Luke: Historian & Theologian

by I. Howard Marshall

Apart from the apostle Paul, Luke is arguably the most influential force in the canon of the New Testament. His Gospel and Acts occupy almost a third of the New Testament, and together their narrative voice carries us over a span of more than sixty years, from the birth of Jesus to the imprisonment of Paul in Rome. It is difficult to imagine our understanding of the New Testament period without Luke's writings. For this reason, the question of Luke's historical reliability has been repeatedly investigated. In this study Howard Marshall affirms Luke's trustworthiness as a historian. But Luke is more than a historian. He is also a theologian who finds his interpretive key in the great theme of salvation. Marshall provides us with a lucid guide to Luke's theology of salvation as it is unfurled in Gospel narrative, but always with a eye on its ongoing development in the companion work, the Acts of the Apostles. A postscript assesses the course of Lukan studies during the decade of 1979-1988.

Genres: Biblical Studies, New Testament, Theology, Christian, History, Reference

252 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1970

About the author

Ian Howard Marshall (12 January 1934 – 12 December 2015) was a Scottish New Testament scholar.[1] He was Professor Emeritus of New Testament Exegesis at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. He was formerly the chair of the Tyndale Fellowship for Biblical and Theological Research; he was also president of the British New Testament Society and chair of the Fellowship of European Evangelical Theologians. Marshall identified as an Evangelical Methodist. He was the author of numerous publications, including 2005 Gold Medallion Book Award winner New Testament Theology.[2] He died of pancreatic cancer in 2015.[3]

Reviews

[Nathan White · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first portion of this book examines Luke as a historian, and was really well done.

[Levi Wong · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s academic but useful

[Jon Anderson]

Read in preparation for teaching the Gospel of Luke in Sunday School class in 2018

A standard work though a bit dated, Marshall argues for the reliability of Luke's history and theology with a focus on salvation as the central theme of Luke-Acts. Read in preparation for starting a sermon series on the Gospel of Luke in Fall 2022

[Ben Montoya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent introduction to Luke, his Gospel, Acts, his historiography, theology, and his interpreters.