Proof that the Gospel of Luke was Written by a Physician – Colossians 4:14

In Colossians 4:14, Paul refers to Luke as the beloved physician. Is there any proof that the gospel of Luke was written by a physician?

The gospel of Luke contains details in the narrative that indicate that the text was composed by a physician.

In Luke 2:7, we have information about the delivery room conditions for the infant Jesus – “And she gave birth to her first-born son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger.” Notice that Luke also informs us that this was Mary’s first-born son which is another piece of information that would have been of interest to a physician. If we compare Luke’s observations with Matthew’s observations about the infant Jesus we find that Matthew gives us no information about the conditions for the infant Jesus. Of course that is also reason to suspect that Matthew was written by a tax collector who was interested in everyone knowing that the treasures consisted of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

In Luke 16:19-21, we are given the feeding situation for two different individuals - 19 “There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and feasted sumptuously every day. 20 And a certain beggar named Lazarus was laid at his gate, full of sores, 21 longing to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. 22 So the beggar died…” Notice that Luke goes beyond telling us that the beggar was hungry and full of sores but he also adds that dogs came and licked his sores. This last piece of information by the author shows a keen interest in everything that was possibly medically related to his condition that occurred before his death.

In Luke 19:2-4 we are given some physical information about a person – 2 “Now behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector, and he was rich. 3 And he sought to see who Jesus was, but could not because of the crowd, for he was of short stature. 4 So he ran to the front and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, because he was to pass that way.” In the gospels this is one of the few passages that contains any type of physical description of a person’s stature. The author makes sure that we know that the reason that Zacchaeus couldn’t see wasn’t just because of the crowd, but because of his short stature he couldn’t see over the crowd. This is a little detail that a physician might put into the narrative to make sure that everyone understood that the physical stature of Zacchaeus was the issue.

We have three parallel accounts of a person in Matthew 08:28-34, Mark 05:01-20, Luke 08:26-40. However only Luke tells us that for a long time he had worn no clothes and that he didn’t live in a house but in the tombs. Mark provides some information about the symptoms of the man’s condition, but a physician is typically more interested in what may have led to the illness or made it worse. In this case, Luke is the only one who describes the living conditions of a person with a medical condition - just as we would expect from a physician.

J. Clontz – Editor of the Comprehensive New Testament