Luke the Evangelist
Archimandrite Nikifor’s Biblical Encyclopedia
- Luke is a shortened form of the Latin Lucanus, as Silas is of Silvanus. He wrote the third Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. Acts does not name its author, but the Church's universal and continuous tradition from the beginning attributed the book to him. Eusebius and Jerome say that Luke was a native of Antioch. Paul calls him 'the beloved physician' (Col 4:14). His thorough knowledge of Jewish customs, mode of thought, and phrasing makes it possible that he had first been a Gentile proselyte to Judaism; yet his classical style and the purity of his Greek suggest more strongly that he was Greek rather than Jewish.