings good news to the poor and freedom to captives, and says it is fulfilled today (). Simeon echoes Isaiah's servant as a light for the Gentiles (). On the night of his arrest Jesus quotes about himself: he was numbered with the transgressors (). (; ; ; ; ; )
The New Adam Who Does Not Fall. Type. Luke traces Jesus' family line back past Abraham to Adam, the son of God (). The very next scene is the temptation in the wilderness, where Jesus resists the devil where the first Adam gave way (). Paul develops the same contrast between Adam and Christ. (; ; )
A New Exodus and a New Passover. Type. At the transfiguration Moses and Elijah speak with Jesus about his departure, literally his exodus, which he would accomplish in Jerusalem (). At the Passover meal he gives the cup as the new covenant in his blood (), the covenant promised in . His death is the true rescue the first exodus pictured. (; ; ; )
The Key to All the Scriptures. Fulfillment. On the Emmaus road the risen Jesus explains, beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, what was written about him (). Later he opens the disciples' minds to see that the Messiah must suffer and rise and that repentance must be preached to all nations (). This is Luke's warrant for reading the Old Testament as a story that leads to Christ. (; )

Voices

Irenaeus (as cited by Albert Barnes). The early church received Luke's Gospel as carrying the gospel Paul preached: "Luke, the companion of Paul, put down in a book the gospel preached by him." More from Irenaeus at CCEL ↗
John Calvin. Calvin asks why a message meant for everyone is addressed to one man. He answers that Theophilus was a real person, and that in a time of tyrants and spreading error, a careful written account for one trusted reader was a prudent way to protect sound teaching. Read the full commentary ↗
Matthew Henry. Henry notes that Luke tells many things more fully than the other Gospels and especially dwells on Christ's priestly office. If Luke wrote while confined with Paul in Rome, then this is among the "excellent writings the church has been indebted to a prison for." Read the full commentary ↗
Adam Clarke. Clarke reports that some ancient and modern readers think Luke was the unnamed disciple walking to Emmaus with Cleopas (). The Geneva Bible notes reject this, pointing out that Luke says he was not an eyewitness but received the account from others (). Read the full commentary ↗

Reading well, key terms and common misreadings

Read it well

Read Luke with Acts open beside it. Acts 1:1 calls Luke the first book, and themes like the Spirit, prayer, witness and the nations carry straight across.
Start with the preface (Luke 1:1–4). Luke researched carefully and wrote in order, but in his day order did not always mean strict chronology. Wesley notes that in smaller matters he does not follow the order of time, so arrangement can be thematic.
Mark the turn at Luke 9:51, where Jesus sets his face to go to Jerusalem. Much of chapters 10–19 is teaching on the road, and every lesson is shaped by the cross ahead.
Always check who a parable is told to. Luke 15 answers grumbling Pharisees (Luke 15:1–2), and the parable in Luke 18:9–14 is aimed at people who trusted in their own righteousness.
Watch for pairs of men and women and for meals. Zechariah and Mary, Simeon and Anna, a shepherd and a woman searching for a coin all appear in pairs, and many turning points happen at a table, from Levi's feast (Luke 5:29) to the bread broken at Emmaus (Luke 24:30).

Key terms

Savior σωτήρ (sōtēr) — Luke uses this title for God (Luke 1:47) and for the newborn Jesus (Luke 2:11). Matthew and Mark never use it. Its related word salvation runs through the whole book.
Today σήμερον (sēmeron) — It marks the moment God's salvation arrives in person: the birth (Luke 2:11), the Nazareth sermon (Luke 4:21), Zacchaeus's house (Luke 19:9) and the cross (Luke 23:43).
Must δεῖ (dei) — It means it is necessary, and it signals God's plan at work. Jesus must be in his Father's house (Luke 2:49), must suffer and rise (Luke 9:22; 24:7), and everything written about him must be fulfilled (Luke 24:44).
Certainty ἀσφάλεια (asphaleia) — Luke's stated goal is that Theophilus may know the certainty, or firm footing, of what he was taught (Luke 1:4). Faith here rests on reliable testimony from eyewitnesses (Luke 1:2).
Departure ἔξοδος (exodos) — It is the word for Jesus' coming death in Jerusalem at the transfiguration (Luke 9:31). It ties the cross to Israel's rescue from Egypt.
Kingdom of God βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ (basileia tou theou) — It means God's reign arriving in Jesus. Proclaiming it is why he was sent (Luke 4:43), and it is already present among people in his person and works (Luke 11:20; 17:21).

Easy to misread

Luke is sometimes read as a social program in which Jesus mainly reforms society. His care for the poor is real and demanding, but Luke ties it to forgiveness of sins, repentance and a Savior who dies and rises (Luke 24:46–47).
The parable of the prodigal son is often read as if it ends when the younger son comes home. It ends with the older brother standing outside, angry at grace (Luke 15:25–32). That scene was aimed at the grumbling Pharisees of Luke 15:2.
Some think Luke 16:8 shows Jesus approving of dishonesty. The master praises the manager's shrewd foresight, not his cheating. The lesson is to use money now with eternity in view (Luke 16:9–13).
Luke 17:21 is often taken to mean the kingdom is a private feeling inside each person. Jesus is speaking to Pharisees, and the phrase is better understood as the kingdom being in your midst, present in Jesus himself.

Further reading: David Guzik, Enduring Word · Matthew Henry on CCEL · BibleProject overview video