Indices of Ethnicity in Modern Constructions of ‘Luke’

Discussions of Luke-Acts often make claims about Luke’s ethnic identity, placing him in one of four possible ethnic categories: (1) Luke was a non-Greek, possibly Semitic gentile; (2) he was a Greek gentile; (3) he was a gentile convert to Judaism; and (4) he was a Jew. In this paper, I will reexamine the evidence internal to Luke-Acts which scholars adduce for their various conclusions about Luke’s ethnic identity, assessing their arguments on the basis of both Luke-Acts and modern ethnographic theory.