New Testament

Luke

The Gospel of the overlooked — and the best storytelling in the Bible.

Gospel · 24 chapters · About 2.5 hours

c. AD 60–80, by a physician and careful historian

Overview

Luke investigates. He interviews, orders, and writes so that a Gentile reader named Theophilus can have certainty.

His Gospel is crowded with the people other accounts pass over: shepherds, widows, Samaritans, a tax collector in a tree, a thief on a cross.

The parables only Luke keeps — the Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son — are the ones the whole world remembers.

What it keeps returning to

The outsider

Luke's Jesus keeps eating with the wrong people, deliberately.

Prayer

Luke shows Jesus praying more than any other Gospel, at every hinge of the story.

Joy

The book opens and closes with people rejoicing. Even the angels sing.

Start here

  • Luke 1:46–55

    Mary's song — a poor girl singing about thrones being toppled.

  • Luke 15

    Three lost things, one running father.

  • Luke 24:13–35

    The road to Emmaus, and hearts burning.

Go deeper in Luke

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.

Luke 19:10