Luke 1:2

Even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the word; EVEN AS THEY DELIVERED THEM UNTO US, WHICH FROM THE BEGINNING [ ap' (G575) archees (G746) - that is, of Christ's ministry], were eye-witnesses, and ministers of the word, [ autoptai (G845) kai (G2532) hupeeretai (G5257) tou (G3588) logou (G3056)]. Though it would not be strictly proper to understand "the word" here of Christ...

Verse Luke 1:2. _EVEN AS THEY DELIVERED THEM UNTO US, WHICH FROM THE_ _BEGINNING WERE EYE-WITNESSES_] Probably this alludes to the Gospels of _Matthew_ and _Mark_, which it is likely were written before St. Luke wrote his, and on the _models_ of which he professes to write his own; and απ αρχης, _from the beginning_, must mean, from the time that Christ first began to proclaim the glad tidings of the kingdom; and αυτοπται, _eye-witnesses_, must necessarily signify, those who had been with him from the beginning, and consequently had the best opportunities of knowing the truth of every fact. _MINISTERS OF THE WORD_] του λογου. Some suppose that our blessed _Lord_ is meant by this phrase; as ὁ Λογος, the _Word_ or _Logos_, is his essential character in...

AS THEY DELIVERED THEM - As they narrated them. As they gave an account of them. FROM THE BEGINNING - From the commencement of these things - that is, from the birth of John, or perhaps from the beginning of the ministry of Jesus. EYE-WITNESSES - Who had seen those things themselves, and who were therefore proper witnesses. MINISTERS OF THE WORD - The term “word” here means the “gospel.” Luke never uses it, as John does, to denote the second Person of the Trinity. These eye-witnesses and ministers refer, doubtless, to the seventy disciples, to the apostles, and perhaps to other preachers who had gone forth to proclaim the same things....

EXPOSITION THE origin of the Gospels—the four histories which relate in detail the circumstances of the foundation of Christianity—will ever be an interesting study. Here we shall never know the exact truth of the compilation of these writings, the foundation-stones of all our hopes and fears; a reverent, scholarly speculation is all that can be offered to the student of the Divine memoirs. The speculation, however, probably in this case comes very near the truth. After the Ascension and the events of the first Pentecost, which quickly followed their Master's return to heaven, the twelve and a few others who had walked in the company which followed Jesus during the years of his public ministry no doubt often met together and talked over the teaching and the acts of their risen and now glorified Master. As time passed on, a certain number of these acts, a certain number of the public and...

EVEN AS THEY DELIVERED THEM UNTO US,.... By whom the evangelist means, as appears from the after description of them, the twelve apostles, and seventy disciples; who handed down to others the accounts of the birth, life, and death of Christ; and according to which the above Christians proposed to write: WHICH FROM THE BEGINNING WERE EYEWITNESSES AND MINISTERS OF THE WORD; either of the Gospel, or rather of Christ himself, the eternal Word of God; for from the beginning of Christ's preaching the Gospel, or as soon as he entered upon his public ministry, he called his apostles, as Simon, Andrew, James, John, c. and afterwards seventy disciples who were eyewitnesses of him, of the truth of his incarnation, and of his ministry and miracles; saw, and conversed with him after his resurrection from the dead and beheld his ascension to heaven; and were ministers that were called, qualified, and...

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE Analysis and Annotations I. The Birth and Childhood -- Chapter 1-2:52 CHAPTER 1 _ 1. The Introduction. (Luke 1:1)_ 2. Zacharias and Elizabeth; the Vision. (Luke 1:5) 3. John the Baptist, his birth and ministry announced. (Luke 1:13) 4. Zacharias' Unbelief and Punishment. (Luke 1:18) 5. The Angel's Announcement to the Virgin Mary. (Luke 1:27) 6. Mary's Question and the Answer. (Luke 1:34) 7. Mary Visits Elizabeth ...

PREFACE. The writer, influenced by the attempts of others to record the primitive tradition of Christianity as it was handed down by the first generation of disciples, essays the same task, and having taken pains to collect, examine, sift, and arrange the contents of the written and oral tradition, presents the result to Theophilus, a Roman official of some standing, who needed fuller acquaintance with the historic basis of the oral teaching about Christianity which he had received. The preface is written in rather elaborate Greek, is modelled on the conventional lines of ancient literature, and displays some acquaintance with medical phraseology, especially that of Galen. LUKE 1:2. FROM THE BEGINNING, _ i.e._ of the public ministry of Jesus, the Baptism. MINISTERS OF THE WORD: servants of the spoken gospel....

Since many have set their hands to the task of drawing up an account of the events which were completed amongst us, telling the story just as those who were the original eye-witnesses and who became the servants of the word handed it down to us, I too made up my mind to carry out a careful investigation of all things from the beginning, and to write to you, Theophilus, your excellency, an orderly account of them, so that you might have in your mind a full and reliable account of the things in which you have been instructed. Luke's introduction is unique in the first three gospels because it is the only place where the author steps out upon the stage and uses the pronoun "I." There are three things to note in this passage. (i) It is the best bit of Greek in the New Testament. Luke uses here the very form of introduction which the great Greek historians all used. Herodotus begins, "These...

FROM. Greek _apo._ App-104. FROM THE BEGINNING. Greek. _ap' arches;_ i.e. from the birth or ministry of the Lord. Compare John 15:27; Acts 1:1; Acts 1:21; Acts 1:22. WERE. became. EYEWITNESSES. Greek _autoptai. Occurs_ only here. Not the same word as in 2 Peter 1:16. A medical word (Colossians 4:14). Compare our _autopsy._ MINISTERS. attendants.. technical word, often translated "officer"....

Luke 1:1-4. Introduction _Forasmuch as_ This brief preface is in several respects most interesting and important. i. It is the only personal introduction to any historic book in the Bible except the Acts. It is specially valuable here as authenticating the first two Chapter s and shewing that Marcion's excision of them was only due to his desire to suppress the true humanity of Christ, as his other mutilations of the Gospel (which made it "like a garment eaten by moths," Epiphan.) were due to hostility to the Old Testament. See Mill's _Mythical Interpretation_, p. 103. ii. The style in which it is written is purer and more polished than that of the rest of the Gospel, though it is "the most literary of the Gospels." It was the custom of antiquity to give special elaboration to the opening clauses of a great work, as we see in the Histories of Thucydides, Livy, &c. In t