THEOPHILUS (The.oph'i.lus, means "friend of God"), is the name of the entity to whom Luke addressed both in his Gospel and the Acts of Apostles. His being called "most excellent" indicate a high position of some kind. This entity has been informed orally about Jesus Christ and his mission. Luke's written statement served to assure him of the certainty of what he had learned previously by a sincere word of mouth.
Luke1 "Dear Teophilus: Many people have done their best to write a report of the things that have taken place among us. They wrote what we have been told by those who saw these things from the beginning and who proclaimed the message.
And so, Your Excellency, because I have carefully studied all these matters from their beginning, I thought it would be good to write an orderly account for you. I do this so that you will know the full truth about everything which you have been taught.
The name Luke appears three times in the New Testament, Col.4; 2Tim.4; Phlm24. He is identified as a companion of Paul, also as a fellow worker and as a missionary colleague.
Like the others New Testament Gospels, Luke and Acts are anonymous documents. Even when involved in first person narration, the writer identifies himself not as an individual with a name, but as one of a group.
Luke was with Paul at Troas on the apostle's second missionary tour and accompanied him from there to Philippi and remained there until Paul's return on his third missionary journey. Luke accompanied Paul to Palestine at the end of that missionary journey and, while the apostle was imprisoned for about two years in Caesarea, Luke wrote his account there. Then he accompanied Paul on his trip to Rome for trial, likely completing the Book of Acts in Rome, since it covers events down to that event but does not record the outcome of Paul's appeal to Caesar.
Luke joined Paul in sending greetings to believers at Colossae when Paul wrote to them from Rome and the apostle identified him as "the beloved physician."
Luke is one of those souls to whom inspired utterances were entrusted.
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