Christians have traditionally said that Luke , a physician and companion of the apostle Paul, wrote the Gospel of Luke, but modern scholars note that the book itself is anonymous and debate the author’s exact identity. Most academic specialists simply call the writer “the author of Luke–Acts,” stressing that the same person almost certainly wrote both the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles.

Traditional Christian view

  • Early church writers like Irenaeus, Tertullian, and others consistently attributed the Gospel of Luke and Acts to Luke, “the beloved physician” mentioned in Paul’s letters.
  • Ancient manuscripts of the Gospel already bear the title “According to Luke,” reflecting this settled early Christian belief in his authorship.

Modern scholarly perspective

  • The text of Luke never names its author, so historians rely on style, theology, and early church testimony rather than an internal signature.
  • Many scholars think the author was a highly educated Greek‑speaking Christian who knew good Greek, used earlier sources (like Mark), and shaped them into a two‑volume work (Luke–Acts), but they are divided on whether this person was actually Paul’s coworker Luke.

What most people mean by “Luke”

  • In churches and popular teaching, saying “Luke wrote Luke” usually means accepting the long-standing tradition that the Gospel reflects the perspective of Luke the physician and companion of Paul.
  • In academic writing, “Luke” is often used as a convenient label for the otherwise unknown author, even by scholars who doubt that this was literally Paul’s associate.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.