Wind and Fire: A Life of St. Luke

By Marconi M. Dioso

The scraps of information about St. Luke scattered in the New Testament forms the basis for the fictive life of the author of the Third Gospel and the book, Acts of the Apostles. Although fervid in his belief, The New Way that was later on called Christianity in the year A.D. 40, Lukes whole life was mainly sustained by his calling as a beloved physician. To the very end of his life, Luke remained an active practitioner of medicine. His training in this art, where case histories had to be recorded for each patient probably gave him that polished edge to write with great style.

What little is known about Luke comes from his association with St. Paul who was also responsible for baptizing the doctor. By joining Pauls missionary journeys Luke was able to travel through the cities of Asia Minor, and the northern and southern regions of Greece. The climax of his travels with Paul was a trip to Jerusalem accompanied by other Greek disciples. Here in this sacred city Luke received from the apostles the commission to write the early history of The New Way. Of course, he also undertook writing the Third Gospel.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jun 6, 2011
• ISBN: 9781462869336

Marconi M. Dioso

The author retired from the practice of Internal Medicine from the Kaiser Wailuku Clinic, and from the Active Staff at Maui Memorial Hospital in 1996. Briefly worked for three years as Medical Director at the Hale Makua Nursing Home. Born and raised in the Philippines, the author undertook the study of the military history of the Philippines. In 2004 published A Trilogy of Wars; The Philippine Revolutionary Wars of 1896 - 1897, the Spanish-American War in the Philippines in 1898, and the Filipino-American War, 1899 - 1902. Recently published last November of 2010, The Times When Men Must Die: the Story of the Destruction of the Philippine Army during the Early Months of World War II in the Pacific, December 1941 - May 1942. Currently residing on the island of Maui in Hawaii.

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Copyright © 2011 by Marconi M. Dioso.

Library of Congress Control Number:       2011907308

ISBN:         Hardcover                               978-1-4628-6932-9

                   Softcover                                 978-1-4628-6931-2

                   Ebook                                      978-1-4628-6933-6

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Contents

A New Physician

Return of the Native

The Life of the Young

Doctor in Antioch

Luke Is Introduced to the

Words of Jesus

Paul and Barnabas Return to Antioch

Birth Stories and Childhood

Years of Jesus

The Baptism of Luke

Luke Joins Paul’s

Missionary Journeys

Corinth

Ephesus

Jerusalem

The Acts Primeval of the Apostles

Caesarea

The Gospel According to Luke

Return to Caesarea

Rome

The Great Persecution

The War Overtakes Jerusalem

Survival of the Jerusalem Church

The Time of the Gentiles

Corinth: A Center of Christianity

The day of Pentecost had come, and they were all together in one place. Suddenly there came from the sky what sounded like a strong, driving wind, a noise which filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them flames like tongues of fire distributed among them and coming to rest on each one. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to talk in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them power of utterance.

Acts 2:1-4 (Revised English Bible)

Thus, the twelve apostles and one hundred twenty disciples were infused with the Holy Spirit that marked the beginning of the Church of Jesus Christ.

A New Physician

This day will be of memorable significance to Loukas surnamed Balas, widely known as Luke in the Greco-Roman world. Just a few weeks earlier, he had celebrated the twenty-third year of his birth in the city of Antioch. He and his elder brother were the fortunate offspring of well-to-do parents, and Luke was inwardly grateful for that occurrence. Now this day marks the conclusion of his medical apprenticeship under his uncle’s tutelage. His uncle, Nikias, was one of the leading physicians in this cosmopolitan city of Pergamum and was another lucky happenstance in Luke’s life. His uncle had no male heir to whom he could pass on the mantle of physician. He readily accepted Luke as his apprentice after the youth completed his education in Antioch’s gymnasion. As Luke walked by the side of his uncle for their last round together, he felt sadness at this realization. He will miss his uncle’s strong guidance in the practice of medicine and his wealth of clinical knowledge. As the teacher and his young apprentice walked together, Nikias, as was the custom, carried an unguent box while Luke slung a pouch full of medicines across his shoulder.

The medical duo started their final round in the great sanctuary of Asklepion in Pergamum by going before the statue of Zeus Asklepios. Nikias approached the statue and offered frankincense while Luke on his part fingered the image of Asklepios he carried inside his bag. The young man was not into slavish obeisance to any of the numerous gods allowed by the aedile to sprout in the Greco-Roman world. But Asklepios, a deified physician figure believed to be walking around with a recognizable staff, the caduceus, held a revered spot in the hearts of physicians. Luke, as a beginning physician, was unable to buy expensive frankincense, but the keepsake image of Asklepios would suffice for the time being.

