By Jorge Cespedes

I.                     Authorship; date and place of composition

We have different information about the authorship of this gospel. Some information comes from the early authors of the church and form the Sacred Scripture itself. We can take for granted that Luke is the author, and that he was a physician. It is possible that Luke was from Syrian Antioch. The fact that the Pauline theology is not completely explicit in this gospel makes it possible that the relation of the author with Paul was developed in the early years of the Pauline ministry. The language used in the composition of this gospel is not more technical that other writings of the same time. In relation with the date, the gospel of Luke was written after the gospel of Mark. The gospel of Luke deal with the understanding that Jerusalem is already destroyed and that happened in 70 AD. But in Acts of the Apostles (book that was written also by Luke) there are no present, direct allusions to the final parts of the persecution against Christians developed by the emperor Domitian. This persecution is dated AD 81- 96. All this makes it possible to situate the date of writing of the gospel of Luke around the dates 85-90.

II.                Literary Style and characteristics.

It is clear that the author has a good knowledge of elegant Greek. He uses some genres that belong to this language and which are used normally by well educated persons. The gospel is very rich in the uses of parallelism; it shows great creativity by the author. Examples are the birth of John the Baptist and Jesus. The Gospel of Luke is the fruit of study and uses different sources such as the Q source and the gospel of Mark. Luke made free use of this material. It is clear that he uses Mark when in the gospel do not appear some of the redundancies that are present in the other sources. He puts special attention in link sources and traditions in the way that the fulfillment of the promises of the Jewish people can understand in the life of Jesus. The parallelism is also evident in the careful reading of the Gospel and Acts of the Apostles together. The book of Acts of the Apostles shares many of the literary richness of the same author.  The geographical development uses by Luke shows Jesus going from Galilee to Jerusalem and from there to the Father. And it is in Jerusalem that the Church receives the gift of the Holy Spirit and from there is spread the Gospel to the world. This same geographical development is show in the journeys of Paul.

III.                Luke theology and Sitz Im lebem

The gospel is directed to a gentile audience, who has the difficult mission of spreading the message of Jesus in an environment which rejects it. The principal problem is how to convince to the Gentiles that God is faithful to his promises when Jerusalem is destroyed and it seems that the promises of the Old Testament were not fulfilled. To Luke the authentic fulfillment of the promises is in Jesus Christ. And the concept of Israel goes beyond the original chosen people. The new Israel is call to reconstitute the “people of God”.

IV.             Continuity with the Old Testament.

To Luke Jesus is not against the Law. Christ gives continuity to the law because he comes to bring the authentic understanding of the law. Luke shows Paul addressing accusations about the fact that he is breaking with the law. But to Luke Christianity has a better understanding of Judaism than the pharisaic movement in itself. The election of the twelve is presented as a continuation of the election of the twelve tribes of Israel. For this author the Christian community is Israel reconstituted.

V.                   Internal and external controversies

The controversies are very strong with those who believed that is necessary to strictly follow the law in order to reconstituted Israel. It is here where Luke presents and expands the notion of who belongs to “the poor of God” and who the authentic children of Abraham are. He goes beyond of social statutes or ethnicity. The external problem that this gospel faces was explained before and is related with the understanding of the promises. The author presents Jesus as the authentic fulfillment of the promises even the promises made to Abraham.

VI.                The Lucan Jesus

Jesus is the founder of the reconstituted Israel. It is manifest in the call and election of the twelve. His mission looks for the restoration of the lost friendship of sinner with God. The poor of God are the target of the Gospel and in his repentance is found the continuity between the people of the Old Testament and the people of The New Israel. Luke presents the coming of the prophets following the schema of sending of the prophet, rejection, punishment and sending of the new Prophet. The repentance of the 3000 in Pentecost after the punishment of Jesus signifies the beginning of the new Israel. From this moment it is not necessary for new prophets to come, because through the word of Jesus the new Israel had been reconstituted. For Luke the fidelity of God to his promises is a topic which has a very special place in this gospel. From the birth to the rising of Jesus all the promises are fulfilled. This aspect has as intention to transmit the idea of fidelity by God to his promises also to these early Christians communities even when those who came from all the corners of the earth.