Colossians 4:14

Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas, greet you.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(14) Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas.—Comp. Philemon 1:24. The original is even more emphatic, “Luke the physician, the beloved one.” Demas, on the contrary, is barely named. It is impossible not to pass on in thought to the last notice of the two by St. Paul (2Timothy 4:10), “Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world. . . . only Luke is with me.”

On the relation of St. Luke to St. Paul, see Introduction to the Acts. Here we need only remark that the emphatic mention of him as “the beloved physician” suggests the idea that it was both as physician and as friend that St. Luke, now, as in the last captivity, was with the Apostle. Though the captivity was not, according to ancient ideas, severe, it must have told upon his weak and shattered health.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

4:10-18 Paul had differed with Barnabas, on the account of this Mark, yet he is not only reconciled, but recommends him to the churches; an example of a truly Christian and forgiving spirit. If men have been guilty of a fault, it must not always be remembered against them. We must forget as well as forgive. The apostle had comfort in the communion of saints and ministers. One is his fellow-servant, another his fellow-prisoner, and all his fellow-workers, working out their own salvation, and endeavouring to promote the salvation of others. The effectual, fervent prayer is the prevailing prayer, and availeth much. The smiles, flatteries, or frowns of the world, the spirit of error, or the working of self-love, leads many to a way of preaching and living which comes far short of fulfilling their ministry. But those who preach the same doctrine as Paul, and follow his example, may expect the Divine favour and blessing.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Luke, the beloved physician - This was undoubtedly the author of the Gospel which bears his name, and of the Acts of the Apostles. He is mentioned as the traveling companion of Paul in Acts 17:10, and appears to have accompanied him afterward until his imprisonment at Rome see 2 Timothy 4:11. From Colossians 4:11, it is evident that he was not by birth a Jew, but was probably a proselyte. He is supposed to have been a native of Cyrene, and to have died in Achaia, soon after the martyrdom of Paul, at the advanced age of 84. See Rob. Cal. Art. Luke. He is here mentioned as a physician, and in his Gospel, and in the Acts , there are incidental evidences that he was acquainted with the science of medicine, and that he observed the events which he has recorded with the eye of one who practiced the healing art. It is easy to imagine that the presence of a physician might have been of important service to the apostle Paul in his travels; and that his acquaintance with the art of healing may have aided not a little in the furtherance of the gospel. The miraculous power of healing, possessed by the Saviour and his apostles, contributed much to the success of their preaching; for the power of alleviating pain of body - of restoring to health by miracles, would not only be an evidence of the divine origin of their mission - a credential that they were sent from God, but would dispose those who had received such important benefits to listen attentively to the message of salvation. One of the best qualifications in missionaries in modern times, in order to gain access to the pagan, is an acquaintance with the healing art.

And Demas - Demas is mentioned in two other places, Plm 1:24, and 2 Timothy 4:10. He is here spoken of with commendation as one in whom the apostle had confidence. Afterwards, when troubles thickened, he was not found proof to the trials which threatened him in Rome, and forsook the apostle and went to Thessalonica. He did this under the influence of the "love of this present world," or of life, evidently unwilling to lay down his life in the cause for which Paul suffered; see the notes at 2 Timothy 4:10. His departure, and that of the others on whom Paul relied in Rome, was one of the severest trials which he was called there to endure; see the notes at 2 Timothy 4:16.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

14. It is conjectured that Luke "the beloved physician" (the same as the Evangelist), may have first become connected with Paul in professionally attending on him in the sickness under which he labored in Phrygia and Galatia (in which latter place he was detained by sickness), in the early part of that journey wherein Luke first is found in his company (Ac 16:10; compare Note, see on [2435]Ga 4:13). Thus the allusion to his medical profession is appropriate in writing to men of Phrygia. Luke ministered to Paul in his last imprisonment (2Ti 4:11).

