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Luke the Evangelist

Luke the Evangelist

?–84 CE · Antioch

Physician and companion of Paul, Luke is the traditional author of the third Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. Of Antiochian birth and Greek parentage — attested by Eusebius (Eccl. Hist. 3.4), the Anti-Marcionite Prologue, and Jerome — he joined Paul's mission at Troas, remained at Philippi, and accompanied Paul on the final, fateful journey to Rome. He died, according to early tradition, in old age in Boeotia, Greece.

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Stop 1 of 515–47Birthplace, Early Life

AntiochSyria

What they did here

Eusebius (Eccl. Hist. 3.4) and the Anti-Marcionite Prologue both identify Luke as a native of Antioch-on-the-Orontes, born of a Greek family and trained as a physician there. The ancient city underlies modern Antakya, Hatay Province, Turkey — not present-day Syria.

Antioch in this era

Under Roman imperial rule as the capital of the province of Syria, this cosmopolitan city — population estimates range widely from around 150,000 to 500,000 — became the first Gentile heartland of the faith, where Acts records that disciples were first called "Christians," and the launch pad for Paul's missionary journeys westward.

About Antioch

Antioch, on the Orontes at the site of modern Antakya in southern Turkey, was founded around 300 BCE by Seleucus I, was a Seleucid capital and then capital of Roman Syria. It was a centre of Hellenistic Judaism and of Greek rhetoric, where Libanius taught. According to the New Testament, followers of Jesus were first called Christians there; Ignatius was an early bishop, John Chrysostom was born there, and the city became the seat of one of the great patriarchates. Arab forces took it in 637 for the caliphate; the Byzantines recaptured it in 969, and after Seljuk rule it was a Crusader principality from 1098 until the Mamluk sultan Baybars razed it in 1268.

In Antioch at the same time

Barnabas, Peter the Apostle, Paul the Apostle

See other sages who lived in Antioch→

In the same place & time

Sages whose lives overlapped with Luke the Evangelist’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.

Across the traditions

The world in their lifetime

Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Luke the Evangelist’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.

Works(2)