The Gospel of St Luke

St Luke opens his Gospel the way a careful historian would. "It seemed good to me also, having diligently attained to all things from the beginning, to write to thee in order, most excellent Theophilus, that thou mayest know the verity of those words in which thou hast been instructed" (Luke 1:3–4). The twenty-four chapters that follow give us most of what we know of the childhood of Christ, three of the canticles the Church sings every day, the first half of the Hail Mary and of the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary, and the parables of mercy that no other Evangelist records. Below this guide you will find every chapter, St Jerome's Latin Vulgate beside the English of the Douay-Rheims.

Who wrote the Gospel of Luke?

The Church has received the third Gospel as the work of St Luke the Evangelist, a physician of Antioch and the companion of St Paul. He was not one of the Twelve. By his own account he did not see the Lord in the flesh but gathered what had been handed down by those "who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word" (Luke 1:2).

What Scripture tells us of him comes from St Paul. "Luke, the most dear physician, saluteth you," he writes to the Colossians (4:14), where he counts Luke among his helpers who were not "of the circumcision", so that Luke was a Gentile. In his last letter, from prison in Rome, Paul writes: "Only Luke is with me" (2 Timothy 4:11). The Acts of the Apostles, which the same author addresses to the same Theophilus, passes from "they" to "we" when Paul crosses from Troas into Macedonia (Acts 16:10), and the "we" returns as far as the voyage to Rome: the author was there.

The witness of the early Church is constant. St Irenaeus, about AD 180, writes: "Luke also, the companion of Paul, recorded in a book the Gospel preached by him" (Against Heresies III.1.1). The Muratorian Fragment, the oldest surviving list of the New Testament books, names it the Gospel of Luke the physician, Paul's companion. Tertullian (Against Marcion IV.5) says men commonly ascribed Luke's Gospel to Paul. Origen, quoted by Eusebius (Church History VI.25), calls it "the Gospel commended by Paul, and composed for Gentile converts". Eusebius himself (III.4) says Luke was "of Antiochian parentage and a physician by profession", and St Jerome (On Illustrious Men 7) adds that he learned the Gospel not only from Paul but from the other Apostles.

The Pontifical Biblical Commission, answering on 26 June 1912 under St Pius X, taught that the clear tradition of the Church obliges us to hold that Luke, "a physician, the helper and companion of Paul", is truly the author of the Gospel that bears his name. Many modern scholars regard the author as an unknown Christian of the next generation; the Church's tradition is the one given here. His life, death and feast are told in our article on St Luke the Evangelist.

Luke, St Paul and St Peter

The third Gospel does not rest principally on St Peter. Tradition gives Peter's preaching to St Mark, and Paul's to St Luke. Irenaeus, Tertullian, Origen and Eusebius all link the third Gospel to Paul; Eusebius reports that when Paul speaks of "my gospel" he was thought to mean Luke's. The Biblical Commission (1912) upheld the tradition that Mark wrote according to the preaching of Peter and Luke according to that of Paul, adding that both had at their disposal other trustworthy sources, oral or written.

Luke did not depend on Paul alone: he names "eyewitnesses" as his sources, Jerome says he learned from the other Apostles, and he was at Paul's side in Rome together with St Mark, the disciple of Peter (Colossians 4:10, 14). Much of his narrative runs parallel to the Gospel of St Mark, so a good deal of Peter's preaching reaches us through Luke as well. Luke notes that Mary "kept all these words, pondering them in her heart" (Luke 2:19), and again that she "kept all these words in her heart" (2:51), and Catholic interpreters have long seen in this a sign that the infancy narrative rests on her own memory.

When and where was the Gospel of Luke written?

The order received in the Church is Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and the Biblical Commission taught in 1912 that Luke wrote third. Two fixed points give the date. First, the Gospel comes before Acts, which calls it "the former treatise" (Acts 1:1). Second, Acts ends with Paul two years under guard at Rome, about AD 61 to 63, without a word of his trial or death. The Commission therefore taught that the Gospel was written before the end of that first Roman captivity, and that it may not be dated as late as the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. On the traditional reckoning, then, Luke wrote about AD 60 or a little before, within thirty years of the Resurrection.

