Important Dates in the Lives of Jesus and Mary 

believe, or at least admit the possibility of, an earlier version of Matthew's Gospel, written well before the 

Greek text. 

The Gospel of Luke and The Acts of the Apostles 

    As noted above, Eusebius places the writing of Luke's Gospel after Matthew's Gospel and before John's 

Gospel. Luke's Gospel is referred to as the Gospel to the Gentiles. Luke was a disciple of Paul (Col 4:14; 2 

Tim 4:11) and often traveled with him. Luke also wrote Acts of the Apostles. 

    In Acts of the Apostles, Luke records many events that he himself either witnessed or learned directly from 

Paul.

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 Acts of the Apostles ends abruptly at a point in time 2 years after Paul had been in Rome, preaching 

the Gospel, but guarded by a Roman soldier (Acts 28:16, 30). 

    If Luke were living in a major Christian community, such as Rome or Jerusalem or Antioch, he would 

likely have included events occurring within that community. Yet Luke has little to say about those two years. 

Perhaps, then, Luke spent those two years in relative isolation from the larger Christian community, not 

traveling from place to place as he did formerly with Paul. He could have been living in a small town, some 

distance from Rome and other major centers of Christianity, focusing on writing. 

    The time frame for Paul's stay in Rome, awaiting his appeal before the emperor, is discussed below. Since 

Acts describes nothing beyond Paul's two year stay in Rome, we may reasonably conclude that Acts  was 

completed about two years after Paul arrived in Rome. Luke may have spent much of those two years working 

on Acts of the Apostles. He may even have had some portion of Acts written well in advance (notes he had 

taken along the way, and the like). However, this two year period of time is the most likely time frame for the 

writing of the bulk of Acts and for its completion. 

    Not much detail is given about Paul's activities in Rome during those two years (Acts 28:30 31). Luke gives 

us great detail and precision in the order and timing of the events in the latter part of Acts (e.g. Acts 28:11 15), 

but he has very little to say about the two years described by Acts 28:30 31; he uses only one sentence to 

describe two whole years. Luke was with Paul when he  arrived in Rome (Acts 28:16), but Luke must have 

lived somewhere distant from Rome for the greater part of those two years. Otherwise, he would have had 

some communication with Paul and more information to give about Paul's first two years in Rome. 

    From Acts 27:1 to the end of Acts, Luke uses the first person plural,  we,  to describe events which he and 

Paul and perhaps others experienced together. But in the last sentence of Acts, the one describing the first two 

years that Paul spent in Rome, Luke changes from using  we  to using  he  (Paul) and also refers to Rome 

with the word  there.  Acts ends with this sentence:  And he lived there two whole years at his own 

expense .  (Acts 28:30). This choice of words implies that Luke was elsewhere at the time of those two years. 

    According to Saint Jerome, Saint Luke wrote the Gospel while living in the region of Achaia.  He was 

himself a disciple of the Apostle Paul, and composed his book in Achaia and Boeotia. 

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 Achaia is the ancient 

region roughly in the location of modern day Greece. Boeotia is a region within Greece, just northeast of the 

Gulf of Corinth. It is still referred to as Boeotia today. This location makes sense in the context of the other 

information we have about Luke. He was not in Rome with Paul during those two years. He was not in the 

center of a large Christian community (he lived some distance from Corinth); otherwise he might have added 

events from that community to the last two years described in Acts. 

    In addition, Luke most likely wrote the Gospel and Acts while he was living in the same location. The 

Gospel of Luke is addressed to Theophilus with the expression:  most excellent Theophilus  (Luke 1:3). This 

phrasing indicates that Theophilus was a Roman official, and not merely a friend or associate of Luke's.

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Both the Gospel of Luke and Acts of the Apostles are addressed to this Theophilus. Yet he could not have 

been very high up in the Roman government because nothing is known about him from other historical 

evidence. Why then would Luke address two works of such length and importance (both the Gospel and Acts 

were fairly lengthy works for that time period) to Theophilus? 

    Perhaps this Roman official expressed an interest in learning about Christ and about the Apostles. He may 

have been interested in converting to the Faith. Even so, Luke would only address both of these important 

works to a minor Roman official if Luke were living in the area ruled by that official when he was writing. 

Since Acts of the Apostles was most likely written sometime during the two years after Paul arrived for his 

appeal to the emperor, the Gospel of Luke was also written about that same time. At other times, Luke had 

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