The Third Gospel differs from the rest in that it was conceived by the author as a work consisting of two parts and covering not only the time of the earthly activity of Jesus Christ, but also the beginning and formation of His Church, in which His Spirit operates. But it so happened that later these two parts were separated and began to be perceived as independent books - “The Gospel of Luke” and “The Acts of the Apostles.”

Although this Gospel, like the other Gospels, is anonymous, that is, in In the text itself, the author does not mention his name anywhere; Christian tradition has called his author Luke since ancient times. Most likely, this is a shortened form of the common Latin name Lukiy (in traditional Russian pronunciation - Lucius). At the end of the oldest manuscript of the Gospel that has reached us (probably the end of the 2nd - beginning of the 3rd century) the name Luke is indicated. The Muratori Canon says the following about the Gospel: “The third book of the Gospel is the Gospel of Luke. This Luke was a doctor. After Christ's ascension, when Paul took him with him as a record-keeper, he wrote under his own name what he heard from others, since he himself had not seen the Lord in the flesh. He wrote down the events as he could find out about them, beginning his story with the birth of John.” Irenaeus of Lyons (late 2nd century) also names Paul’s companion Luke as the author of the Gospel and reports that he set out in his book the Message preached by the Apostle. Another document dates back to the same time, the so-called Greek prologue to the Gospel of Luke, which provides some biographical information about the author: “Luke was a Syrian from Antioch, a doctor by profession, a student of the apostles; he later followed Paul to his martyrdom. He served the Lord undividedly, had neither wife nor children, and died at the age of eighty-four in Boeotia, filled with the Holy Spirit.” It was also reported there that Luke began writing his Gospel at the behest of the Holy Spirit, although the Gospel of Matthew, written in Judea, and the Gospel of Mark, written in Italy, already existed. Luke composed his in Achaia for the pagans converted to Christianity.