We depart from Paul’s letter to the Romans today, to hear an almost domestic extract from Paul’s letter to Timothy, asking amongst other things for a particular cloak – but also for Mark to come, as he has been a good helper in his work. Meanwhile, Luke is with him in Rome.
Luke was a sophisticated author, with a strong command of Greek and He writes using a high level of creative skill. Where Mark and Matthew exhibit a more dynamic, but also linguistically simple narrative of Christs’ impact on his world, Luke evokes a more considered approach to Christ. His regional and political detail is comprehensive and also valuable in placing the events of Christ’s life inside historical certainty.
Luke did indeed answer Pauls’ need for help and his travels with Paul led to the great masterpiece, Acts of Apostles. We should refrain from calling it “THE acts of THE apostles”, for it only mentions a few of them, and I am very certain that the Apostles would all have been busy spreading the good news about Jesus across the whole known world! These are some of the acts of some of the apostles (c.f. John Huntris’s work on Luke)