Read Luke 1 here (text coming …) or at Bible Gateway.
Luke 1:5-80 makes a Chiastic Structure:
The first 3 verses of Luke 1 tell us some important information about his gospel. Luke became a believer and accompanied Paul throughout all the latter half of his life and ministry. He was a doctor by profession, so he had a very scientific mind. He says that many had already written down a narrative of the life of Jesus, those who were eyewitnesses of the things He did (Matthew and Mark were written before Luke).
Luke was not an eyewitness. But he investigated all things from the very first, and set all the events in Jesus’ life down in order. Luke’s gospel is chronological. Matthew arranged his gospel by themes, so his gospel was ordered, but not chronologically. Luke ordered his gospel chronologically. Luke is the closest we can come to a biography in the sense that we are used to: a chronological narrative of a life.
If there are questions, these are good resources:
Who was St. Luke? The Beginner’s Guide – Overview Bible
The Bearing of Recent Discovery on the Trustworthiness of the New Testament – Sir William M. Ramsay
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