DID YOU KNOW?
The answer
Theophilus. Luke 1:3 addresses the book to "most excellent Theophilus," and the preface says the events were "handed on to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses." The writer counts himself among the people the story reached, not among the eyewitnesses, and says "many" had already written accounts before him.
Why it’s interesting
Theophilus means "friend of God," so the name might be a label for any believer. More likely he was a real person who paid for the work. The preface is shaped like the openings of Greek histories.
Scholarly consensus
Learn the Bible.
Not just the stories, but the history, authorship, and scholarship behind it.