The place is less certain. St Jerome, in the preface to his Commentary on Matthew, says Luke wrote in the regions of Achaia and Boeotia in Greece, and an ancient prologue agrees; the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia notes that many writers place it during Paul's two years of imprisonment at Caesarea, when Luke could question eyewitnesses in Palestine.

Theophilus and the Gentile converts

Luke addresses "most excellent Theophilus", a title given to men of rank, already instructed in the faith, and beyond him the converts from the Gentiles, as Origen says. So he explains Jewish customs, dates St John's preaching by the Roman emperor (3:1), and traces Christ's genealogy back to Adam (3:38): Christ is the Saviour of all mankind.

What is the Gospel of Luke about? A summary

Luke tells the life of Christ "in order", from the promise of the Forerunner in the Temple to the Ascension, and his Gospel begins and ends in the Temple at Jerusalem. The long central section follows Christ's journey to the city where He will suffer: "he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem" (Luke 9:51).

The prologue and the Infancy (chapters 1–2)

After the four-verse prologue, chapter 1 sets two annunciations side by side. The angel Gabriel announces to the priest Zachary the birth of St John the Baptist, then to the Virgin Mary at Nazareth the conception of the Son of God. Mary visits her cousin Elizabeth and sings the Magnificat; John is born and Zachary sings the Benedictus. Chapter 2 is the Christmas story: the decree of Caesar Augustus, the birth at Bethlehem, the angels and the shepherds, the Circumcision, the Presentation in the Temple with the canticle of Simeon and the prophetess Anna, and the finding of the boy Jesus among the doctors.

John the Baptist and the beginning of the ministry (chapters 3–4)

In chapter 3 John preaches penance in the fifteenth year of Tiberius and baptizes Christ, and Luke gives the genealogy from Joseph back to "Adam, who was of God" (3:38). In chapter 4 Christ overcomes the three temptations, then in the synagogue of Nazareth reads from Isaias 61, "The spirit of the Lord is upon me", and declares: "This day is fulfilled this scripture in your ears" (4:18, 21).

The ministry in Galilee (chapters 5–9)

In chapter 5 the draught of fishes brings Peter to his knees, and Christ cures a leper and a paralytic and calls Levi. In chapter 6 He chooses the Twelve and preaches the sermon "in a plain place", with four beatitudes and four woes. Chapter 7 brings the centurion's servant, the raising of the widow's son at Naim, the messengers of John, and the sinful woman who anoints His feet. Chapter 8 names the women who ministered to Him, Joanna among them, and gives the parable of the sower, the calming of the storm, the demoniac of the Gerasens and the daughter of Jairus. In chapter 9 the Twelve are sent out, the five thousand are fed, Peter confesses "The Christ of God" (9:20), and Christ is transfigured.

The journey to Jerusalem (chapters 9:51–19:27)

This section holds most of what is proper to Luke. In chapter 10 Christ sends out the seventy-two disciples, tells the parable of the Good Samaritan, and, in the house of Martha, praises Mary seated at His feet: "Mary hath chosen the best part" (10:42). Chapter 11 gives the Lord's Prayer, chapter 12 the rich fool and "Fear not, little flock", and chapter 13 the barren fig tree and the lament over Jerusalem.

In chapter 14 come the great supper and the cost of discipleship. Chapter 15 holds the three parables of mercy: the lost sheep, the lost groat and the prodigal son. Chapter 16 gives the unjust steward and the rich man and Lazarus; chapter 17 the ten lepers; chapter 18 the unjust judge, the Pharisee and the publican, and the blind man of Jericho. In chapter 19 Zacheus comes down from the sycamore tree: "the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost" (19:10).

Jerusalem: the last days (chapters 19:28–21)

Christ enters the city in triumph, weeps over it and cleanses the Temple, answers His adversaries (chapter 20), and in chapter 21 foretells the fall of Jerusalem and His coming "in a cloud, with great power and majesty" (21:27).

