All authors employ names and titles to convey meaning in their work. The biblical writers are no exception.
I’m in the middle of a project examining the use of titles and names for Jesus in the Gospels. My first article laid out my methodology and looked at the top 10 titles of Jesus in the Gospels. I recently wrote about the titles of Jesus in Matthew and Mark, and today we turn to the Gospel of Luke.
Top 7 Titles
Luke uses 122 titles for Jesus. So while Luke contains 30.5% of the verses in the Gospels, it contains only 27.5% (122/443) of the titles.
Here are the top 7 titles in Luke. (I’ve included 7 instead of 5 because of equal numbers at the end of this list.)
- Lord (35 times)
- Son of Man (25 times)
- teacher (13 times)
- Christ (7 times)
- Master (5 times)
- Son (5 times)
- Son of God (5 times)
Titles Used by Luke
Luke is notable in that he himself used titles for Jesus more than Matthew (10 times) or Mark (5 times). Luke referred to Jesus by a title 16 times. He called Jesus “Lord” 13 times, “Christ” two times, and “son (as was supposed) of Joseph” once.
Compared to the writers of the first two Gospels, it seems Luke had a favorite way of referring to Jesus. This is likely related to why that particular title is used so much by other characters in Luke’s Gospel.
Titles and Luke’s Purpose
Courtesy of my co-blogger Peter Krol, we have an abundance of resources on this website related to the Gospel of Luke. Most of these articles are linked from Peter’s Interpretive Overview of Luke.
Peter stated the main point of Luke this way.
The hope of Israel, God’s plan of salvation for the world, has arrived in Jesus.
Can we draw any connections between this main point and the titles of Jesus that Luke uses?
We must remember that Luke was a historian. He wrote these investigative accounts (Luke and Acts) to “most excellent Theophilus” so that he might “have certainty concerning the things [he has] been taught” (Luke 1:3-4).
In addition to being a historian, Luke was a companion of the apostle Paul. There are moments in the narrative of Acts (such as in chapter 21) where Luke’s account shifts from “they” to “we.”
I noted above that Luke himself used the title “Lord” for Jesus quite a bit in his Gospel (13 times). When I look at those occurrences, I can’t detect any trends or patterns. I can only conclude that “Lord” was simply a natural way for Luke to refer to Jesus.
And upon reflection, this makes sense, doesn’t it? Who better to write an accurate historical account of Jesus’s life and ministry—in addition to an account of his followers in the years after his death—than someone who called him “Lord”? Luke could masterfully write about God’s salvation for the world arriving in Jesus because that same salvation had come to him.
Luke was not a modern historian, writing in stuffy remove and objectivity. Luke wrote as an ancient historian—accurate, yes, but with an accuracy compelled by love of his subject.
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