50 Fun Facts About Gospel of Luke

Which 'most excellent' addressee, named again at the start of Acts, did Luke write his 'orderly account' for?

Theophilus means 'lover of God', so he may be a real patron or any Christian reader; 'most excellent' is the form of address Acts uses for Roman governors.

Which two passed by 'on the other side' before the Good Samaritan stopped for the beaten man, in Luke 10?

A priest and a Levite, both temple men, walked past before the Samaritan poured oil and wine on the wounds and paid the innkeeper two denarii, promising to cover any extra cost.

In Luke's parable of the prodigal son, what job did the starving younger son take in the 'distant country'?

Feeding pigs, unclean animals to a Jewish audience, was the low point: he 'longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything'.

Which chief tax collector of Jericho, too short to see over the crowd, climbed a sycamore-fig tree in Luke 19?

Zacchaeus came down to host Jesus and promised half his possessions to the poor and fourfold repayment to anyone he had cheated, earning the verdict 'Today salvation has come to this house'.

Whose census decree, recorded only by Luke, brought Mary and her betrothed from Nazareth to Bethlehem?

Caesar Augustus ordered 'a census of the entire Roman world', and the family went to Bethlehem because Mary's husband belonged to the house and line of David.

Who were the first to visit the newborn Jesus in Luke 2, where Matthew's Magi never appear?

Shepherds got the news from 'a great company of the heavenly host' and hurried to find the baby in the manger; the Magi and their star belong to Matthew alone.

What was the risen Jesus doing at the table when the two Emmaus disciples' 'eyes were opened' in Luke 24?

Breaking bread, with thanks given first, is when they knew him, and he vanished at once; only afterwards did they admit their hearts had been 'burning within us' on the road.

By which Latin name is Mary's song in Luke 1, sung at Vespers and Anglican Evensong, known?

Magnificat is the opening word of the Latin 'My soul glorifies the Lord', a song Mary sings on visiting her pregnant relative in the hill country that echoes Hannah's prayer in 1 Samuel.

Which profession does Colossians give 'our dear friend Luke', the traditional author of the third Gospel?

A doctor is what Colossians 4:14 calls him, which is why Luke became a patron saint of physicians, and a later tradition made him the first painter of icons of the Virgin.

Where did Jesus promise the repentant criminal crucified beside him they would be together 'today', in Luke 23?

In paradise is a promise only Luke records, made to a man who had just rebuked the other criminal: 'We are punished justly... but this man has done nothing wrong.'

Which saying from the cross, found only in Luke 23, comes as the soldiers divide his clothes by lot?

Father, forgive them, 'for they do not know what they are doing', is the first of three sayings Luke alone gives Jesus on the cross; the other gospels have none of them.

How old was Jesus when his parents found him 'sitting among the teachers' after three days' searching, in Luke 2?

Twelve is the only age Luke gives between the infancy and the ministry, and the boy's reply, 'Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?', is his first recorded saying.

Which angel told Mary she would bear a son, 'in the sixth month' of her relative's pregnancy, in Luke 1?

Gabriel, who tells Zechariah he stands 'in the presence of God', delivers both birth announcements in Luke, and Mary's reply is simply 'I am the Lord's servant'.

Whose unborn baby 'leaped for joy' when the pregnant Mary arrived at her home in the hill country, in Luke 1?

Elizabeth, 'a descendant of Aaron' and childless until old age, then cried 'Blessed are you among women', words that found their way into the Hail Mary.

What happened to Zechariah the moment he wrote 'His name is John', months after doubting an angel in the temple?

His speech returned at once, 'his mouth was opened and his tongue set free', and he began 'praising God' with a prophecy over his newborn son.

At which town's gate did Jesus touch a bier and raise 'the only son of his mother', a miracle only Luke tells?

Nain is where the crowd, seeing the dead man sit up and talk, decided 'A great prophet has appeared among us', an echo of Elijah raising a boy at Zarephath.

How many sheep does the owner in Luke 15 leave 'in the open country' while he hunts for a single stray?

