Dr. Hammond, Dr. Cave, Dr. Whitby, and many others; although Chryfoftom, and fome of the antients, followed herein by Calvin, and others, fuppofe that Barnabas was the perfon meant; and Dr. Lightfoot endeavours largely to prove it was neither, but Mark the Evangelist *.

II. The credible accounts which we have from antiquity, concerning this Evangelift, are very short and imperfect. I have collected what has fallen within my obfervation, under the following heads.

1. Many of the antients tell us, that St. Luke was born at Antioch in Syria. So Eufebius; He was of a family of Antioch. Jerome ; He was a phyfician of Antioch. Dorotheus Tyrius, and Theophylact, &c. fay the fame. This tradition is fo much the more probable, as it is certain that St. Luke was not a Jew; and this appears to me certain :

(1.) Because St. Luke, in his Hiftory of the Acts of the Apoftles (Ch. i. 19.), speaking of the field, which was purchased with the money for which Judas fold our Saviour, fays, it was called Aceldama ἐν τῇ ἰδίᾳ διαλέκτῳ αὐτῶν: i. e. in THEIR own language; which plainly intimates, that the Syriack, or SyroChaldaick, i. e. the peculiar dialect of the Jews was not His language.

(2.) Because St. Paul distinguishes him from those who were of the circumcifion, Col. iv. 10, 11. compared with 14. He faith, that Marcus, Ariftarchus, and Jefus called Juftus, were the only fellow-labourers of the circumcifion who were with him; yet it is plain that Epaphras, Demas, and Luke, were fellow-labourers, that were then with him; wherefore these were not of the circumcifion.

(3.) It was an obfervation among the antients, as it has been among many more modern writers, that St. Luke's Gofpel and Acts are written in very pure and elegant Greek. He was well acquainted with the Greek language, as appears by his writings, fays Jerome; and in another place he tells us, that he was more skilful in the Greek language than any of the Evangelifts, and would rather forbear tranflating a Hebrew word, than do it in Greek, which was not pure and elegant. Ifidorus Hifpalenfis ftiles him learned in the Greek tongue; and among the moderns, to omit all others, Dr. Cave & has expreffed the common opinion of learned men thus; "He "all along expreffes himself in a vein of purer Greck, than is "to be found in the other writers of the holy ftory. Indeed, "being born and bred at Antioch (than which no place more "famous for oratory and eloquence), he could not but carry

d

away a great share of the native genius of that place, though "his ftile is fometimes allayed with a tang of the Syriack and "Hebrew dialect." All this proves St. Luke not to have been a Jew; and accordingly it was a commonly received tradition in the fifth or fixth century, that he was a profelyte to the Jewish religion, and ignorant of the Hebrew language, which (if we will credit Theophylact°) he afterwards went to Jerufalem to learn.

2. It is conftantly affirmed by the antients, that St. Luke the Evangelift was a phyfician. So we read in the places above-cited of Eufebius, Jerome, Dorotheus Tyrius, Ifidorus Hifpalenfis, and many others; and I have above obferved, that he seems to be the person whom Paul, Col. iv. 14. calls the beloved Phyfician. This (as Dr. Cave well obferves ') does by no means prove the dignity of his birth and fortune; this art being in thofe days generally managed by fervants. Upon which account, Grotius & fuppofes Luke to have been brought a fervant from Antioch to Rome, and there to have practifed phyfick. Concerning his skill in painting, and the

a

Catalog. Vir. illuftr. in Luca.
Epift. ad Damaf.

De vit. et obit. Sanctor. lib. 1. p. 599. Orthodoxogr. Vol. I.

d Life of St. Luke, §. 5.

e Præfat. in Luc.

f Life of St. Luke, §. 1.
Anot. in Luc. 1.

A

feveral

feveral pictures which he drew of the Virgin Mary, fo much talked of by the Papists, I shall say nothing, all this appearing to be the fiction of later ages. The first time I find any mention of it, is in the beginning of the fixth century, when Theodore Lector tells us, that Eudocia, the wife of the Emperor Theodofius Junior, fent from her exile at Jerufalem (about the year of Chrift, 448) the image, or picture of the Virgin to Pulcheria, the Emperor's fifter, which was painted by Luke the Apoftle. The Papifts tell us of feveral of thefe at Rome and Conftantinople, and furprizing miracles wrought by them. See Monf. Durant de Ritibus Ecclef. Cathol. lib. 1. c. 5. P. 35.

