Person in the New Testament

Luke

Luke: three verses, a physician and a fellowlabourer who stayed

Portrait: an AI-generated artistic interpretation, not evidence of how Luke looked.

Who Luke is

Three verses name Luke, and none of them tells a story about him. Colossians places him among people sending greetings and gives him one description, Luke, the beloved physician, printed alongside Demas, who gets no description at all. Second Timothy puts him in a sentence about who is left. After naming three men who went elsewhere, including Demas, who is said to have forsaken Paul, having loved this present world, the letter says Only Luke is with me, and then asks for Mark to be brought as well. Philemon lists him last in a short line of greeters, under the spelling Lucas, with Marcus, Aristarchus and Demas, all called my fellowlabourers. Put together, the three verses say that he was with Paul, that he was called a physician, and that he was counted a fellowlabourer. They say nothing more. No words of his are quoted, no journey of his is described, no family is named, and nothing in them says where he came from or what became of him.

Cited passages: Colossians 4:14, Colossians 4:7, Colossians 4:9, 2 Timothy 4:9, 2 Timothy 4:10, 2 Timothy 4:11, 2 Timothy 4:12, Philemon 1:23, Philemon 1:24

Historical setting

Nothing in these verses attributes any writing to Luke. He is called the beloved physician and a fellowlabourer, and is said to be present with Paul; no book, letter or record is mentioned in connection with him anywhere in the three verses that name him. The spelling differs between them, Luke in Colossians and Second Timothy, Lucas in Philemon, and this source also prints a closing line inside the last verse of 2 Corinthians saying that letter was written from Philippi, a city of Macedonia, by Titus and Lucas. That line sits in the verse text rather than as a heading, and the body of 2 Corinthians never names him. Demas is worth tracking alongside him, since the two are named together in Colossians and in Philemon, and the later letter says Demas left while Luke remained. The verses give no reason for either. There are no dates, no birthplace and no account of a death.

Cited passages: Colossians 4:14, 2 Timothy 4:10, 2 Timothy 4:11, Philemon 1:24, 2 Corinthians 13:14

How the story is told

All three appearances sit in the closing sections of letters, among names being passed on, which is a particular kind of evidence: it shows a man's place in a company rather than anything he said or did. The same handful of names circulates around him, Marcus, Aristarchus and Demas. The single adjective attached to him is occupational, and it arrives in passing while the sentence is doing something else, passing on a greeting. The weight in the Second Timothy verse comes from one word rather than from any description: Only Luke is with me measures how few are left, and the sentence before it lists the ones who are not. In that arrangement Luke is defined by presence rather than by action, which is all these letters give.

Cited passages: Colossians 4:14, 2 Timothy 4:10, 2 Timothy 4:11, 2 Timothy 4:16, Philemon 1:23, Philemon 1:24

Story moments

The beloved physician (Colossians 4:14). Luke is named among greeters with one description attached.
The ones who left (2 Timothy 4:10). The verse before names three men who went elsewhere, including Demas.
Only Luke is with me (2 Timothy 4:11). Presence, not activity, is what the letter records about him.
Listed as Lucas (Philemon 1:24). A second spelling appears in a short list of fellowlabourers.

Key passages

2 Corinthians 13:14

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.

Printed after this letter in the King James Version: The second epistle to the Corinthians was written from Philippi, a city of Macedonia, by Titus and Lucas.

Colossians 4:14

Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas, greet you.

2 Timothy 4:11

Only Luke is with me. Take Mark, and bring him with thee: for he is profitable to me for the ministry.

Philemon 1:24

Marcus, Aristarchus, Demas, Lucas, my fellowlabourers.

King James Version. 5 indexed passages in total.

For reflection

The strongest thing said about Luke is that he was still there when others had gone. Who has stayed with you without ever needing a larger role than that?

Books Luke appears in

Related people

Names and references are adapted from STEPBible TIPNR. A person listed with a verse is named or indexed there; it does not mean they wrote or spoke it.