The Passion, Resurrection and Ascension (chapters 22–24)

Chapter 22 gives the Last Supper and the institution of the Eucharist, the prayer for Peter, the agony on the Mount of Olives with the angel and the sweat of blood, the arrest and Peter's denials. Chapter 23 brings the trials before Pilate and Herod, the women of Jerusalem, the crucifixion, the good thief, and the burial. Chapter 24 tells of the empty tomb, the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, the appearance to the Eleven, and the Ascension at Bethania, whither He led them out. The disciples "went back into Jerusalem with great joy. And they were always in the temple, praising and blessing God" (24:52–53).

Themes of the Gospel of Luke and the Catholic reading

Christ the Saviour of all. Luke's Christ is the "Saviour, who is Christ the Lord" (2:11), "a light to the revelation of the Gentiles" (2:32). He seeks out the poor, the sick, the Samaritan, the publican and the sinner, and the great parables of chapter 15 end in the joy of heaven "upon one sinner that doth penance" (15:7). Luke has rightly been called the Evangelist of mercy, and we keep his parables in mind each time we prepare for confession.

Our Lady. No Evangelist tells us more of the Blessed Virgin. From Luke the Church takes the Angel's greeting, "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women" (1:28), and Elizabeth's, "blessed is the fruit of thy womb" (1:42), which together make the first half of the Hail Mary. Pius IX, defining the Immaculate Conception in Ineffabilis Deus (1854), appealed to that "full of grace".

Mary's answer, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord: be it done to me according to thy word" (1:38), is prayed in the Angelus, and her prophecy, "from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed" (1:48), stands at the heart of the Magnificat. The five Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary, from the Annunciation to the Finding in the Temple, are all drawn from Luke 1 and 2. The Magnificat itself echoes the canticle of Anna in 1 Kings 2 (1 Samuel 2), and the Biblical Commission rejected in 1912 the claim, based on a handful of manuscripts, that it was Elizabeth's.

The Holy Ghost and prayer. The Holy Ghost overshadows Mary, fills Elizabeth and Zachary and rests on Simeon; and Luke shows Christ at prayer at His baptism, before choosing the Twelve, at the Transfiguration and in the agony.

The Eucharist and the priesthood. Of the Evangelists, Luke alone records the command "Do this for a commemoration of me" (22:19). The Council of Trent (Session XXII, ch. 1 and canon 2) teaches that by these words Christ made the Apostles priests and commanded them and their successors to offer His Body and Blood. At Emmaus the risen Lord was known "in the breaking of bread" (24:35), and St Augustine and other Fathers saw in that breaking of bread the Holy Eucharist, given where Scripture has first been opened.

Peter's primacy. "I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and thou, being once converted, confirm thy brethren" (22:32). The Vatican Council (1870, Pastor Aeternus, ch. 4) grounds on this promise the unfailing faith of the See of Peter.

The Last Things. The rich man and Lazarus (16:19–31) teaches the particular judgment, Abraham's bosom, hell and the great chasm between them, and the good thief's "This day thou shalt be with me in paradise" (23:43) shows that judgment follows death without delay.

Famous verses and chapters of Luke

Luke 1: the Annunciation, the Magnificat and the Benedictus. "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee" (Luke 1:35); "My soul doth magnify the Lord" (1:46); "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel: because he hath visited and wrought the redemption of his people" (1:68).

Luke 2: the birth of Jesus. "She brought forth her first born son and wrapped him up in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger: because there was no room for them in the inn" (Luke 2:7), and the song of the angels: "Glory to God in the highest: and on earth peace to men of good will" (2:14). It is the Gospel of Midnight Mass, which we explain in our article on Christmas.

Luke 2:29–35: Simeon. "Now thou dost dismiss thy servant, O Lord, according to thy word in peace: because my eyes have seen thy salvation" (Luke 2). To Mary he foretells: "thy own soul a sword shall pierce" (2:35), the first of her Seven Sorrows.