Ninety-nine who 'do not need to repent' cause less joy in heaven than a single sinner who repents, and Luke pairs the story with a woman sweeping her house for a lost coin.

How many of the ten men with leprosy, cleansed 'as they went' in Luke 17, came back to thank Jesus?

One of them came back, 'praising God in a loud voice', and he was a Samaritan, which drew the question 'Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?'

Near which village was the risen Jesus 'taken up into heaven' while blessing the disciples, in Luke 24?

Bethany, on the far slope of the Mount of Olives, is where Luke's Gospel ends; Acts retells the same farewell with a forty-day gap and a cloud, and the disciples went back 'with great joy'.

Which of the two Emmaus disciples, who asked 'Were not our hearts burning within us?', does Luke 24 name?

Cleopas is the one who asks the stranger whether he is 'the only one visiting Jerusalem' who has not heard the news; his companion is never named at all.

Which supporter of Jesus 'out of their own means' in Luke 8 was the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod's household?

Joanna is named again among the women who found the empty tomb, and as wife to a court official she gave the movement a link inside the tetrarch's own household.

Whose 2nd-century gospel, a cut-down Luke, lacked the nativity, the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son?

Marcion taught that the God who sent Jesus was a higher deity than the Jewish creator, and Tertullian accused him of 'mutilating' Luke while he in turn said the church had falsified it.

What did the tax collector of Luke 18, who 'would not even look up to heaven', do as he prayed for mercy?

Beat his breast is the gesture that sent him 'home justified', while the Pharisee beside him had thanked God he was not like other people and boasted of fasting twice a week.

What did the rich farmer in Luke 12 plan to do with his surplus grain, the night before God demanded his life?

Build bigger barns, then 'eat, drink and be merry', was the plan that earned him 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you', a warning Jesus aimed at a man asking him to settle an inheritance.

What excuse did the third guest give in Luke 14's great banquet, after the others cited a new field and new oxen?

I just got married, so I can't come, is the third refusal, and the angry host fills the hall instead with 'the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame' from the streets.

Where does Jesus stand in Luke 6 to bless 'you who are poor', the verses Matthew sets on a mountainside?

On a level place gives the passage its name, the Sermon on the Plain, and Luke's four blessings are followed by four woes, starting 'woe to you who are rich', that Matthew lacks.

How many 'others' does the NIV say Jesus sent out 'two by two' ahead of him to every town in Luke 10?

Seventy-two is the NIV's count, though other manuscripts and translations say seventy, and they came back 'with joy' reporting that 'even the demons submit to us in your name'.

To which ancestor does Luke 3 trace the line of Jesus backwards, going further than Matthew's genealogy?

Adam, 'the son of God', closes a list that Luke puts after the baptism rather than at the start of his book, and its chain differs from Matthew's almost from the first generation back.

What did Herod do to Jesus before sending him back to Pilate, in a trial scene that only Luke 23 records?

Put an elegant robe on him is the mockery of a ruler who had 'plied him with many questions' and got no answer, and that day Herod and Pilate, until then enemies, became friends.

What does Luke alone say fell 'like drops of blood' as Jesus prayed in anguish on the Mount of Olives?

His sweat is the detail, paired with an angel who 'appeared to him and strengthened him', in two verses that some early manuscripts omit and that no other Gospel has.

Which Syrian governor's census does Luke 2 date the birth by, though Matthew sets it under Herod the Great?

Quirinius took his census of Judea in AD 6, roughly a decade after Herod's death, and most critical scholars think Luke simply got the date wrong.

Which Council member 'who had not consented to their decision' asked Pilate for the body of Jesus, in Luke 23?

Joseph of Arimathea laid the body in 'a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid', and the women who watched went home to prepare spices before the Sabbath.

What did the risen Jesus eat 'in their presence' in Luke 24, to show the startled disciples he was no ghost?

Broiled fish was handed over after he asked 'Do you have anything here to eat?', having first invited them to 'touch me and see' his hands and feet.

Which old man, told he would not die before seeing the Messiah, took the infant Jesus in his arms in Luke 2?

