The Gospel according to Luke is the first volume of Luke–Acts, a unified two-part account addressed to Theophilus and intended for a wider circle of readers seeking confidence in what they had been taught. The work itself is anonymous, although early Christian tradition identifies its author as Luke, a physician and companion of Paul. Scholars commonly place Luke–Acts around AD 75–95, while both date and provenance remain debated. Luke begins around Jerusalem, follows Jesus' ministry in Galilee, and devotes sustained attention to his journey toward Jerusalem, where he dies, rises, and ascends. The Gospel presents God's promises to Israel reaching outward to all peoples, with special attention to prayer, the Holy Spirit, the poor, women, sinners, and other overlooked people. Its ending deliberately prepares for Acts, where Spirit-empowered witness travels from Jerusalem toward Rome.
Luke opens with a historian's care and a theologian's depth, tracing the Spirit-filled births of John and Jesus, the songs of the faithful poor, and Jesus's self-declaration in Nazareth that the year of the Lord's favor has arrived.
Across seventeen chapters of distinctive material, Jesus proclaims the kingdom to the poor and the outcast through unforgettable parables and acts of healing, mercy, and table fellowship that reveal the searching heart of God.
Luke's passion and resurrection account is marked by prayer, forgiveness, and the welcome of the penitent criminal — and concludes not in silence but in joy, worship, and the beginning of a worldwide mission.