"Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught." (Luke 1:1-4)
If Luke was able to select from a wide variety of sources in putting together an accurate account of the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ, then it stands to reason that he had access to other earlier material. He also would have had contact with direct eyewitnesses to the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:6).
Luke's preface shows us that the four gospel accounts are rooted in history. He carefully sifted through oral traditions in compiling a truthful narrative. Luke did not make up things to fit an underlying agenda, but researched various claims to ensure the credibility of his message. He intended that his work be understood as history.
His gospel account is not a work of fiction or myth. His account is not a forgery or intended to be deceptive. Luke told the person to whom he had dedicated his work that it was to be understood as what actually took place. Thus, human imagination was not used to fill in unknown details. The author did not go out of his way to embellish things.
William Barclay wrote in his Commentary on the Gospel of Luke:
"It is the best bit of Greek in the New Testament. Luke uses here the very form of introduction which the great Greek historians all used. Herodotus begins, "These are the researches of Herodotus of Halicarnassus." A much later historian, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, tells us at the beginning of his history, "Before beginning to write I gathered information, partly from the lips of the most learned men with whom I came into contact, and partly from histories written by Romans of whom they spoke with praise." So Luke, as he began his story in the most sonorous Greek, followed the highest models he could find. It is as if Luke said to himself, "I am writing the greatest story in the world and nothing but the best is good enough for it."
Craig Keener, in his IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, notes in regard to the prologue of Luke's gospel:
"...Ancients often trained their memories in ways
that could put modern intellectuals to shame.
Orators could recite speeches hours in length;
one exceptional orator even claimed to recall samples of scores of practice speeches offered
by classmates decades before. Such memory
was not the exclusive domain of the educated;
uneducated oral storytellers could recite full
works like Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey from
memory. To object to all such examples because this one is Greek, that one is late, and so
forth, is to dismiss all extant evidence in favor
of pure speculation. We should expect the material to have been preserved. Because Luke
writes while eyewitnesses are still alive, and
because they were accorded a place of prominence in the early church, we may be confident that his traditions are reliable. (Eyewitness sources were accepted as the best.)"
The Historian Daniel J. Boorstin, in his work The Discoverers, p. 480, recounts how the ancient world depended so heavily on memory in daily life:
"Before the printed book, Memory ruled daily life and the occult learning, and fully deserved the name later applied to printing, the "art preservative of all arts" (Ars artium omnium conservatrix). The memory of individuals and of communities carried knowledge through time and space. For millennia personal Memory reigned over entertainment and information, over the perpetuation and perfection of crafts, the practice of commerce, the conduct of professions. By Memory and in Memory the fruits of education were garnered, preserved, and stored. Memory was an awesome faculty which everyone had to cultivate, in ways and for reasons we have long since forgotten. In these last five hundred years we see only pitiful relics of the empire and the power of Memory."
This would be a strong indication that the underlying traditions on which the gospels rest are reliable. The text of Luke 1:1-4 gives us an idea as to how the authors of these four narratives went about compiling their narratives. The eye-witnesses to Jesus' bodily resurrection lived in a culture that was heavily reliant on the mental faculty of memory. We, therefore, have good reason to take the four canonical gospels as reliable accounts of the life and teachings of Christ.
