Luke, the writer of the Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles, has been identified with St Paul’s “Luke, the beloved physician” (Colossians 4: 14). We know few other facts about Luke’s life from Scripture and from early Church historians.
It is believed that Luke was born a Greek and a Gentile. In Colossians 10 – 14 speaks of those friends who are with him. He first mentions all those “of the circumcision” — in other words, Jews — and he does not include Luke in this group. Luke’s gospel shows special sensitivity to evangelizing Gentiles. It is only in his gospel that we hear the parable of the Good Samaritan, that we hear Jesus praising the faith of Gentiles such as the widow of Zarephath and Naaman the Syrian (Lk.4: 25 – 27), and that we hear the story of the one grateful leper who is a Samaritan (Lk.17: 11 – 19). According to the early Church historian Eusebius Luke was born at Antioch in Syria.
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