Luke the Historian in Light of Research

by A.T. Robertson

""The work of the last fifteen years has created new interest in the writings of Luke. The relation of Luke's Gospel to Mark's Gospel and the Logia of Jesus has sharply defined his own critical methods and processes. The researches of Harnack, Hobart, and Ramsay have restored the credit of Luke with many critics who had been carried away by the criticism of Baur, and who looked askance upon the value of Luke as the historian of early Christianity. It has been like mining--digging now here, now there. The items in Luke's books that were attacked have been taken up one by one. The work has been slow and piecemeal, of necessity. But it is now possible to gather together into a fairly complete picture the results. It is a positively amazing vindication of Luke. The force of the argument is cumulative and tremendous. One needs to have the patience to work through the details with candor and a willingness to see all the facts with no prejudice against Luke or against the supernatural origin of Christianity."" --From the Preface Archibald Thomas Robertson (November 6, 1863-September 24, 1934) was a Southern Baptist preacher and biblical scholar whose work focused on the New Testament and Koine Greek. He is the author of several other books including: The Minister and His Greek New Testament, The Pharisees and Jesus, and Passing on the Torch and Other Sermons.

268 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1977

About the author

Archibald Thomas Robertson was a Southern Baptist preacher and biblical scholar whose work focused on the New Testament and Koine Greek.

Robertson received his M.A. in Theology from Wake Forest College and his Th.M. from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. In 1892, he was appointed professor of New Testament interpretation at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he remained until a his death.

Reviews

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came to this book rather oddly. Someone handed me a copy of Robertson's Harmony of the Gospels, a book my father had on his shelf for many years. I perused it--have found it useful in many ways--but I was intrigued by the fact that Robertson had a list of other books he'd written. Harmony is quite old, so I figured these books might well be in public domain, might well be available online, and indeed they were. This was the one that seemed the most intriguing--and indeed, it proved to be very handy. Admittedly, it's a bit dry and in some ways a bit hagiographic, but I like the Robertson takes Luke the writer seriously and that he dispels many of the ideas, still current to this day, that Luke is not the author of the two books credited to him in the New Testament, that those books were written far later. In fact, Robertson has good answer for most of the critics of Luke, as a writer and as a reliable source of information.

What's admirable here also is that we get something of a biography of Luke, as much as one can glean some two millenia later when pretty much all we have for data are the books he penned. Robertson also provides some useful background information--on Roman law, nauticals terms, written speeches, and first-century medicine. Read over the course of months, the book has given me a slight desire to look at one or two other titles by Robertson, still useful these many decades after their original publication.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book takes a detailed look at Luke, the writer of the Gospel and The Acts Of The Apostles included in the New Testament. A. T. Robertson does a masterful job of showing Luke to be the most thorough and accurate of the historians who wrote works that have come through the ages to modern man. Robertson's book was originally published in 1920. He uses both internal and external evidence to show that Luke was far more accurate than many modern-day critics give him credit. I will use this book in my Bible studies in the future.