Excerpt from Luke the Historian in the Light of Research The work of the last fifteen years has created new interest in the writings of Luke. The relation of Luke's Gospel to Mark's Gospel and the Logia of Jesus has sharply defined his own critical methods and processes. The researches of Har nack, Hobart, and Ramsay have restored the credit of Luke with many critics who had been carried away by the criticism of Baur, and who looked askance upon the value of Luke as the historian of early Christianity. It has been like mining digging now here, now there. The items in Luke's books that were attacked have been taken up one by one. The work has been slow and piecemeal, of necessity. But it is now possible to gather together into a fairly complete picture the results. It is a positively amazing vindication of Luke. The force of the argument is cumulative and tremendous. One needs to have the patience to work through the details with candor and a Willingness to see all the facts with no prejudice against Luke or against the supernatural origin of Christianity. It is not claimed that every difficulty in Luke's books has been solved, but so many have been triumphantly removed that Luke is entitled to the benefit of the doubt in the rest or at any rate to patience on our part till further research can make a report. Luke should at least be treated as fairly as Thucydides or Polybius when he makes a statement that as yet has no other support or seems in conflict with other writers. Modern scholars are no longer on the defensive about Luke. His books can be used with confidence. The work of research has thrown light in every direction and the story is fascinating to every lover of truth. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.