Demas—included among his "fellow laborers" (Phm 24), but afterwards a deserter from him through love of this world (2Ti 4:10). He alone has here no honorable or descriptive epithet attached to his name. Perhaps, already, his real character was betraying itself.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Luke, the beloved physician; whether this Luke was the same with him that penned the Gospel and the Acts, because the apostle here gives him no higher a commendation, some doubt. But others, and the most, conclude that as Matthew from a publican became an apostle, and others from fishers of fishes, fishers of men, so Luke from a physician of the body became a physician of souls, and that this was the very person who was Paul’s perpetual and individual companion in his travels, 2 Timothy 4:11 Philemon 1:24; considering from his style he was an excellent Grecian, (very fit for a physician), and made use of proper medical terms, Acts 15:39 17:16: and here the apostle calls him beloved, as he had done Tychicus, Colossians 4:7, and elsewhere his fellow labourer, who only of those that were not prisoners stuck to him, 2 Timothy 4:11. Some think it to be Luke whose praises are celebrated in the gospel, or evangelical churches, 2 Corinthians 8:18; others would have that to be Barnabas, or some other: his practising of physic was no more inconsistent with being an evangelist than Paul’s tent-making with being an apostle, 2 Thessalonians 3:8.

And Demas, greet you; he adds a third in this salutation from others, and that is Demas, who hitherto did persevere, and that as one of his fellow labourers, Philemon 1:24; though it should seem, afterwards, when the persecution grew hotter, he did for some worldly respect leave Paul, and depart unto Thessalonica, 2 Timothy 4:10.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Luke, the beloved physician,.... Luke the Evangelist, though some doubt it, is here intended, who was a constant companion of the apostle in his troubles, and went with him to Rome, as the Acts of the Apostles wrote by him show, and as from 2 Timothy 4:11 it appears; so Jerom (n) calls the Evangelist Luke, the physician of Antioch, for from thence he was; and being converted by the Apostle Paul, as is very probable, though some make him to be one of the seventy disciples, he became of a physician of bodies, a physician of souls: some say (o) he was a scholar of Galen, the famous physician, and others that he was his sister's son; who having heard of Christ's miracles, set out with his master Galen for Judea, to know the truth of them, of which they doubted; Galen died by the way, Luke came to Christ, and being taught by him, became one of the seventy disciples. The apostle calls him "beloved", not on account of his profession, in which he might be useful to many, but as he was a brother in Christ, a minister of the Gospel, and a fellow labourer of his. This is the same person as Lucas, mentioned along with Demas, and others, as here, in Plm 1:24. The name perhaps is Roman, but was, however, well known among the Jews; for they say (p), the

"witnesses that sign a divorce, and their names are as the names of strangers, what is to be done with it? there is none comes into our hands (is received) but "Lukus" and "Lus", and we allow it to be right:''

upon which the gloss says, because these were famous names:

and Demas greet you; the same who, through the love of the present world, forsook the apostle, 2 Timothy 4:10 which he did either after the writing of this epistle, or if before it, he was now returned again to him: his name seems to be the same with the Roman Dama, unless it should be a contraction of Demetrius, or rather of Demarchos; though the Jews make frequent mention of R. "Dimi", or "Demi", in their writings (q), which perhaps is the same name with this.

(n) Catalog. Script. Eccles. p. 91. Vid. Nicephor. Hist. l. 2. c. 43. (o) Vid. Castell. Lex. Polyglott. col. 1894. (p) T. Bab. Gittin, fol. 11. 2.((q) T. Bab. Gittin, fol. 19. 2. Nazir, fol. 36. 1. Sota, fol. 43. 2. Bava Kama, fol. 43.

