reasons. According to Luke’s prologue, Luke did careful research in order to ascertain the reliability of oral and written traditions so that Theophilus might be taught reliable truths about Jesus. If one may extrapolate from Luke to the Gospels in general, their procedure was to transmit the Jesus traditions they had received with a view to meeting the needs of the church, which included the historical basis of faith in Christ. The Gospels are not comprehensive biographies or exhaustive histories