Theophilus (Biblical)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Teofilo is the name of the person to whom the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles is addressed. No one knows his true identity, and there are many conjectures and traditions around his identity. It is a common name among both Romans and Jews of the era. His life would coincide with the writing of Luke and Acts, sometime between AD 40-85, depending on which tradition one subscribes to.

Conjectures to his identity and traditional beliefs include:

• Coptic tradition asserts he was a Jew of Alexandria
• Another tradition claims he was a converted Roman official, possibly Titus Flavius Sabinus II, a former Prefect of Rome and older brother of future Roman Emperor Vespasian, owing to the honorific, "most excellent" (Lk. 1:3). As Titus Flavius Sabinus, Theophilus is given a crucial role in the novel The Flames of Rome by Paul L. Maier, where he is given the dedication of the "Gospel of Luke" and "Acts of the Apostles" by Luke the Evangelist.
• Another tradition maintains that Theophilus was not a specific person, as "theophilus" means "lover of God", and thus the books could be addressed to anyone who fits that description.
• Some also believed that Theophilus could have been Paul's lawyer during his trial period in Rome.
• Some also identify Luke's Theophilus with Theophilus ben Ananus, High Priest of the Temple of Jerusalem from 37 to 42. In this tradition Theophilus would have been both a kohen and a Sadducee. It would thus appear that the Gospel of Luke was likely targeted at Sadducee readers. Theophilus would have been the son of Annas and the brother-in-law of Caiaphas, and would have grown up in the Jewish Temple. This identification explains many features of Luke. Luke begins the story with an account of Zacharias the righteous priest who had a vision of an angel at the Temple (1:5-25). He quickly moves on to an account of Mary's purification (niddah) and Jesus' redemption (pidyon ha-ben) rituals at the Temple (2:21-39) and then to the event of Jesus teaching at the Temple at the age of twelve (2:46). Luke makes no mention of Caiaphas' role in Jesus' crucifixion and emphasizes Jesus' literal resurrection (24:39). (Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection of the dead.)