1 - The author and his sources

Summary

No one had undertaken to write down what happened after the resurrection of Jesus and his revealing himself to some of the disciples. Luke had already written a Gospel as he was not completely satisfied with the ones he knew (Luke 1:1–4). He intended to shed more light on what actually happened with Jesus and even give more correct information on the story. But the story of Jesus did not come to an end with his christophanies. The parousia did not come as early as expected. A community had emerged within the boundaries of the old one, Israel. The members of the community were mostly Jews, but with the problem that a growing number of them came from the Gentiles. With the years the community became separated from its origins because of the influx of the Gentiles. Not least did this influx make the question of the law, that is the Mosaic Torah, a burning issue. And the question about the identity of this community arose: who are the Christians? Could this gathering of peoples in more than one community actually be called the people of God? If they were not the people of God, they were nothing. Then also the question of the future of this community arose, for they knew that only the people of God had a future. And this community was not exactly like any other party in Israel. Luke took it upon himself to answer the questions. Various answers had been given by others in the community, but they had not been written down in full or in a sequence. And Luke was not in agreement with some of the answers given so far.