Luke 1:1–2

Footnotes

1. 1 Grk “Since” or “Because.” This begins a long sentence that extends through v. 4. Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence and the tendency of contemporary English style to use shorter sentences, the Greek sentence has been divided up into shorter English sentences in the translation.
2. 2 This is sometimes translated “narrative,” but the term itself can refer to an oral or written account. It is the verb “undertaken” which suggests a written account, since it literally is “to set one’s hand” to something ( ἐπιχειρέω). “Narrative” is too specific, denoting a particular genre of work for the accounts that existed in the earlier tradition. Not all of that material would have been narrative.
3. 3 Or “events.”
4. 4 Or “have been accomplished.” Given Luke’s emphasis on divine design (e.g., Luke 24:43–47) a stronger sense (“fulfilled”) is better than a mere reference to something having taken place (“accomplished”).
5. 5 Grk “even as”; this compares the recorded tradition of 1:1 with the original eyewitness tradition of 1:2.
6. 6 Or “delivered.”
7. 7 The phrase eyewitnesses and servants of the word refers to a single group of people who faithfully passed on the accounts about Jesus. The language about delivery (passed on) points to accounts faithfully passed on to the early church.
8. 8 Grk “like the accounts those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word passed on to us.” The location of “in the beginning” in the Greek shows that the tradition is rooted in those who were with Jesus from the start.