account which it was the good pleasure of the Lord to superintend by

inspiration, and to preserve by grace for the use of others beside

Theophilus, whose instruction was the immediate concern of Luke, by his own

confession.  These earlier writers had taken in hand:

'To set forth in order a declaration'.

Anataxasthai 'to set forth in order'.  The basis of this word is the Greek

word taxis 'order' as in Luke 1:8 'in the order of his course'.  Luke echoes

this idea when he says that it seemed good to him 'to write in order', where

the word he uses is kathexes, which while it can indicate order in time,

'afterward' (Luke 8:1), is better understood by referring to Acts 11:4 where

Peter is said to have:

'rehearsed the matter from the beginning, and expounded it by order

unto them',

which suggests a sequence of events, showing how one thing necessarily leads

up to another, until he cried:

'What was I, that I could withstand God?' (Acts 11:17).

It is this method of instruction which characterizes Luke's Gospel.  He

too, begins at the beginning; he traces the story of the gospel from the

birth of the forerunner, and pursues one line of teaching until it approaches

the climax of the Cross.  Then he returns and makes two more such approaches,

before setting out in fulness the record of the Cross and the Resurrection.

Luke is the only writer in the New Testament to use the Greek word

kathexes 'in order', the other occurrences being translated 'afterward',

'after', 'by order' and 'in order' (Luke 8:1; Acts 3:24; 11:4; 18:23).  It is

this word that gives us the words 'catechism' and 'catechize', which

originally meant 'to din into the ear', and then, to instruct by the Socratic

method of question and answer.  This thought of teaching that 'dins (the

truth) into the ear', is at the extreme pole from that attitude which Paul

reveals will be characteristic of the time of the end, when teachers will

just satisfy with the myths and fables those who have 'itching ears' and who

will turn away their ears from the truth (2 Tim. 4:3,4).  Luke does not adopt

the popular 'catechetical' method.  He does not put questions to Theophilus,

but by taking the two expressions together which are translated in Luke

1:1,4, 'in order', we perceive that Luke proposed a very different approach

to his subject than Matthew did.  John again, confessedly eliminating much

material that was before him, strung the whole teaching of his Gospel, like a

string of beads, on the eight signs which he was inspired to select (John

20:30,31).  (See Life Through His Name by the same author).

Luke, after speaking of those who were eye-witnesses 'from the

beginning', brings forward his own qualifications for the task he now enters

'It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all

things from the very first' (Luke 1:3).

'From the very first' is obviously placed in correspondence with the

words of verse 2 'from the beginning', and this is an important factor in

arriving at the true translation of the Greek word anothen 'from the very

first'.  This word anothen is used of the rending of the veil 'from the top