Beloved physician
by Mike Oettle
“MATTHEW, Mark,
Luke and John, bless the bed that I lie on.” That, for many, is a familiar
rhyme from childhood. (Perhaps some children imagine the four to be guardian
angels.) So who were these four men who wrote the Gospels?
Luke appears on the calendar on 18 October. His Gospel appears third in the traditional sequence, after Mark – but then Mark’s Gospel is the earliest, predating Matthew’s.
For one
thing, Luke is the only one who probably was not a Jew. For another, he is
referred to as a physician. Nothing is known for certain about his profession,
but it is likely that, like other Greek physicians, he had studied at the
medical school esablished on the island of Cos by Hippocrates (460-377 BC). He
is also referred to as a “co-worker” in letters of Paul. The Encyclopædia
Britannica states that this is “the more significant” designation of Luke,
“for it identifies him as one of a professional cadre of itinerant Christian
‘workers’, many of whom were teachers and preachers”. Paul also calls him the
“beloved physician” – perhaps the best-known description of Luke, and used in
the title of a novel by Taylor Caldwell.
There is
even argument as to whether Luke wrote the Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts,
but it seems probable that he did produce both. The many references to Antioch
in Syria would indicate that this was his home, and the “we” passages in Acts –
which indicate the author’s presence on Paul’s journeys – show that he
probably accompanied Paul on his first visit to Greece in AD 51, travelling
as far as Philippi in Macedonia, and joined Paul again in AD 58, on his final
journey to Jerusalem. He appears to have remained in Israel[1] while Paul was imprisoned in Cæsarea and worked with Paul as and when the prisoner was allowed visitors. At this time he is likely also to have gathered material for his writings, described aptly in the Britannica as a two-volume literary work.[2] At any rate he appears with Paul once more, two years after the Apostle’s arrest, on Paul’s journey to Rome, and (according to 2 Timothy 4:11) was probably in Rome when Paul was martyred (around AD 66).
This is all we can learn of Luke from the Bible, but 2nd-century writings tell us more, if with less certainty that they are accurate. He is said to have been a man “moved by the Spirit” (that is, a prophet). Some scholars claim that he was
either author or scribe of the Letter to the Hebrews, and scribe of some of
Paul’s letters, because of similarities in the Greek. It is possible, but unlikely, that he is the prophet Lucius mentioned in Acts 13:1 and in Romans 16:21. The same 2nd-century source asserts that he “fell asleep in Boeotia[3]
at the age of 84, full of the Holy Spirit”.
Luke is recognised today as patron saint of doctors and of artists, and some ancient
works of art are attributed to him.
The name Luke (in Greek, Loukas [LoukaV]) means “of Lucania”.[4]
In English it became Luke or Luck, and became popular in England after the
Norman Conquest. English surnames derived from it are Lukes, Lucas, Luck,
Luckett, Lucock, Lukin and Luckin. Lucius is a Roman name derived from lux,
meaning light.
The four Gospel writers, or Evangelists, are represented in religious art by the four living creatures of Revelation 4:6,7: a lion (St Mark), an ox (St Luke), one with a human face (St Matthew) and an eagle in flight (St John). These are the creatures who sing: “Holy, holy, holy is God the Sovereign Lord of all, who
was, and is, and is to come.” They are similar to the four living creatures of
Ezekiel 1:4-13, who all have four faces: a human face and a lion’s face on the
right, and the faces of an ox and an eagle on the left.
