Comments on the topic ‘Was Luke a Gentile?’

This text is from a letter written by David Gooding in 1997.

Thank you for sending me the article by Thomas S. McCall on the topic 'Was Luke a Gentile?'

The chief argument for suggesting that Luke was a Gentile bases itself on the passage in Colossians 4:10–14 to which McCall refers; and it must be admitted that the inferences drawn from that passage are very insecure. I have nothing myself to add to the matter, but see the comments of E. Earle Ellis in his book, The Gospel of Luke. As he readily says, the matter cannot be proved either way, but as you will see he thinks Luke's Jewishness is the far more probable view.

You might also be interested to refer to C. J. Hemer on the origin and derivation of Luke's name. It proves nothing, of course, about his original origins, since many Jews were prepared to take Gentile names.

I would be inclined to question one item in McCall's argumentation: namely, what he refers to as the rule that the divine oracles were given to Jews. I should have thought that when Paul uses the phrase 'to them were committed the oracles of God' (Romans 3:2), he was referring to the Old Testament. To argue that, since the Old Testament was committed to Jews, all the books in the New Testament must likewise have been written by Jews, is, I think, forcing the case unfairly.

Yours very sincerely in Christ,