Luke 1

Luke 1
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The beginning of the Gospel of Luke (chapter 1:1-7a), folio 102 in Minuscule 481, made in 10th century.
Book	Gospel of Luke
Bible part	New Testament
Order in the Bible part	3
Category	Gospel

Luke 1 is the first chapter of the Gospel of Luke in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It is one of the longest chapters in the New Testament, totaling 80 verses. This chapter describes the events leading up to the birth of Jesus. The author of Luke names the recipient, Theophilus, who is most likely a real (but unknown) person or could simply mean a fellow believer, since theo philus is Greek for God lover.Acts of the Apostles, the companion volume of Luke, begins addressed the same way in 1:1. The title "The Gospel of Luke," found in many Bibles and some manuscripts were added later with no indication that they were originally part of the text. The book containing this chapter is anonymous but early Christian tradition uniformly affirm that Luke composed this Gospel as well as Acts.

This chapter can be grouped (with cross references to other parts of the Bible):

Luke writes:

It thus claims to be an accurate history, although skeptics would dispute this. It is meant to confirm the things that Theophilus has already been taught about Jesus, being written by a believer for the purpose of confirming belief.

Luke clearly states there are other accounts about Jesus circulating and he is aware of them. He also states he is not an eyewitness but belongs to another generation that received its information from "eyewitnesses" to these events in a previous generation. Some argue Luke thus states that he is getting his information from the disciples and Apostles, which the tradition about Luke being a follower of Paul accords with. Luke however does not say explicitly that he knew or interviewed Jesus' disciples, at least in the Gospel, and so some think "handed down to us" means the traditions and other documents about Jesus that came from witnesses of the previous generation, which Luke carefully researched, not necessarily from someone Luke actually knew. Sections of Acts however have the author relating events with the author and Paul together, such as 20:5–7, 20:13–15.