Who, when, where
Luke is the first volume of a two-volume work; Acts is the second. Both are addressed to Theophilus and both are traditionally credited to Luke, a physician and traveling companion of Paul (Colossians 4:14, Philemon 24, 2 Timothy 4:11). The early church witnesses, including Irenaeus and the Muratorian fragment, are unanimous on Luke as author. Composition date is debated. The mainstream window is AD 60 to 85, with two main positions: a mid-60s date that puts Luke before the fall of Jerusalem, and a 75 to 85 date that reads the destruction predictions in chapter 21 as written after the event. Luke himself opens by saying he investigated the story carefully, consulted eyewitnesses, and wrote in order. The geography moves from the temple in Jerusalem (where the book opens with Zechariah) to Galilee, then back to Jerusalem for the Passion, with a long travel narrative through Samaria and Perea in between.
Where in history
Early Roman Empire
From Augustus's census to the ascension
- AD 6
Quirinius's census of Judea (Acts 5:37)
Acts 5:37 references Quirinius's AD 6 census; Luke 2:1-2 ties Jesus's birth to an earlier Augustan registration under Herod.
- AD 28
John the Baptist begins preaching (Luke 3:1-2)
Luke locates John's call by six rulers at once: Tiberius's fifteenth year, Pilate over Judea, Herod over Galilee, Philip over Iturea, Lysanias over Abilene, Annas and Caiaphas high priests. The most precise date stamp in the Gospels.
- AD 30
Jesus crucified and raised in Jerusalem
Pilate is governor; Caiaphas is high priest. Luke 24 ends with the ascension at Bethany; Acts 1 picks up forty days later.
The amber span: Jesus's life: 6 BC to AD 30.
The big idea
Luke tells the story of Jesus as the good news for everyone the religious world had written off. The poor, the sick, women, Samaritans, tax collectors, Roman soldiers, gentiles: each of them gets a scene Luke has and the other Gospels do not. The Spirit drives the whole book. Mary, Zechariah, Elizabeth, Simeon, and Anna all prophesy in chapters 1-2. Jesus is conceived by the Spirit, anointed at his baptism, led by the Spirit into the wilderness, returns in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and at Nazareth reads Isaiah 61: the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Prayer runs through every major scene. Two structural anchors. The first two chapters are an infancy diptych (John the Baptist's birth paralleled to Jesus's), and a long central section from 9:51 to 19:27 follows Jesus on a single deliberate journey to Jerusalem. That stretch holds the Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son, the rich man and Lazarus, Zacchaeus, and most of Luke's signature parables.
Why this book still matters
Luke writes the most thorough historical account in the Gospels. His preface in 1:1-4 is the clearest statement of method in the New Testament: many have undertaken to compile a narrative, he writes; I investigated everything from the beginning, consulted eyewitnesses, and decided to write an orderly account so you may know the certainty of what you have been taught. The result is the Gospel that the global church has leaned on for its most-quoted scenes: Gabriel and Mary, the manger and the shepherds, the angels singing over Bethlehem, the boy Jesus in the temple, the Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son, the criminal on the cross, the road to Emmaus. Christmas as the church celebrates it comes mostly from Luke 1-2. The compassion programs of the church (hospitals, almshouses, advocacy for the poor) cite Luke more than any other Gospel. And as the front half of Luke-Acts, this book sets up the entire missionary expansion that follows.
Luke 24:27
“And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.”
Acts 8:35
Philip meets the Ethiopian eunuch reading Isaiah 53 and, beginning at that scripture, preaches Jesus to him. The pattern Jesus modeled on the Emmaus road (read the Old Testament with Jesus as its subject) becomes how the early church preaches. Peter does it at Pentecost from Joel and Psalm 16, Stephen does it from Genesis through Solomon in Acts 7, and Paul does it in every synagogue he enters.
Honest about what's debated
Three honest questions readers still ask. First, when was it written? The mid-60s view points to Acts ending with Paul still alive and to the absence of any direct mention of Jerusalem's fall as an accomplished event. The post-70 view reads the destruction predictions in Luke 21 as shaped by hindsight. Most readers land somewhere between 75 and 85. Second, what sources did Luke use? He says he used eyewitnesses and earlier accounts. Most readers think he drew on Mark, on a collection of Jesus's sayings shared with Matthew (often called Q), and on his own material from his travels and from Mary's circle (the infancy chapters read like family memory). Third, the genealogy. Luke 3 traces Jesus back to Adam through a different line than Matthew 1. The common ancient solutions are that Matthew gives Joseph's legal line and Luke gives Mary's, or that one traces royal succession and the other biological descent.
Luke is twenty-four chapters and the longest book in the New Testament. Start at chapter 1, or jump to chapter 15 (the lost sheep, coin, and son) for the parables Luke is famous for.