Luke invested all of his effort and energy in this one man to bear witness to him and to disciple him. The church has relied too heavily on programs, personalities, organizations, and events instead of the one thing God has guaranteed for success.
He has instructed His followers to invest themselves in the lives of individuals as a vital avenue for witnessing and making disciples. It is easy to overlook the significance and value of investing yourself in the life of just one individual when there is a world out there that needs to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Yet in the beginning verse of Acts, Dr. Luke uses this strategy as he addresses the Book of Acts and previously the Gospel of Luke to one individual named Theophilus.
When you stop to think how God used this personal relationship throughout the world and down through the years, one can see the need to lead and assist the followers of Christ to establish and use personal relationships as a vital avenue for telling others about Christ.
Who is your Theophilus? Where is he? The identity of the one who tells begins with "I. Please note that Luke was a medical doctor who joined the Apostle Paul and his band of missionaries in Troas Acts and accompanied Paul on much of his third missionary journey, his trip to Jerusalem, and is known to have been with him in Rome. As Luke undertakes the opportunity to witness, he does so as the "least likely" in many people's opinion.
He writes as the only Gentile writer in the New Testament and from the position of a layman. We need to help our people recognize that as laymen they have a vital witness in their world.
Everyone knows of Heinz, of the "fifty-seven varieties," but few know of his zeal as a soul winner. At a revival meeting one day, the minister turned to him and said: "You are a Christian man; why aren't you up and at it? At four o'clock in the morning he prayed that God would make him a power in His work, and then went to sleep. At the next meeting of bank presidents, which he attended shortly afterward, he turned to the man next to him and spoke to him of the Christian life.
His friend looked at him in amazement and said, "I've wondered many times why you never spoke to me about it if you really believed in Christ. Who in your world might turn to you and remark, "I've wondered many times why you never spoke to me about it if you really believed in Christ?
The information shared is of immense worth. These ten historic facts form the backbone of Luke's gospel. The rest of the book is an amplification of those ten historic facts. A remarkable story is told about an exceedingly costly jewel that for many years was considered of no more value than a mere pebble.
Mihok, who was a laborer, drew out of his pocket a rough red stone and handed it to Gillman. When I landed in this country, I found it in my valise.
It has been lying around the house ever since. The children played with it. As mentioned in this Got Questions article, scholars have proposed several theories as to the personhood of Theophilus. We do know, from the title given to Theophilus, that he had a certain amount of power, such as those held by magistrates or governors.
If this is the case, then we can assume the Gospel reached those in high positions during the persecution of the Early Church, although as pointed out in the commentary linked, not many higher-ups believed in the Gospel. We only explicitly see him in two verses, and those passages do not give many details about him, other than the fact he had a high rank or some sort of lofty position.
We can assume, from Luke addressing the Gospel and Book of Acts to him, that he believed the Gospel in some part, and that he and Luke were close in some way. They may have been friends or had a teacher-pupil relationship. The answer to this question depends entirely to which theory you ascribe to. Not necessarily. In fact, the entire book of Philemon is addressed to a man who does not show up in person in any narrative in the Bible.
The fact he shows up in the Bible, by his actual name, conveys a great meaning. Any time someone in the New Testament provided names, they meant for the reader to go to that person for proof, because they were eyewitnesses to something. Luke, as a historian, did so with meticulous detail, especially in the Book of Acts.
Dibelius, M. Ling, SCM, London. Dover, K. Eusebius, , The church history, transl. Maier, Kregel, Grand Rapids. Friberg, T. Garland, D. Garrison, R. Gempf, C. Clarke eds. Green, J. Haenchen, E. Hemer, C. Hengel, M. Moore, in M. Maston eds. Holmes, M. Harmer, Baker, Grand Rapids. Jefford, C. Johnson, L. Josephus, , Works, transl. Marcus, Harvard University Press, Cambridge. Josephus, , The works of Josephus, transl.
Whiston, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody. Keener, C. Introduction and , Baker, Grand Rapids. Larkin, W. Liddell, H. Louw, J. Lucian, , Lucian, transl. Kilburn, Harvard University Press, Cambridge. Marshall, I. Mason, S. Moles, J. Peterson, D. Polhill, J. Polybius, , 'Histories', in Perseus, transl. Porter, S. Robertson, A. Rosner, B. Marshall eds. Schnabel, E. Stein, R. Strelan, R. Thompson, M. Received: 30 July Accepted: 10 Dec.
Unless otherwise indicated, translations from the New Testament and Septuagint are the author's. See also 2 Maccabees ; ; 3 Maccabees ; Jewish Antiquities Of further note, Dionysius the Areopagite became the first bishop of Athens according to Eusebius [Hist. For discussion of Luke as a physician, see recent scholarship by Craig Keener and Eckhard Schnabel See also Moles , who argues for Luke's historiography as superior to that of classical historians.
All the contents of this journal, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. Services on Demand Article.
English pdf Article in xml format Article references How to cite this article Automatic translation. Access statistics. Cited by Google Similars in Google. Discovering the original reader of Luke-Acts Wie is Teofilus? In his monograph, The significance of Theophilus as Luke's reader, Roman Garrison notes that the original reader of the Luke-Acts narrative has been overlooked by scholars: Many scholars have disregarded the significance of Theophilus as the intended reader of those books treating him as irrelevant and instead have given attention to a generalized Gentile audience that came to read Luke-Acts.
Most excellent Theophilus What kind of person might Theophilus be? Theophilus and the theme of Gentile inclusion in Acts Theophilus would have been, by every indication, a Gentile rather than a Jew. He lists passages from Acts that refer to Godfearers including Ac , 22, 35; , 26, 43, 50; , 17; as a possible explanation for their inclusion in the narrative.
Theophilus and the verification of the facts: The reliability of Luke-Acts What might Theophilus have been hoping to gain through Luke's research?
Luke's prologue An analysis of the grammar and style of the prologue with particular focus on the last two clauses vv. The importance of word order An examination of word order further displays Luke's intention to deliver the facts about Jesus to Theophilus in an accurate manner. The necessity of accuracy in historical writing Luke's concern for accuracy in his writing, as carefully presented in the prologue of his gospel, is in keeping with standards for best practices amongst other historians of the Hellenistic period.
The historian Polybius 2nd century BC criticised a certain Timaeus for inventing speeches rather than recording the actual words: The special province of history is, first, to ascertain what the actual words used were; and secondly, to learn why it was that a particular policy or argument failed or succeeded [ In his work, How to write history, Lucian describes the careful historian: As to the facts themselves, he should not assemble them at random, but only after much laborious and painstaking investigation.
Luke's accuracy summarised If 'Luke, the beloved physician' of Colossians is the same Luke as the author of Luke-Acts, 4 we may surmise that the author was accustomed to giving rigorous attention to detail.
Conclusion This article has provided some key information regarding the possible identity of Theophilus as reader of the Luke-Acts narrative. Acknowledgements Competing interests The authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship s that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. Authors' contributions J. References Alexander, L. Later, though, in Acts of the Apostles, Luke just mentions him by name without the title.
Some people think that Theophilus was not a person at all. The Bible says that God is love 1 John , and it is a marvelous thing to follow the Lord and know that we are loved by God.
Languages Study in More Languages. Who is Theophilus in the Bible books of Luke and Acts? Theophilus in Acts In the introduction to the Book of Acts, Luke tells Theophilus that this second volume is a continuation of the history he wrote about in the book of Luke. Theories about Theophilus Beyond what Luke writes, the rest of the Bible says nothing about Theophilus.
0コメント