Who was Theophilus in Luke's Gospel and the Book of Acts?

Answer 1

It was common in ancient times to dedicate a major literary work to the patron who financially supported the author during the months or years that it took to write it. Luke's Gospel and Acts of the Apostles are unusual in that they are dedicated to an otherwise unknown patron, Theophilus. The other gospels, including non-canonical gospels do not contain a dedication.

Some Christian theologians suggest that Theophilus was not a real person, but that he was intended to represent the entire body of the Christian Church. This explains the unusual format of the two books, but appears strained to some.

The name 'Theophilus' means "Loved by God" in the Greek language. Some point to strong evidence that the author of Luke's Gospel relied on material from the works of the Jewish historian, Josephus, in order to provide a semblance of history to his own works. Josephus had dedicated Antiquities of the Jews to Epaphroditus (Greek: "Touched by Aphrodite) in 93 CE. Thus, 'Theophilus' could simply have been a Christian reversal of Epaphroditus.

It would then be appropriate to wonder why the author of Luke and Acts would bother dedicating his books to Theophilus if this person never really existed. In Greek culture, before the modern forms of source citation had been developed, it was expected of authors to provide a 'flag' to alert the readers of any source used in the book. It was considered boring to make the attribution obvious, with a preference for flags that had to be deciphered. Thus the reversal from the pagan Epaphroditus to the Christian Theophilus.

Answer 2

A:It was common in ancient times to dedicate a major literary work to the patron who financially supported the author during the months or years that it took to write it. Luke's Gospel and Acts of the Apostles are unusual in that they are dedicated to an otherwise unknown patron, Theophilus. The other gospels, including non-canonical gospels do not contain a dedication.

Some Christian theologians suggest that Theophilus was not a real person, but that he was intended to represent the entire body of the Christian Church. This explains the unusual format of the two books, but appears strained to some.

The name 'Theophilus' means 'Loved by God' in the Greek language. Some point to strong evidence that the author of Luke's Gospel relied on material from the works of the Jewish historian, Josephus, in order to provide a semblance of history to his own works. Josephus had dedicated Antiquities of the Jews to Epaphroditus (Greek: 'Touched by Aphrodite') in 93 CE. Thus, 'Theophilus' could simply have been a Christian reversal of Epaphroditus.

It would then be appropriate to wonder why the author of Luke and Acts would bother dedicating his books to Theophilus if this person never really existed. In Greek culture, before the modern forms of source citation had been developed, it was expected of authors to provide a 'flag' to alert the readers of any source used in the book. It was considered boring to make the attribution obvious, with a preference for flags that had to be deciphered. Thus the reversal from the pagan Epaphroditus to the Christian Theophilus.

Thus, we have three possible explanations for the unusual dedication to Theophilus. The first, but perhaps least likely, is that Luke really did write the Gospel and Acts of the Apostle to a man called Theophilus.