My interest in the writings of the evangelist Luke began when I was a doctoral student at Claremont Graduate School. There I had the privilege of learning from James A. Sanders, whose interest in this New Testament writer is well known. Compounding my good fortune was the visit of David L. Tiede as a Visiting Scholar during the 1978–79 academic year. David’s Luke–Acts Seminar was the highlight of the year. Out of this visit he produced Prophecy and History in Luke–Acts (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1980), a book from which I have learned much. My interest in Luke continued, and so it was with much enthusiasm that I accepted W. Ward Gasque’s kind invitation to write the commentary on Luke for the New International Biblical Commentary. A major challenge in writing a commentary of this type is, on the one hand, to take into account the best of critical scholarship and, on the other, to keep the commentary intelligible and relevant for the non-expert. I have, therefore, resisted the temptation to plunge deeply into many critical issues and technical features that attend the study of the Gospels in general and the Gospel of Luke in particular. Nevertheless, I think that the critical scholar will find in this commentary many items of interest. It would be hoped, of course, that those readers for whom this commentary series is primarily intended will also find the commentary readable and stimulating. All quotations, including those in bold, are from the NIV, unless otherwise noted.
Richard A. Wiebe, Reference Librarian for Trinity Western University, is to be thanked for preparing the indexes.
Trinity Western University
Langley, British Columbia
January, 1990