THE AUTHOR OF THE THIRD GOSPEL
THE AUTHOR OF THE THIRD GOSPEL

Summary/Abstract: The article discusses the question of the authorship of Luke’s Gospel. First, it presents the main records from the early tradition of the Church about the author of the Third Gospel. Then these data are investigated with reference to the questions: 1) Luke as a companion of Paul; 2) Luke as a physician; 3) Luke’s origin and his ethnic background. The critical evaluation of the data of the tradition leads to the conclusion that it is not definitely possible from the Gospel of Luke alone to deny the veracity of various traditions about the author of this Gospel but on the other hand it is not possible utterly to confirm them either. There is undoubtedly a certain distance of Luke from Paul but this fact does not contradict the traditional identification of the author of the Third Gospel and Acts with Luke, who had been a sometime collaborator of the Apostle Paul. We can suppose that Luke, the author of the Third Gospel, who was a companion or collaborator of Paul (Philem 24; 2 Tim 4:11), a physician (Col 4:14), a disciple who was not an eye-witness of the ministry of Jesus (Lk 1:2), in all probability was a native of Antioch in Syria, where he could be well educated in a Hellenistic atmosphere and culture, and that he was most likely by origin a Gentile, who had probably religious contact with Judaism before becoming a Christian.

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