Luke 6:20–26: the Beatitudes in Luke. "Blessed are ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are ye that hunger now: for you shall be filled" (Luke 6:20–21), followed by four woes: "But woe to you that are rich: for you have your consolation" (6:24). Compare the eight Beatitudes of St Matthew 5 in the Gospel of St Matthew.

Luke 11:2–4: the Our Father. "Father, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Give us this day our daily bread" (Luke 11): the shorter form of the Lord's Prayer.

Luke 15: the prodigal son. "I will arise and will go to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee" (Luke 15:18); and the father's words: "this my son was dead and is come to life again, was lost and is found" (15:24).

Luke 16:19–31: the rich man and Lazarus. "The beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. And the rich man also died: and he was buried in hell" (Luke 16:22).

Luke 17:11–19: the ten lepers. Only one returned, a Samaritan: "There is no one found to return and give glory to God, but this stranger" (Luke 17:18).

Luke 18:9–14: the Pharisee and the publican. "O God, be merciful to me a sinner... every one that exalteth himself shall be humbled: and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted" (Luke 18:13–14).

Luke 23:34–46: the words from the Cross. Three of the Seven Last Words are found only in Luke: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34); "This day thou shalt be with me in paradise" (23:43); and "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit" (23:46). We meditate on them in The Passion of Jesus Christ.

Luke 24: Emmaus. "Was not our heart burning within us, whilst he spoke in the way and opened to us the scriptures?" (Luke 24:32).

Its place in the canon and the liturgy

Luke is the third of the four Gospels in every Christian Bible, Catholic and Protestant alike, and with its sequel, the Acts, it makes up more than a quarter of the New Testament. The Council of Trent (Session IV, 1546) lists "the four Gospels, according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John". With Matthew and Mark it forms the three synoptic Gospels, which share one general outline; the Gospel of St John supplements them. The Biblical Commission (1912) declared the infancy narratives and the angel and bloody sweat of 22:43–44 to be inspired and canonical parts of Luke's Gospel. On the translation used on these pages, see the Douay-Rheims Bible and the Latin Vulgate.

In the Roman Breviary Luke's three canticles are sung every day: the Benedictus at Lauds, the Magnificat at Vespers and the Nunc dimittis at Compline; you can pray them in our Breviary. The 1962 Missal reads Luke at the first two Masses of Christmas (2:1–14 and 2:15–20), on the Circumcision, the Holy Family, the Purification on 2 February (2:22–32), the Immaculate Conception, the Visitation, the Assumption and the Ember days of Advent; on the First Sunday of Advent, Sexagesima, Quinquagesima and the Third Sunday of Lent; on Easter Monday (Emmaus); and on many Sundays after Pentecost, among them the lost sheep, the Pharisee and the publican, the Good Samaritan and the ten lepers.

The Passion according to St Luke is sung on Wednesday of Holy Week. St Luke's feast falls on 18 October, with the Gospel of the sending of the seventy-two (10:1–9). The day's reading is on our Today's Gospel page.

How to read the Gospel of Luke

A chapter a day takes just over three weeks. Read chapters 1 and 2 slowly, Rosary in hand, and keep them for Advent and Christmas; read chapter 15 before confession and chapters 22 and 23 in Holy Week; then go straight on to the Acts, since Luke wrote the two as one work. For commentary, St Ambrose's Exposition of the Gospel according to Luke and St Bede's commentary are the classic Latin guides; the Catena Aurea of St Thomas Aquinas gathers the Fathers verse by verse, and in English the notes of Challoner and Haydock accompany the Douay-Rheims.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who wrote the Gospel of Luke?

St Luke the Evangelist, a Gentile physician of Antioch and the companion of St Paul, wrote the third Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. St Irenaeus, the Muratorian Fragment, Tertullian, Origen, Eusebius and St Jerome all attest it, and the Pontifical Biblical Commission confirmed it in 1912. Many modern scholars propose an unknown later author, but Luke's authorship is the tradition of the Church.

When was the Gospel of Luke written?

Before the Acts of the Apostles, which ends with St Paul's first Roman captivity about AD 61–63. The Pontifical Biblical Commission (1912) taught that it was written before the end of that captivity and may not be dated as late as the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. On the traditional reckoning it dates from about AD 60 or slightly earlier.

