Theophilus

Pompey Magnus

Luke and Acts seems to have been written to a person called Theophilus, but from my very basic knowledge of Greek Theo = God and Phil = Love of. Was there an actual person called Theophilus who Luke was writing for or were Acts and Luke addressed to a general audience who were "Lovers of God"?

It is just a little something that I was wondering about.

BrianCalgary

One person.

Pompey Magnus

Probably was just one person, I just thought it coincidental that his name could be interpreted (by me at least) as being a general title for a broader audience. I think it can be difficult to distinguish between names written in Greek as the letters run into one another so had Luke actually meant to say "Lover of God" it would have been written exactly the same as the name.

robindch

Could be read either way, but it always looked more like an honorific to me.

PDN

It could be either, but most Bible commentators tend to think it was a real person. Apparently the addition of "most excellent" would be added to someone's name, rather than to an honorific title.

It is always possible that 'Theophilus' was used to mask the recepient's identity. Perhaps he was a Roman official and use of his real name would cost him his job (or worse) in a time of persecution. This is, of course, speculation, but I do know that Christians in China still use such false names when they write to each other to avoid arrest. In fact I had the interesting experience of giving a bunch of Chinese guys their new names when they received Christ during an underground house church meeting. They insisted that since I was the one who lead them to Christ then I had to give them their names. So I was saying, "OK, you will be David, and you will be Joseph etc."

Another interesting idea, taken from the opening verses of Luke, is that he intended to send a copy of Mark's Gospel to Theophilus, but decided it was too short - so he wrote a more detailed account himself.