On Illustrious Men

7. Luke the evangelist

VI. BARNABAS, SURNAMED JOSEPH arnabas from cyprus, surnamed Joseph the Levite,1 ordained apostle to the Gentiles with Paul,2 wrote one Epistle,3 valuable for the edification of the church, which is reckoned among the apocryphal writings.4 2. Afterwards he separated from Paul on account of John, a disciple also called Mark,5 but nonetheless exercised the work of preaching the Gospel laid upon him. notes 1. Acts 4.36. 2. Acts 15.22. 3. A. Lindemann and H. Paulsen, Die apostolischen Väter (Tübingen, 1992), 23–75; P. Prigent and R. A. Kraft, edd., SC 172 (Paris, 1971); J. C. Paget, The Epistle of Barnabas: Outlook and Background (Tübingen, 1994), 1–27, dating it in Nerva’s principate. 4. Eus., h.e. 3.25.4. 5. Acts 15.36–40. references Q 1, 85–92 — Dr, 29–30 — Cath 1, 1256, G. Bardy — DSp 1, 1245–47, J. Lebreton — EEC 12 , 167–68, E. Ferguson — EECh 1, 111–12, F. Scorza Barcellona — LThK 1, 1256–57, B. Kraft — LThK 23 , 18, F. R. Prostmeier — NCE 2, 103, J. P. Audet — RAC 1, 1212–17, J. Schmid — ANRW II, 27, 1, 159–207, L. W. Barnard — TRE 5, 238–41, K. Wengst — Vielhauer, Geschichte, 599–612 VII. LUKE THE EVANGELIST uke, a physician of Antioch,1 as his writings indicate , was not unskilled in the Greek language.2 An adherent of the apostle Paul and companion of all his journeying, he wrote a Gospel, concerning whom the same Paul ON ILLUSTRIOUS MEN 15 says, “We send with him a brother whose praise in the gospel is among all the churches,”3 and to the Colossians, “Luke, the dearly beloved physician, salutes you,”4 and to Timothy, “Luke only is with me.”5 2. He also wrote another excellent volume to which he prefixed the title, Acts, pravxewn, of the Apostles,6 a history which extends to the second year of Paul’s sojourn at Rome, that is, to the fourth year of Nero, from which we learn that the book was composed in that same city.7 3. Therefore, the Acts of Paul and Thecla8 and the whole fable about the lion having been baptized by him we reckon among the apocryphal writings,9 for how is it possible that the inseparable companion of the Apostle in his other affairs should have been ignorant of this thing alone. Moreover, Tertullian, who lived close to those times, mentions a certain presbyter in Asia, an adherent10 of the apostle Paul, who was convicted by John of having been the author of the book, and who, having confessed that he had done this for love of Paul, resigned his office of presbyter.11 4. Some suppose that whenever Paul in his epistle says, “according to my gospel,”12 he means the book of Luke and that Luke not only had learned the gospel from the apostle Paul, who had not been with the Lord in the flesh, but also from the other apostles. 5. He declares this also at the beginning of his work, saying,13 “Even as they delivered unto us, who from the beginning were eye-witnesses and ministers of the word.” So he wrote the Gospel as he had heard it, but composed the Acts of the Apostles as he himself had seen. 6. He was buried at Constantinople, to which city, in the twentieth year of Constantius, his bones, together with the remains of Andrew the apostle, were transferred.14 notes 1. Eus., h.e. 3.4.6; Luke is similarly described in Jerome’s Preface to Comm. on Matthew, with the added detail that he composed his Gospel in Achaia and Boeotia: see NPNF 6, ser. 2, 495. 2. W. C. van Unnik, “Luke-Acts, a Storm Center in Contemporary Schol16 ST. JEROME ...