Where was the Gospel of Luke written?

St Jerome, in the preface to his Commentary on Matthew, says Luke wrote it in the regions of Achaia and Boeotia, in Greece, and an ancient prologue to the Gospel also names Achaia. Many writers, as the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia notes, place it instead at Caesarea, during St Paul's two years of imprisonment there.

Was the Gospel of Luke based on Peter?

Tradition links Luke's Gospel to St Paul, and St Mark's to St Peter. The Biblical Commission (1912) taught that Luke wrote according to Paul's preaching, with other trustworthy sources, and Luke himself says he drew on eyewitnesses. Much of his narrative runs parallel to Mark, so a good deal of Peter's preaching reaches us through Luke too.

How many chapters are in the Gospel of Luke?

The Gospel of Luke has 24 chapters and 1,151 verses in the Douay-Rheims and the Vulgate. The Infancy fills chapters 1 and 2, and the Passion and Resurrection chapters 22 to 24. Every chapter is in the grid on this page, starting with Luke 1.

Why was the Gospel of Luke written?

Luke says so himself: many had already set down the things accomplished among the faithful, and he wrote "in order" so that Theophilus, already instructed, might know the certainty of what he had been taught (1:1–4). Origen adds that it was composed for the converts from the Gentiles. Its sequel, the Acts of the Apostles, carries the same account on from the Ascension to St Paul's preaching in Rome.

What is the main message of the Gospel of Luke?

That Jesus Christ, conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary, is the Saviour of all men, come "to seek and to save that which was lost" (19:10). Luke dwells on God's mercy to sinners and the poor, on prayer and the Holy Ghost, and on the joy of salvation.

Which parables are found only in the Gospel of Luke?

Luke alone gives the two debtors (7:41–43), the Good Samaritan (10:30–37), the friend at midnight (11:5–8), the rich fool (12:16–21), the barren fig tree (13:6–9), the lost groat and the prodigal son (15:8–32), the unjust steward and the rich man and Lazarus (16:1–31), the unprofitable servants (17:7–10), and the unjust judge and the Pharisee and the publican (18:1–14). We explain the chief of them in The Parables of Jesus.

What is the symbol of the Gospel of Luke?

The ox, or calf, one of the four living creatures of Ezechiel 1:10 and the Apocalypse 4:7. St Irenaeus (Against Heresies III.11.8) and St Jerome give it to Luke because his Gospel opens with the priest Zachary offering incense in the Temple, and the ox is the animal of sacrifice.

Read the whole Gospel of St Luke verse by verse, in the Latin of the Vulgate and the English of the Douay-Rheims, in the Iter Fidei Catholic Bible app.

Sources. Holy Scripture, Douay-Rheims (Challoner) and Latin Vulgate: Luke 1–24; Acts 1:1, 16:10, 28:30–31; Colossians 4:10–14; 2 Timothy 4:11; Isaias 61:1–2; 1 Kings 2:1–10; Ezechiel 1:10; Apocalypse 4:7. St Irenaeus, Against Heresies III.1.1 and III.11.8. Muratorian Fragment. Tertullian, Against Marcion IV.5. Origen, in Eusebius, Church History VI.25. Eusebius, Church History III.4. St Jerome, On Illustrious Men 7, and Preface to the Commentary on Matthew. St Ambrose, Exposition of the Gospel according to Luke. St Bede, Commentary on Luke. St Thomas Aquinas, Catena Aurea. Council of Trent, Session IV (1546), Decree on the Canonical Scriptures; Session XXII (1562), ch. 1 and canon 2. Vatican Council, Pastor Aeternus (1870), ch. 4. Pius IX, Ineffabilis Deus (1854). Pontifical Biblical Commission, response on the author, date and historical truth of the Gospels of Mark and Luke (26 June 1912). Catholic Encyclopedia (1913 edition), "Gospel of Saint Luke". Challoner's and Haydock's notes to the Douay-Rheims. Roman Missal (1962) and Roman Breviary.