Luke 1:2

Luke 1:2. They delivered them, or, ‘handed them down.' The oral instruction of the Apostles is here referred to. From this (see Luke 1:4) the writ-ten accounts of the ‘many ‘were drawn up. Oral tradition came first, but this preface plainly implies its insufficiency.

From the beginning, i.e., fr om the baptism of John (see Mark 1:1; Acts 1:21; John 15:27).

Eye-witnesses. The Apostles, perhaps the Seventy also. This implies that Luke was not a disciple during the lifetime of our Lord.

Became ministers. The same persons who had been ‘eye-witnesses.'

The word, i.e., the word of the gospel, the preached word. Certainly not ‘the Word,' the Logos, for John only uses this term. Hence ‘of the word' is scarcely to be joined with ‘eye-witnesses.'