Luke 1:2

2 just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word.

Luke 1:2 in Other Translations

2 Even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the word;

2 just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us,

2 They used the eyewitness reports circulating among us from the early disciples.

2 using reports handed down by the original eyewitnesses who served this Word with their very lives.

2 just as the original eyewitnesses and servants of the word handed them down to us.

Luke 1:2 Meaning and Commentary

Luke 1:2

Even as they delivered them unto us
By whom the evangelist means, as appears from the after description of them, the twelve apostles, and seventy disciples; who handed down to others the accounts of the birth, life, and death of Christ; and according to which the above Christians proposed to write:

which from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the
word;
either of the Gospel, or rather of Christ himself, the eternal Word of God; for from the beginning of Christ's preaching the Gospel, or as soon as he entered upon his public ministry, he called his apostles, as Simon, Andrew, James, John and afterwards seventy disciples; who were eyewitnesses of him, of the truth of his incarnation, and of his ministry and miracles; saw, and conversed with him after his resurrection from the dead and beheld his ascension to heaven; and were ministers that were called, qualified, and sent out by him and waited on him, and served him. This shows, as is by some rightly observed, that Luke was not one of the seventy disciples, as some ^F9 have thought, and as the title of this Gospel, to the Arabic version of it, expresses; for then he would have been an eyewitness himself: nor did he take his account from the Apostle Paul; for he was not a minister of the word from the beginning, but was as one born out of due time.

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FOOTNOTES:

F9 Epiphan. contra Haeres. l. 2. Haeres. 51. Theophylact. in Argument in Luc.

Luke 1:2 In-Context

1 Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us,

2 just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word.

3 With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus,

4 so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.

5 In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron.

Cross References

• 1. Mark 1:1; John 15:27; Acts 1:21,22
• 2. Hebrews 2:3; 1 Peter 5:1; 2 Peter 1:16; 1 John 1:1
• 3. S Mark 4:14