Where did Luke get his information about Jesus?

In the opening verses of the Gospel of Luke, the author claims that his narrative is thoroughly researched and rooted in eyewitness testimony. Today, however, many skeptics suggest an alternative "telephone-game" scenario. According to these skeptics, the stories about Jesus were written down in the Gospels only after they had been transmitted orally through a long chain of people who never met Jesus. During this process, the stories were significantly changed and embellished.

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One of the many challenges to this telephone-game model concerns the we/us passages in Acts. The attentive reader of Acts will notice something odd that occurs in the sixteenth chapter. As Paul and his companions depart from Troas to Philippi, the author abruptly switches from the third-person pronouns they/them to the first-person pronouns we/us. When Paul and his friends leave Philippi, the author switches back to they/them. It is not until Paul returns to Philippi, years later in the narrative, that the author abruptly resumes we/us. The we/us passages continue as Paul journeys to Jerusalem. There Paul is attacked by a mob and taken into Roman custody. Because of political corruption, his trial is delayed for two years. Finally, sensing that he will not get a fair trial in Judea, Paul appeals to Caesar and is sent to Rome. When this final voyage begins, the we/us passages resume.

The best explanation for this peculiar phenomenon is the most obvious explanation: the author of Acts was a travelling companion of Paul. He joined Paul in Troas and stayed in Philippi, presumably to help the new church Paul founded. He then joined with Paul again years later when Paul passed through Philippi on his way to Jerusalem. After Paul was unexpectedly taken into custody, the author remained in Judea, hoping that Paul would come to trial and be released. Thus, when Paul finally appealed to Caesar, the author was available to accompany him to Rome.

This conclusion is of enormous significance for our assessment of the historical reliability of the Gospel of Luke. The Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts were clearly written by the same author. If the author was indeed a companion of Paul during the we/us episodes in Acts, then he travelled to Jerusalem with Paul and met many eyewitnesses to Jesus, including Jesus' own brother. (Notice the pronouns in Acts 21:17-18: "When we had come to Jerusalem, the brothers received us gladly. On the following day Paul went in with us to James, and all the elders were present.") Moreover, the author evidently remained in Judea for two years (see Acts 24:27). Thus he had ample opportunity to do precisely the sort of research he describes in the opening verses of his Gospel (Luke 1:1-4).

Now at this point, the skeptic might suggest that the author was simply deceiving his readers. Perhaps the author never met Paul but simply used the we/us pronouns to trick his readers into thinking that he had travelled to Jerusalem and spent two years with the eyewitnesses of Jesus. However, the reader who stops at the end of the Gospel of Luke will never even know about the we/us passages! Furthermore, even those readers who continue on through Acts will likely miss the implications of the we/us passages. (Think back to the first time you read Acts. Did you notice that the we/us passages suggest that the author of the third Gospel remained in Judea for two years?) In short, the implications of the we/us passages, while hugely significant, are too subtle to be explained as an intentional deception. Note that the author never even states that he remained in Judea for two years, much less that he used this time to research information about Jesus. All of this is left to the reader to deduce.

In conclusion, the we/us passages constitute strong evidence that the author of the third Gospel had direct and sustained contact with the eyewitnesses of Jesus. If this is true, then the telephone-game model collapses.

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