on of Paul, recorded in a book the
gospel preached by him." [1] A few years earlier the author of the
_Muratorian Fragment_ wrote the words, "The third book of the Gospel,
that according to Luke."

According to Eusebius and Jerome and an unknown writer of the 3rd
century, St. Luke was a native of Antioch in Syria. Of this we seem to
have confirmation in the full account given in Acts of the Church at
Antioch. It is shown by Col. iv. 14 that he was a Gentile, as there is
a distinction drawn between him and those "of the circumcision." From
the same passage we learn that he was a physician. Traces of his
profession have been discovered in the frequency with which he
describes the _healing_ wrought by Christ and His apostles (iv. 18, 23;
ix. 1, 2, 6; x. 9; xxii. 51), and the occasional use of terms which a
physician was more likely to employ than other people (iv. 38; v. 12;
vi. 19; xxii. 44). It is very possible that it is St. Luke who is
described (2 Cor. viii. 18) as "the brother whose praise in the gospel
is spread through all the Churches." This tradition can be traced as
far back as Origen. The fact that he was a dear friend of St. Paul is
{65} shown by the epithet "beloved" in Col. iv. 14; by the fact that he
is one of the "fellow-workers" who send greetings from Rome when St.
Paul, who was imprisoned there, wrote to Philemon; and by the touching
statement in 2 Tim. iv. 11, where St. Paul, as he awaits his death,
writes, "Only Luke is with me."

St. Luke's relations with St. Paul are further illustrated from Acts.
The literary resemblances between this Gospel and Acts are so numerous
and so subtle that the tradition which ascribes both books to one
author cannot reasonably be controverted. The passages in Acts which
contain the word "we" show that the writer of Acts accompanied St. Paul
from Troas to Philippi in A.D. 50, when the apostle made his first
missionary journey in Europe (Acts xvi. 10-17). The apostle left him
at Philippi. About six years afterwards St. Paul was again at
Philippi, and there met St. Luke, who travelled with him to Jerusalem
(Acts xx. 5-xxi. 18); he also was with the apostle when he made the
voyage to Rome, and was shipwrecked with him at Malta. A writer of the
3rd century (quoted in Wordsworth's _Vulgate_, p. 269) tells us that
St. Luke had neither wife nor children, and died in Bithynia at the age
of seventy-four. A writer of the 6th century asserts that St. Luke was
a paint