Very little direct mention is made of this valuable contributor to the sacred canon, in any part of the New Testament; and those notices which seem to refer to him, are so vague, that they have been denied to have any connection with the evangelist. The name which is given in the title of his gospel is, in the original form, Lucas, a name undoubtedly of Latin origin, but shown by its final syllable to be a Hebrew-Greek corruption and abridgment of some pure Roman word; for it was customary for the New Testament writers to make these changes, to accord with their own forms of utterance. Lucas, therefore, is an abridgment of some one of two or three Roman words, either Lucius, Lucilius or Lucanus; and as the writers of that age were accustomed to write either the full or abridged form of any such name, indifferently, it seems allowable to recognize the Lucius mentioned in Acts and in the Epistle to the Romans, as the same person with the evangelist. From the manner in which this Lucius is mentioned in the last chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, it would seem that he was related to Paul by blood or marriage, since the apostle mentions him along with Jason and Sosipater, as his "kinsman." In the beginning of the thirteenth chapter of Acts, Lucius is called "the Cyrenian," whence his country may be inferred to have been the province of northern Africa, called Cyrene, long and early the seat of Grecian refinement, art, eloquence and philosophy, and immortalized by having given name to one of the sects of Grecian philosophers,—the Cyrenaic school, founded by Aristippus. Whether he was a Jew by birth, or a heathen, is not known, and has been much disputed. His birth and education in that seat of Grecian literature, may be reasonably considered as having contributed to that peculiar elegance of his language and style, which distinguishes him as the most correct of all the writers of the New Testament.
His relationship to Paul, (if it may be believed on so slight grounds,) was probably a reason for his accompanying him as he did through so large a portion of his travels and labors. He first speaks of himself as a companion of Paul, at the beginning of his first voyage to Europe, at Troas; and accompanies him to Philippi, where he seems to have parted from him, since, in describing the movements of the apostolic company, he no longer uses the pronoun "we." He probably staid in or near Philippi several years, for he resumes the word, in describing Paul's voyage from Philippi to Jerusalem. He was his companion as far as Caesarea, where he probably staid during Paul's visit to Jerusalem; remained with him perhaps during his two years' imprisonment in Caesarea, and was certainly his companion on his voyage to Rome. He remained with him there till a short time before his release; and is mentioned no more till Paul, in his last writing, the second epistle to Timothy, says, "Luke alone is with me." Beyond this, not the slightest trace remains of his history. Nothing additional is known of him, except that he was a physician; for he is mentioned by Paul, in his Epistle to the Colossians, as "Luke, the beloved physician." The miserable fiction of some of the papistical romances, that Luke was also a painter, and took portraits of Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, &c. is almost too shamelessly impudent to be ever mentioned; yet the venerable Cave, the only writer who has heretofore given in full the Lives of the Apostles, refers to it, without daring to deny its truth!
