The Identity of Luke the Physician

 

Luke was probably from Antioch, Syria.  He was the writer of the Gospel of Luke and was a gentile Christian who never personally met Jesus. He became a Christian after Paul taught him about the gospel. Using his scientific approach learned as a physician, his two scriptural books, Luke [κατὰ Λουκᾶν; According (to) Luke] and The Acts of the Apostles [Πράξεις Ἀποστόλων, Acts (of the) Apostles], are the result of his numerous interviews of surviving first-generation Christians. In Luke :1-4, he says that he has carefully investigated everything before recording it. 

He was with Paul on several journeys and was present when Paul met with James and the elders (Acts 21:17-20) in Jerusalem.

Paul, in 1 Corinthians 15:6, mentions “more than 500 brothers” to whom Jesus appeared after his resurrection and that most of them were still alive. The mention of 500 witnesses to the risen Jesus was meant as a challenge to people living at the time Paul wrote the passage to check it out if they wanted to. Luke’s careful investigation probably included interviews with many of the elders and many of the 500 brothers. Luke 34:33.

Luke may be the Lucius mentioned in Acts 13:1. Lucius in Romans 16:21 may also be the same man. Because they are named together in 2 Timothy 4:10-11, Titus and Luke may have been brothers. 2 Corinthians 8:18.

Modern Names of Places Mentioned in the Bible

 

Numbers 13:22 Zoan (Muhafaza as Sarqiya, Egypt)

1 and 2 Thessalonians Thessalonica (Thessaloniki, Greece)

Acts 21:7 Ptolemais (Acre, Israel)

Titus 3:12 Nicopolis (Prevesa, Greece)

Ezekiel 38:13 Dedan (al-Ula, Saudi Arabia)

Definitions: Chastity

Chassity, Chassidy, Chassitee, Chessity, Chessidy, Chasadee.  These and a great many more are variants of a very popular English language female personal name.  They all are apparently attempts to represent the word “chastity.”

One wonders how much people understand about the word if they cannot even be bothered to spell it correctly.  The English language word is derived ultimately from the Latin word “castus,” meaning “pure”.

Aldous Huxley humorously (I think) called chastity “the most unnatural of all the sexual perversions.”

An internet Google search brings up numerous attempts at a definition, most centering on the avoidance of sex.  The Christian understanding of the word can include that meaning but it is much more meaningful than that.  Remember that God viewed the Israelite’s attraction to other cultures and other gods as adultery against Himself. (Hosea 4; Ezekiel 16:35-42; Jeremiah 3:1, 13-14, and, in the New Testament, James 4:4)

The Christian martyr, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, said of the virtue, “The essence of chastity is not the suppression of lust, but the total orientation of one’s life towards a goal.”

Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. Galatians 5:23

"By pureness, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned," 2 Corinthians 6:6

"One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity;" 1 Timothy 3:4

"Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity." 1 Timothy 4:12

"For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ." 2 Corinthians 11:2

"That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience." Titus 2:2

"Likewise must the deacons be grave, not doubletongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre;" 1 Timothy 3:8

"Even so must their wives be grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things." 1 Timothy 3:11

“Sex in the Body of Christ” http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/may/34.28.html

Christians

Chiang Ching-kuo (B. 1910, China –d. 1988)  President of the Republic of China 1978-1988.  Methodist.

Titus (fl. 1^st century) A Gentile Christian who was a convert and later a friend and emissary of Paul. Paul sent him on several specific missions.  Galatians 2:3, 1 Corinthians 1-6, 2 Corinthians 2:13, 7:5-16, chapter 8, the book of Titus, 2 Timothy 4:10.  He was accepted as Paul’s spokesman.

Horatio Gates Spafford:  (b. 1828, New York (USA) – d. 1888) Attorney, investor, philanthropist, hymnist.  After all four of his daughters died in a shipwreck he wrote the words to the hymn, “It Is Well With My Soul.”  He, his wife, and their subsequent children worked for years in Jerusalem providing soup kitchens, hospitals, and orphanages.  He died in Jerusalem.  “I am glad to trust the Lord when it will cost something.”

Tiana Anpo Win Spotted Thunder (b. Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota (USA), aka: Tasiyagmuka Ho Waste Win; Good Voice Meadowlark  Woman)  Singer in English and Lakota.

Melchior Grodziecki (b. ca 1582, Poland – d. 1619) Jesuit priest, military chaplain,  and martyr.  Beheaded by Transylvanian troops in Kosice.