Simeon said 'you may now dismiss your servant in peace', words that became the Nunc dimittis sung at Compline, and he warned Mary that 'a sword will pierce your own soul too'.

Which prophet 'of the tribe of Asher', aged eighty-four, spoke about the child Jesus in the temple in Luke 2?

Anna, who had lost her husband after seven years of marriage, 'worshiped night and day, fasting and praying', and is one of the few women the New Testament calls a prophet.

What did John the Baptist tell the soldiers who asked 'what should we do?', in advice found only in Luke 3?

Be content with your pay came with 'Don't extort money and don't accuse people falsely', and tax collectors got their own rule: collect no more than required.

What did Simon Peter say after the catch that nearly sank two boats on Lake Gennesaret, in Luke 5?

Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man, drew the reply 'Don't be afraid' and a promise that he would now be catching people instead, making this haul Luke's version of the call of the first disciples.

Through what did friends lower a paralysed man to Jesus in Luke 5, where Mark has them dig through the roof?

The tiles are Luke's detail where Mark's friends 'dug through' a roof, a change often read as Luke adapting a Galilean mud roof for readers used to tiled ones; Jesus forgave the man's sins before telling him to walk.

What did Jesus say would 'cry out' if his disciples fell silent, when Pharisees told him to rebuke them in Luke 19?

The stones would shout, he said, as the crowd on the Mount of Olives road cried 'Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord', and moments later he wept over the city.

How many died when the tower in Siloam fell, which Luke 13 alone mentions alongside Galileans killed by Pilate?

Eighteen died, and Jesus refused to call them 'more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem', turning both tragedies into 'unless you repent, you too will all perish'.

Which animal did Jesus call the ruler who 'wants to kill you', when Pharisees warned him to leave in Luke 13?

A fox is what he called Herod in 'Go tell that fox', adding that he would keep healing 'today and tomorrow' because 'surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem'.

In Luke 16, what did the shrewd manager do with his master's debtors' bills after learning he was about to be sacked?

Cut what they owed, from nine hundred gallons of oil to four hundred and fifty, was the scheme, and the master 'commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly'.

Who wore down the judge 'who neither feared God nor cared what people thought' in Luke 18 by refusing to give up?

A widow demanding 'justice against my adversary' wins because the judge fears she will 'eventually come and attack me', the point being that people 'should always pray and not give up'.

Which Latin title names Zechariah's song of thanksgiving in Luke 1, sung each morning at Lauds?

Benedictus, 'Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel', was spoken at the circumcision of the infant John, and it is also sung at Anglican Morning Prayer and at the graveside.

Roughly what share of the New Testament do Luke and its sequel Acts make up, the most by any single author?

About a quarter, 27.5 per cent, is the largest contribution by any single author, and the two volumes provided 'the framework for both the Church's liturgical calendar' and its outline of the story of Jesus.

When do most scholars date Luke's Gospel, given it knows Mark and the fall of Jerusalem but not Paul's letters?

AD 80–90 is the usual window, though the earliest possible date is about 62, when Paul was imprisoned in Rome, and a minority push the book into the early 2nd century.

What did Moses and Elijah talk with Jesus about at the Transfiguration, a subject only Luke 9 reports?

His departure translates the Greek exodos, a word that casts the coming death in Jerusalem as a new Exodus; the three disciples, Luke adds, were 'very sleepy' through it.

What did the nobleman in Luke 19 give each of ten servants, with the order 'Put this money to work'?

One mina, roughly three months' wages, went to each servant, and the one who hid his 'in a piece of cloth' lost it to the servant whose mina had earned ten more.

What did the Nazareth crowd try to do to Jesus after he praised Naaman the Syrian in their synagogue, in Luke 4?

Throw him off a cliff was the plan, at 'the brow of the hill on which the town was built', but 'he walked right through the crowd and went on his way'.

Which seat did Jesus tell wedding guests to pick in Luke 14, rather than the seat of honor that might be reassigned?

The lowest place is the advice, so that the host says 'Friend, move up to a better place' and 'you will be honored in the presence of all the other guests'.