Luke 1:2

2 on the authority of those who were from the beginning eye-witnesses and were devoted to the service of the divine Message,

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 Seeing that many have attempted to draw up a narrative of the facts which are received with full assurance among us

2 on the authority of those who were from the beginning eye-witnesses and were devoted to the service of the divine Message,

3 it has seemed right to me also, after careful investigation of the facts from their commencement, to write for you, most noble Theophilus, a connected account,

4 that you may fully know the truth of the things which you have been taught by word of mouth.

5 There was in the time of Herod, the king of Judaea, a priest of the name of Zechariah, belonging to the class of Abijah. He had a wife who was a descendant of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.