3. It is probable, St. Luke was one of thofe feventy difciples, which our Saviour fent forth; Luke x. 1, &c. This is afserted by several of the primitive writers; fo Origen, Epiphanius, Hippolitus, &c. and should not, I think, without fome cogent reafons to the contrary, be rejected as falfe. I know indeed, that Dr. Cave, Du Pin, and others, have opposed the tradition; because, in the beginning of his Gospel, he fays, he wrote not what he was an eye-witnefs of, and had seen, but that which he had learned from others. But to this I would reply;

That if we fuppofe St. Luke to have been one of the seventy difciples, it does not thence follow, that he muft needs be acquainted with, and have perfonally feen, all which he wrote concerning Chrift. But on the contrary, the very fuppofition excludes him from a great deal of perfonal knowledge of Christ's actions, partly as the feventy were not chofen by Chrift till the last year of his miniftry, and partly as their being fent abroad, neceffarily prevented their perfonal knowledge of what Chrift and his difciples did, during that space. St. Luke, therefore, might have been one of the feventy dif

Collectan. lib. 1. ipfo initio. b Dialog. de recta fide. That dialogue has been questioned; and though Wettenius contends for its genuineness, yet, I think, it is generally agreed not to belong to Origen. Cave's Hift. Liter. Vol. 1. p. 84.

Hæref. 51. §. II.

d MS. in Bibl. Bodleian. apud Mill. Præf. in Luc.

e Life of Luke, §. 2.

f Hift. of Can. of New Test. Ch. 2. §. 5.

G4

ciples

ciples of Christ, though he was not fo long or fo much with Chrift, as to be able to write a history of Christ's life and actions from his own perfonal knowledge. This feems to me a much better folution of the difficulty, than that which Dr. Whitby has attempted, vainly endeavouring to prove, that St. Luke's preface fhews him to have been an eye-witness of all that he wrote, than which nothing can be more repugnant to the plain conftruction of the words ".

4. St. Luke was for a long time the conftant companion of St. Paul in his travels, and his affiftant in the work of the miniftry. This is proved both from the New Testament, and the Fathers. In the Acts of the Apostles, (xvi. 10, &c.) which book, at present I fhall take for granted, was written by Luke, we find him accompanying St. Paul in his voyage from Troas to Macedonia; for he speaks there in the first person plural, Immediately we endeavoured to go into Macedonia; and ver. 11. Therefore loofing from Troas, we came with a ftrait course, &c. and ver. 13. On the fabbath we went out of the city, and we fat down, and we fpake to the women. See ver. 16, 17, &c. The twentieth and twenty first chapters tell us of Luke's accompanying Paul to Jerufalem, as the twenty feventh does of his going along with him to Rome; and accordingly St. Paul in feveral of his Epiftles, written from Rome, mentions St. Luke, as being with him there. See the places above. Nothing is more commonly affirmed by the antients; as Irenæus, Eufebius, Jerome, Ifidorus Hifpalenfis, &c. nor has it, that I know of, ever been questioned.

5. St. Luke was acquainted with feveral of the Apostles. This indeed feems neceffarily to follow, from his having been one of the seventy disciples, and the companion of St. Paul at Jerufalem, and fo many other places. Eufebius exprefsly tells us', that he lived a long time with Paul, and was intimately acquainted with the rest of the Apoftles. The fame we find alfo in Doretheus Tyrius .

6. Epiphanius fays, that he preached the Gospel in Dalmatia, France, Italy and Macedoniaa.

b

7. Concerning his death there is scarce any thing certain. Jerome tells us, that he lived eighty four years, never married, was buried at Conftantinople, being brought thither (viz. his bones and reliques, together with those of the Apostle Andrew) in the twentieth year of Conftantius, from Achaia. Dorotheus fays, he died and was buried at Ephefus, and that his reliques were brought, with thofe of Timothy and Andrew, to Conftantinople, in the time of Conftantius. Ifidorus Hifpalenfis a also relates the account of his bones being tranflated to Conftantinople, but will have it to have been in the time of Conftantine, not Conftantius; and that he died in the feventy fourth year of his age, and was buried in Bithynia. Aldhelmus, an abbot of Malmsbury, in the year 680, tells us likewife that he lived to the age of seventy four, and then died in an unmarried state, and that Conftantine brought his bones to Conftantinople. Concerning the manner of his death I have met with nothing, but that Nicephorus relates his being hanged upon an olive-tree in Greece; and Hippolitus, that according to fome, he was burnt, according to others, was crucified upon an olive-tree. Some later difputes about St. Luke's body among the Papifts, fee in Spanheim. Hiftor. Chrift. Secul. xv. p. 1336. Hitherto concerning St. Luke.