“Since many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the events that have been fulfilled among us, just as those who were eyewitnesses from the beginning and ministers of the word have handed them down to us, I too have decided, after investigating everything accurately anew, to write it down in an orderly sequence for you…” -Luke 1:1-3
Thus begins the third of the Synoptic Gospels. It would not take a rocket scientist, nor a Doctor of the Church, to figure out that Luke’s Gospel was written after Matthew and Mark. Scholars estimate that Luke’s Gospel was composed between 80 and 90 a.d. Again, the most relevant aspect of the dating is that it was written within the life time of many of the eyewitnesses to the events recorded. Most historians will accept the account of an historical event from antiquity even if it is written many generations after the event. Many accounts of ancient battles that historians accept are written a century or more after the battle being described. The Gospels were all written within the lifetime of the witnesses and are therefore very valuable documents from an historical perspective.
Luke’s Gospel has, by far, the most detail about the infancy of Jesus. Some scholars posit that Our Lady was a source for Luke. In fact, one such clue is, “He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart.” (Luke 2:51) For me, the most striking portions of Luke’s Gospel are in fact the infancy narratives. We will spend some time tomorrow and next week looking at some of the things that we can learn from those.
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