2 just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word.
There is nothing like an eyewitness! When something exciting happens when you are not present, the first thing you want to do is find someone who was there and get all the details. We want to hear it straight “from the horse’s mouth.” We hop on Youtube and see if someone has posted a copy of their cell phone video. We don’t want something passed along through multiple versions. We want to get the facts from someone who was there. That is exactly what Luke has done in this Gospel. He has been a careful researcher and found the sources who were there at the time of the events. He has interviewed them and we get the results of the thorough investigation. Luke was not an eyewitness to these events, so he has taken the time to find those eyewitnesses and get the straight scoop. What a blessing for us as believers today that God would place Luke there to record this record of Jesus’ life and ministry. Luke is one of the three Synoptic Gospels. Matthew and Mark record many of the same events as Luke. John, the fourth Gospel, records many different events. Each of the Gospels is aimed at a different audience, preaching the same message of salvation in a way that will attract the various readers. Luke contains many details about Jesus’ ministry that are not found in the other Gospels showing his attention to detail and careful recording. Luke wrote for a non-Jewish audience showing that Jesus was the Savior of the whole world, not just the Jews. I believe he wrote this Gospel within one generation of Jesus’ life, most likely before the destruction of the Temple in 70AD. The details of the Gospel support his access to these eyewitnesses, many of whom would have died prior to the Temple’s destruction, probably of old age. These would have been contemporaries of Jesus, his companions and followers. We can have confidence in Luke’s account, as we can have confidence in all of the Scriptures.
The Arnold Journey 