Robertson Word Pictures - Luke 1:4 - 1:4

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Robertson Word Pictures - Luke 1:4 - 1:4


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

Mightest know (epignōis). Second aorist active subjunctive of epiginōskō. Full knowledge (epi-), in addition to what he already has.

The certainty (tēn asphaleian). Make no slip (sphallō, to totter or fall, and a privative). Luke promises a reliable narrative. “Theophilus shall know that the faith which he has embraced has an impregnable historical foundation” (Plummer).

The things (logōn). Literally “words,” the details of the words in the instruction.

Wast instructed (katēchēthēs). First aorist passive indicative. Not in O.T. and rare in ancient Greek. Occurs in the papyri. The word ēcheō is our word echo (cf. 1Th 1:8 for exēchētai, has sounded forth). Katēcheō is to sound down, to din, to instruct, to give oral instruction. Cf. 1Co 14:9; Act 21:21, Act 21:24; Act 18:25; Gal 6:6. Those men doing the teaching were called catechists and those receiving it were called catechumens. Whether Theophilus was still a catechumen is not known. This Preface by Luke is in splendid literary Koiné and is not surpassed by those in any Greek writer (Herodotus, Thucydides, Polybius). It is entirely possible that Luke was familiar with this habit of Greek historians to write prefaces since he was a man of culture.