Luke–Acts

<h2 id="authorship">Authorship</h2>
Main article: <a href="/facts/Authorship_of_Luke%E2%80%93Acts/zgGxkkju">Authorship of Luke–Acts</a>
Both the books of Luke and Acts are narratives written to a man named <a href="/facts/Theophilus_(biblical)/RGr28SYa">Theophilus</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:1" href="#fn:1">1</a> The book of Acts starts out with: "The former treatise have I made", probably referring to the Gospel of Luke.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:2" href="#fn:2">2</a> The view that they were <a href="/facts/Authorship_of_Luke%E2%80%93Acts/zgGxkkju">written by the same person</a> is virtually unanimous among scholars.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3">3</a> Luke–Acts has sometimes been presented as a single book in published <a href="/facts/Bible/SqkRTKCh">Bibles</a> or <a href="/facts/New_Testament/k066sDIn">New Testaments</a>, for example, in The Original New Testament (1985)<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4">4</a> and <a href="/facts/The_Books_of_the_Bible/X5dm061T">The Books of the Bible</a> (2007).
Luke is the longest of the four gospels and the longest book in the New Testament; together with <a href="/facts/Acts_of_the_Apostles/u0QzNmpd">Acts of the Apostles</a> it makes up a two-volume work from the same author, called Luke–Acts.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5">5</a> The cornerstone of Luke–Acts' theology is "salvation history", the author's understanding that God's purpose is seen in the way he has acted, and will continue to act, in history.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6">6</a>

<h2 id="composition-and-setting">Composition and setting</h2>
It divides the <a href="/facts/Christianity_in_the_1st_century/Eg9F8mSt">history of first-century Christianity</a> into three stages, with the gospel making up the first two of these – the arrival among men of Jesus the <a href="/facts/Messiah/KfWyxrNK">Messiah</a>, from his birth to the beginning of his earthly mission in the meeting with <a href="/facts/John_the_Baptist/l7K55gq7">John the Baptist</a> followed by his <a href="/facts/Ministry_of_Jesus/MRNTfFJR">earthly ministry</a>, <a href="/facts/Passion_of_Jesus/zHxtCPQd">Passion</a>, death, and resurrection (concluding the gospel story per se). The gospel's sources are thought to be the <a href="/facts/Gospel_of_Mark/3zoI9FgL">Gospel of Mark</a> (for the narrative of Christ's earthly life), the hypothetical sayings collection called the <a href="/facts/Q_source/c0eVGsX5">Q source</a> (for his teachings), and a collection of material called the <a href="/facts/L_source/J774sGSV">L (for Luke) source</a>, which is found only in this gospel.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:7" href="#fn:7">7</a>
The work is <a href="/facts/Hellenized/w07GMufL">Hellenized</a> and written for a <a href="/facts/Gentile/l7KWuu7v">gentile</a> audience possibly, in part, to counter a <a href="/facts/Gnostic/gVGVzaAN">gnostic</a> understanding of history.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:8" href="#fn:8">8</a> <a href="/facts/Marcion/aVGIDKpa">Marcion</a>, a famous 2nd-century <a href="/facts/Heresy/1eHqC2km">heretic</a>, who used a modified form of Luke known as the <a href="/facts/Gospel_of_Marcion/LL0tnmdo">Gospel of Marcion</a>, did not use Acts, perhaps because he was unaware of it or intentionally excluded it from his <a href="/facts/Development_of_the_New_Testament_canon/tTcru57p">biblical canon</a>; <a href="/facts/Irenaeus/VSKUJw0X">Irenaeus</a>, a <a href="/facts/Proto-orthodox_Christianity/zBbKLPcY">proto-orthodox</a> apologist, is the first to use and mention Acts, specifically against <a href="/facts/Marcionism/IIsoMT7X">Marcionism</a>.
Some scholars note that there are <a href="/facts/Acts_of_the_Apostles/u0QzNmpd">two versions of Luke–Acts</a> with the longer version 10–20 percent longer than the shorter version. Scholars disagree on which came first.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:9" href="#fn:9">9</a>

