Luke 1:1

Ἐπειδήπερ, ‘since all are aware that.’ A classic word not found in the LXX[17] or elsewhere in the N. T. Perhaps St Luke liked the stately sound of the word to begin his work, just as he ends the Acts with the sonorous epitrite ἀκωλύτως.

[17] LXX. Septuagint.

πολλοί. Whether the Gospels of St Matthew and St Mark had been written when St Luke’s appeared is a question which cannot be answered with certainty; but it is certain that he does not here allude to those Gospels, and that he did not make any use of them (see Introd. p. 9), though he made use of documents, or cycles of fixed oral tradition, with which they also were familiar. This allusion to inadequate previous attempts is of great critical and historical importance.

These many attempts to narrate the earthly life of the Saviour were probably those collections of traditional memorials, parables and miracles (λόγια, διηγήσεις), of which all that was most valuable was incorporated in our four Gospels. Setting aside the Apocryphal Gospels, which are for the most part worthless and even pernicious forgeries, Christian tradition has not preserved for us one trustworthy event of the Life of Christ, and barely a dozen sayings (ἄγραφα δόγματα like that preserved by St Paul in Acts 20:35) which are not found in the Gospels.

ἐπεχείρησαν�. Literally ‘attempted to draw up a narrative.’ A remarkable parallel to this passage is found in Josephus (Contra Ap. I. 10); but no censure is here expressed. The word ‘attempted’ shews indeed that these endeavours were not wholly successful, and the use of the aorist implies that they had already failed. (Acts 19:13.) “Conati sunt qui implere nequiverunt,” Aug. The works to which St Luke alludes were fragmentary and ill-arranged but not necessarily misleading. Origen (Hom. in Luc.) is hardly justified in supposing that the authors are rebuked for temerity, and Dr McClellan goes much too far in calling them “false Evangelists.” Ἐπιχειρεῖν in the N. T. occurs only here and at Acts 9:29, and has the same meaning as the Latin aggredi. The word διήγησιν (Vulg[18] narrationem, Tyndale “a treatise”, Genev. “a history”) shews that these attempted Gospels were continuous, not mere monographs on the Infancy, the Crucifixion, &c. Like ἀνατάξασθαι it is an ἄπαξ λεγόμενον in the N. T. The A.V[19] ‘to set forth in order’ is derived from the ordinare of the Vulg[20] Tyndale rendered it “to compile.”

[18] Vulg. Vulgate.
[19] A.V. Authorised Version.
[20] Vulg. Vulgate.

τῶν πεπληροφορημένων ἐν ἡμῖν πραγμάτων. Others (e.g. Luther, De Wette, Bleek) render it not as in A. V[21] ‘surely believed,’ but ‘which have been fulfilled,’ ‘have found their accomplishment;’ (Vulg[22] quae in nobis completae sunt) but the analogous uses of the same Greek verb in Romans 4:21; Romans 14:5, and 2 Timothy 4:17, and especially of the substantive πληροφορία in 1 Thessalonians 1:5; Hebrews 6:11; Hebrews 10:22, support the English version. This is the meaning given to the word by Theophylact, by Erasmus, Beza, Calvin, the Rhemish, Grotius, Ewald, &c. The expression is most important, as shewing that whatever might be the defects of the narratives, there was no hesitation about the facts. (Bp Marsh, p. 364.) “The work of these unknown first Evangelists was new only in form and not in substance.” Westcott, Introd. p. 174.

[21] A. V. Authorised Version.
[22] Vulg. Vulgate.

1. That it narrates as it were a new departure in God’s Revelation of Himself to man, after a cessation of miracle, prophecy and inspiration for 400 years.