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Luke the Evangelist

Luke the Evangelist

?–84 CE · Antioch

Physician and companion of Paul, Luke is the traditional author of the third Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. Of Antiochian birth and Greek parentage — attested by Eusebius (Eccl. Hist. 3.4), the Anti-Marcionite Prologue, and Jerome — he joined Paul's mission at Troas, remained at Philippi, and accompanied Paul on the final, fateful journey to Rome. He died, according to early tradition, in old age in Boeotia, Greece.

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Stop 1 of 515–47Birthplace, Early Life

AntiochSyria

What they did here

Eusebius (Eccl. Hist. 3.4) and the Anti-Marcionite Prologue both identify Luke as a native of Antioch-on-the-Orontes, born of a Greek family and trained as a physician there. The ancient city underlies modern Antakya, Hatay Province, Turkey — not present-day Syria.

Antioch in this era

Under Roman imperial rule as the capital of the province of Syria, this cosmopolitan city — population estimates range widely from around 150,000 to 500,000 — became the first Gentile heartland of the faith, where Acts records that disciples were first called "Christians," and the launch pad for Paul's missionary journeys westward.

About Antioch

Antioch (Antakya), today in the Hatay province of southern Turkey near the Syrian border, was a major late-antique city that came under Muslim rule after the conquest of Syria, was retaken by the Byzantines in 969, and changed hands repeatedly during the Crusades. The poet al-Ma'arri (d. 1057) came from nearby Ma'arrat al-Nu'man; the astronomer al-Battani (d. 929) was active in the wider Syrian region.

In Antioch at the same time

Pope Peter the Apostle, Paul the Apostle

See other sages who lived in Antioch→

In the same place & time

Sages whose lives overlapped with Luke the Evangelist’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.

Across the traditions

The world in their lifetime

Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Luke the Evangelist’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.

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