Geneva Study Bible

Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas, greet you.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Colossians 4:14. Luke the physician, the (by me) beloved, is the Evangelist—a point which, in presence of the tradition current from Iren. iii. 14. 1 onward, is as little to be doubted as that the Mark of Colossians 4:10 is the Evangelist. Luke was with Paul at Caesarea (Philemon 1:24), and travelled with him to Rome (Acts 27:1), accompanying him, however, not as physician (as if μου or ἡμῶν had been appended), but as an associate in teaching, as συνεργός, Philemon 1:24. Hofmann calls this in question, in order to avoid the inference from Colossians 4:11, that Luke was a non-Israelite. The addition, moreover, of ὁ ἰατρός is simply to be explained after the analogy of all the previous salutations sent, by assuming that Paul has appended to each of the persons named a special characteristic description by way of recommendation.[177] The case of ΔΗΜᾶς is the only exception; on which account it is the more probable that the latter had even at this time (at the date of 2 Timothy 4:10 he has abandoned him) seemed to the apostle not quite surely entitled to a commendatory description, although he still, at Philemon 1:24, adduces him among his συνεργοί, to whose number he still belonged. Hence the assumption of such a probability is not strange, but is to be preferred to the altogether precarious opinion of Hofmann, that Demas was the amanuensis of the letter, and had, with the permission of the apostle, inserted his name (comp. Bengel’s suggestion). Whence was the reader to know that? How very different is it at Romans 16:22! The name itself is not Hebrew (in opposition to Schoettgen), but Greek; see Boeckh, Corp. inscrip. 1085; Becker, Anecd. 714.

[177] In the case of Luke, the attachment of the honourable professional designation ὁ ἰατρός to the name suggested itself so naturally and spontaneously—considering the peculiarity of his professional position, to which there was probably nothing similar in the case of any other συνεργός—that there is no reason to assume any special purpose in the selection (Chrysostom, Erasmus, and many, suggest that the object was to distinguish Luke from others of the same name).

Expositor's Greek Testament

Colossians 4:14. Λουκᾶς ὁ ἰατρὸς ὁ ἀγαπητὸς: “Luke the physician, the beloved,” no doubt to be identified with the evangelist Luke. His writings have been shown to exhibit a considerable use of medical terms. The name was originally Lucanus. He was clearly not one “of the circumcision” (Colossians 4:11), and this, as often pointed out, seems to exclude the possibility that he wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews.—Δημᾶς: mentioned last and without commendation. This is commonly explained as due to a foreboding of Paul that he would turn out badly, suggested by the reference to him in 2 Timothy 4:10 as having left him. But in Philm. 24 he is placed before Luke and numbered among Paul’s fellow-workers. Possibly he wrote the Epistle, and is thus mentioned last and without praise.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

14. Luke] Loucas, Lucas; Lucanus abbreviated. It is interesting to find the Second and Third Evangelists (see Colossians 4:8) in one small group around St Paul here. Cp. Philemon 1:24; 2 Timothy 4:11.—Lucas had accompanied St Paul to Rome; so the “we” “us” &c., of Acts 27, 28, implies. He is not named in Philippians, which is probably to be dated earlier than Colossians (see Philippians in this Series, pp. 14, 15, and above, p. 22); he may have left Rome and returned between St Paul’s arrival and the writing of this Epistle. He appears again in 2 Timothy 4:11 as the one personal attendant of the Apostle in his last imprisonment.

Tradition, vaguely supported at the best, says that he was born at Antioch in Syria; that he was one of the Seventy; that he was the anonymous disciple of the Walk to Emmaus; or, on the contrary, that he was a convert of St Paul’s; that after his master’s death he preached in Dalmatia, Gaul, Italy, and Macedonia; and that he died a martyr, in Achaia, or Bithynia, near the end of cent. 1. Lightfoot points out that he appears here as not “of the circumcision,” and therefore as a Gentile; and that this is “fatal” to the tradition that he was one of the Seventy. He surely indicates this himself in the exordium of his Gospel (Colossians 1:2), implying that he was not an “eyewitness of the word.”—See generally Smith’s Dict. of the Bible, art. Luke, and Dr F.W. Farrar’s edition of St Luke in this Series, Introduction, ch. 2.

the beloved] The adjective suggests a loveable man, tender and true; a character profoundly welcome to the life-worn heart of the Apostle. He uses it elsewhere of individuals, Romans 16:5; Romans 16:8-9; Romans 16:12; Ephesians 6:21; above, Colossians 1:7, Colossians 4:7; Colossians 4:9; 2 Timothy 1:2; Philemon 1:1-2; Philemon 1:16. Cp. 2 Peter 3:15; 3 John 1:1-2; 3 John 1:5; 3 John 1:11.

physician] “Indications of medical knowledge have been traced both in the third Gospel and in the Acts” (cp. Farrar, cited above, p. 21, note). “It has been observed also that St Luke’s first appearance in company with St Paul (Acts 16:10) nearly synchronizes with an attack of the Apostle’s constitutional malady (Galatians 4:13-14), so that he may have joined him partly in a professional capacity. There is no ground for questioning the ancient belief (Irenæus iii. 14, 1 sq.) that the physician is also the Evangelist … St Paul’s motive in specifying him as the physician may … have been … to emphasize his own obligations to his medical knowledge. The tradition that St Luke was a painter is quite late.” (Lightfoot.)