After saying their prayers to the statue of Asklepios, the two physicians proceeded to the main sanctuary, the Asklepion. In the large central portion of the sanctuary, a hubbub rose from the crowd milling around, the importuning shouts coming from the food vendors and the squeals of animals being sacrificed. A question crossed Luke’s mind whether the Asklepion in Antioch could probably be as busy as this sanctuary. He will soon find out because he is leaving in a day or two after tomorrow.

His uncle and the other physicians in the area do not usually practice their craft within the Asklepion, but they do follow-up treatments on their own patients who visit the sanctuary because of additional maladies that have resisted the art of natural healing. The sanctuary, like other Asklepions in other Greek provinces, provides rooms in the abaton for the sick where they sleep and incubate to receive Asklepios in their dreams. It is during the process of dreaming when Asklepios visits the afflicted to minister to their individual needs. Upon waking up, some of these supplicants feel cured. In payment to the god Asklepios, the grateful patients leave votive offerings in the shape of the body part that was healed. These anatomical votives are commonly left in the temple part of the sanctuary.

Nikias’s patient they came to see in the sanctuary was a male from Lycia, a province south of Pergamum. The Lycian had a large festering ulcer on his right leg, but he came as a pilgrim to the Asklepion to see if incubating in the sanctuary would help his chronic dyspepsia. The two physicians changed the bulky bandage on the Lycian’s leg, then applied liberal amounts of oil to the ulcer, an empiric treatment found to promote faster healing. Then they helped the Lycian prepare his room in the abaton or treatment center where he will sleep and hopefully dream of Asklepios curing his dyspepsia. After their patient was settled, Nikias and Luke left the sanctuary and hurried to the city proper where more patients, two scores in total, await their visits.

The next morning was Luke’s duty-bound obligation to go with his uncle’s new apprentice for an introductory medical round. The new man was called Androkides, a native of Pergamum, and was not related to Nikias. To be able to learn the techne or craft of medicine, Androkides must pay a fee to the physician-tutor. Luke guessed that Androkides’s payment to his uncle must be somewhere around a thousand sesterces.

The two young men met outside the walls of Pergamum, then walked on the paved Sacred Way leading to the sanctuary of Asklepios. After passing through the monumental gateway of the sanctuary, the duo entered the Temple to Zeus Asklepios to say their prayers to the deified doctor. Then they walked to the treatment center where Nikias’s Lycian patient was waiting. Luke changed the man’s dressing, then applied copious amounts of oil to the leg ulcer as prescribed by his uncle. Luke was careful to acquaint Androkides with the exact amount of oil to apply to the ulcer to get the desired results of healing.

The Lycian was satisfied that his dyspepsia had been cured and that he would soon be looking for an appropriate votive statue to pay the god Asklepios. He would see Nikias a few more times, but now, Androkides would be assisting during these occasions. Then the medical duo crossed the crowded central portion of the sanctuary to the library where Luke pointed out the selected works of Hippocrates, a good reference for difficult cases, and the eight-volume text, De Medicina written by Celsus of Rome, which summarizes the state of medicine up to that time. The two postponed visiting the theater adjacent to the Asklepion since Androkides, as a Pergamonite, was thoroughly familiar with the edifice. Instead, they returned to the city where Androkides will join Nikias to see patients for the rest of the day. Luke’s uncle was conscientious in his care for his patients and, as the didaskalos or master-trainer, the education of his young charges. That is why Nikias would immediately plunge his new pupil, Androkides, into his medical practice.

As they walked back to the city, Luke cast a final look at the acropolis perched on a steep ridge above Pergamum. Once inside the city walls, the two young men parted as Luke began a tour of Pergamum’s monumental structures. Here in this beautiful city, which was once the capital of the Attalic dynasty, are palaces, temples, fortifications, and five gymnasia. Such an impressive number of gymnasia were not surprising since Pergamum was noted as a city that provided higher education in rhetoric and philosophy second only to Alexandria in Egypt. And for one go-around, Luke admired the large kouroi or statuary in stone that beautified the city. There was that bronze groups of statuary dedicated by Attalus I to the goddess Athena in celebration of his victory over the Galatians who had invaded Asia Minor. The monumental Altar of Zeus and Athena in this city are larger versions of the Temple of Ephesian Artemis. This extensive complex of statues was undertaken by sculptors who graduated from Pergamum’s famous school of sculpture. Luke gave a sigh of regret that he would not be able to see such a beautiful collection of statuaries for a long period of time.

Upon reaching his uncle’s house, where he had stayed during