<h2 id="see-also">See also</h2>
<ul>
<li>Bible portal</li></ul>
<ul><li><a href="/facts/The_Lost_Chapter_of_the_Acts_of_the_Apostles/HaTQ5zr0">The Lost Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles</a></li></ul>

<h2 id="bibliography">Bibliography</h2>
<ul><li>Allen, O. Wesley Jr. (2009). <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=rQWknj4ORJkC&pg=PR6">"Luke"</a>. In Petersen, David L.; O'Day, Gail R. (eds.). Theological Bible Commentary. Westminster John Knox Press. <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 978-1-61164-030-4.</li>
<li>Hedrick, Charles W.; Hodgson, Robert Jr. (1986), Nag Hammadi, Gnosticism, and Early Christianity: Fourteen Leading Scholars Discuss the Current Issues in Gnostic Studies, Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 978-0913573167</li>
<li>Johnson, Luke Timothy (2010). <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=hNKRc2yVsQUC">The New Testament: A Very Short Introduction</a>. Oxford University Press. <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 978-0-19-974599-9.</li>
<li>Thompson, Richard P. (2010). "Luke–Acts: The Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles". In Aune, David E. (ed.). <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=ygcgn8h-jo4C&pg=PA318">The Blackwell Companion to The New Testament</a>. Wiley–Blackwell. p. 319. <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 978-1-4443-1894-4.</li>
<li>Joseph B. Tyson, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=MU2U08v6aq0C&pg=PA32">Marcion and Luke-Acts: A defining struggle</a>, University of South Carolina Press, 2006, <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 1-57003-650-0</li></ul>

<h2 id="references">References</h2>

<ol>
<li id="fn:1">Luke 1:3Acts 1:1 <a href="https://bible.oremus.org/?passage=Luke%201:3&version=nrsv" target="_blank">https://bible.oremus.org/?passage=Luke%201:3&version=nrsv</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:2">Acts 1:1, Authorised Version <a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Bible_(King_James)/Acts#1:1" target="_blank">https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Bible_(King_James)/Acts#1:1</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:3">Martin, Dale B. (2009). "Lecture 9 – The Gospel of Luke". RLST 152: Introduction to the New Testament History and Literature. Yale University. Retrieved 19 July 2018. <a href="http://oyc.yale.edu/religious-studies/rlst-152/lecture-9" target="_blank">http://oyc.yale.edu/religious-studies/rlst-152/lecture-9</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:4">Hugh J. Schonfield, ed., The Original New Testament (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1985). ISBN 978-0062507761. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" target="_blank">/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:5">Thompson 2010, p. 319. - Thompson, Richard P. (2010). "Luke–Acts: The Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles". In Aune, David E. (ed.). The Blackwell Companion to The New Testament. Wiley–Blackwell. p. 319. ISBN 978-1-4443-1894-4. <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=ygcgn8h-jo4C&pg=PA318" target="_blank">https://books.google.com/books?id=ygcgn8h-jo4C&pg=PA318</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:6">Allen 2009, p. 326. - Allen, O. Wesley Jr. (2009). "Luke". In Petersen, David L.; O'Day, Gail R. (eds.). Theological Bible Commentary. Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 978-1-61164-030-4. <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=rQWknj4ORJkC&pg=PR6" target="_blank">https://books.google.com/books?id=rQWknj4ORJkC&pg=PR6</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:7">Johnson 2010, p. 44. - Johnson, Luke Timothy (2010). The New Testament: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-974599-9. <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=hNKRc2yVsQUC" target="_blank">https://books.google.com/books?id=hNKRc2yVsQUC</a> <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:8">Hedrick & Hodgson 1986, p. 6. - Hedrick, Charles W.; Hodgson, Robert Jr. (1986), Nag Hammadi, Gnosticism, and Early Christianity: Fourteen Leading Scholars Discuss the Current Issues in Gnostic Studies, Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, ISBN 978-0913573167 <a href="#fnref:8" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:9">Carrier, Richard (2014) On the Historicity of Jesus Sheffield Phoenix Press ISBN 978-1-909697-49-2 p. 271 <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" target="_blank">/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)</a> <a href="#fnref:9" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
</ol>

Luke–Acts open-in-new

Luke–Acts