It may be observed that, whatever were the laws of “the Gift of Healing,” they threw no discredit, in St Paul’s view, on the skill and knowledge of the trained physician.

“To [St Luke]—to his allegiance, his ability, and his accurate preservation of facts—we are alone indebted for the greater part of what we know of the Apostle of the Gentiles” (Farrar).

Demas] Mentioned also Philemon 1:24; 2 Timothy 4:10. In the latter place he is contrasted with the faithful Luke: “Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world”; i.e., probably, preferring escape and life to the perils of association with Paul in his last crisis. The colourless mention of him here, just after “the beloved” Luke, suggests that already Demas was not all a Christian should be.—Probably he “was a Thessalonian (2 Timothy 4:10) and … [probably] his name was Demetrius” (Lightfoot. The Bishop refers for more detail to his, alas, never-accomplished Introduction to Thessalonians).

Bengel's Gnomen

Colossians 4:14. Ὁ ἰατρὸς, the physician) He is so called, either because he had practised, or was practising, medicine. He calls him Luke, as being sufficiently known to Timothy by his name alone, in 2 Timothy 4:11. He calls him the physician here, as being unknown to the Colossians.—Δημᾶς, Demas) He alone is put without any descriptive epithet; comp. 2 Timothy 4:10 : but perhaps the reason for this was, that Demas wrote the epistle under the dictation of Paul.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 14. - Luke the physician, the beloved, saluteth you (Philemon 1:24; 2 Timothy 4:11). This reference to Luke's profession is extremely interesting. We gather from the use of the first person plural in Acts 16:10-17, and again from Acts 20:5 to the end of the narrative, that he joined St. Paul on his first voyage to Europe and was left behind at Philippi; and rejoined him six years after on the journey to Jerusalem which completed his third missionary circuit, continuing with him during his voyage to Rome and his imprisonment. This faithful friend attended him in his second captivity, and solaced his last hours; "Only Luke is with me" (2 Timothy 4:11). His being called "the physician" suggests that he ministered to the apostle in this capacity, especially as "his first appearance in St. Paul's company synchronizes with an attack of St. Paul's constitutional malady" (Lightfoot: comp. Acts 16:10 and Galatians 4:13-15; the illness referred to in 2 Corinthians 1:8-10 and 2 Cor 4:7-5:8 may partly have led to Luke's rejoining St. Paul in Macedonia). St Luke's writings testify both to his medical knowledge and to his Pauline sympathies. His companionship probably gave a special colouring to the phraseology and cast of thought of St. Paul's later Epistles. (On the relations of St. Luke and St. Paul, see a valuable Paper by Dean Plumptre in the Expositor, first series, vol. 4. pp. 134-156.) "The beloved" is a distinct appellation, due partly to Luke's services to the apostle, but chiefly, one would suppose, to the amiable and gentle disposition of the writer of the third Gospel. It is not unlikely that he is "the brother" referred to in 2 Corinthians 8:18, 19. Lucas is a contraction for Lucanus; so that he was not the "Lucius" of Acts 13:1, nor, certainly, the "Lucius my kinsman" of Romans 16:21, who was a Jew. He was probably, like many physicians of that period, a freedman; and, since freedmen took the name of the house to which they had belonged, may have been, as Plumptre conjectures, connected with the family of the Roman philosopher Seneca and the poet Lucan. And Demas (Philemon 1:24; 2 Timothy 4:10), who alone receives no word of commendation - a fact significant in view of the melancholy sentence pronounced upon him in 2 Timothy 4:10. His name is probably short for Demetrius. Colossians 4:14

Vincent's Word Studies

Luke - Demas

See on Plm 1:24.

The beloved physician

See Introduction to Luke.