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The Gospel of Luke is the third of the canonical Gospels. It tells of the origins, birth, ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. Together with the Acts of the Apostles, it makes up a two-volume work called Luke–Acts, accounting for 27.5% of the New Testament.
The Gospel of Luke shares the same author as the Acts of the Apostles. Tradition identifies the writer as Luke the Evangelist, a doctor who travelled with Paul the Apostle, though the text does not name its author. The author is presented as a participant in the events narrated in the first-person we passages of Acts. Most critical scholars maintain that the author was a traveling companion of Paul, though some cite differences with the Pauline epistles. Luke used the Gospel of Mark, and the two-source hypothesis also posits usage of Q, though a growing number of scholars contend Luke used Matthew instead. Most scholars now agree the Gospel of John knew and used Luke and the other Synoptics. Luke follows Mark closely compared to other ancient historians' usage of sources, though the parallels and variations of the Synoptic gospels are typical of ancient historical biographies. The most common dating for its composition is around AD 80–90. The earliest witnesses for Luke are the Alexandrian and the revised western text-type.
Following the preface and the birth narratives of John and Jesus, the gospel begins in Galilee and moves gradually to its climax in Jerusalem. Luke espouses a three-stage "salvation history" starting with the Law and the prophets, the epoch of Jesus, and the period of the church. The gospel's high Christology portrays Jesus as divine in various ways, identifying him with the God of Israel and as a preexistent messiah within its Jewish and Greco-Roman context. The Holy Spirit also plays a more prominent role compared to other Christian works, forming the basis of the early Christian community.
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