.APOST1.F.S.
As to the time of this Gospel's writing there is an absence of the marks which in Matthew and Mark seem to indicate a date previous to the destruction of Jerusalem ( A.D. TO) . to the other hand, the military terms in such pa,,ageN as six. 41-44 and xxi. 20-24 (terms peculiar to this Gospel) would readily agree will( the event hav ing taken place when the author wrote; while the announcement of the Seeond Advent not seem to be connected so much with this definite eatastrotthe as with the indefinite future of the times of the Gentiles being fulfilled (cf. xxi. 21 28 as compared with Mark xiii. 19-21 and Matt. xxiv. 21-31, and see further such com parisons as Luke xxi. 7 with Mark xiii. 3-4 and Matt. xxiv. 3. Luke xxi. 12 with Mark xiii. 9; though. on the other side, we cannot but notice in Mark xiii. 10-12 and Matt. xxiv. 12-14 far-reaching future statements to which Luke has no parallel). On the whole the most likely date is between 70 and SO.
In the internal evidence there is nothing which would render impossible all authorship by Luke, the companion of Paul. In fact, such conclusion
is the general though not the unanimous opinion of criticism. Patristic evidence, however, is very clear. summing itself up into a witness to the existence of the book as far back as the last decade of the first century, and a recognition of its Lukan authorship as far back as the second half of the second century. According to the common literary custom of the first century age, the name of the author must have been originally prefixed to the dedication of the book (i. 1-4). From this place it evidently was transferred to the title of the hook as the book came to he ac cepted into the canon. The only title ever at tached to the book, however, points to the name of the author as Luke.
Professor Blass of italic has carried out. in application to this Gospel his suggestion original ly made regarding the two text forms of the Book of Acts; only, in the easy of the Gospel, the shorter text is represented in that of the Codex Reza. (I)), the longer in that of the New Testament.