Luke

c. AD 60–62· In the text

Placed by the story. The date is a rough guide. How the dates are worked out

uncertain — often glossed "light-giving" (Lucius) or "of Lucania" (Lucanus) · Latin

The Greek Loukas is usually taken as a short form of the Latin Lucanus or Lucius.

Companion of Paul, named in only three verses of Scripture, all in Paul's letters. Paul called him the beloved physician and passed on his greeting to the Colossians, counted him among his fellow workers in the letter to Philemon, and wrote to Timothy that only Luke was with him. The third Gospel and Acts name no author, but the church has ascribed both to Luke since early times. Both are addressed to Theophilus. Parts of Acts, beginning at Troas, are told in the first person plural, and readers have long taken that to include Luke. That is a reading, not a statement of the text.