Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 April 2003
The majority of commentators contend that αυτοπται και υπηρεται (‘eyewitnesses and ministers’) in Luke 1:2b refers to the followers of Jesus who later become identified in Acts as his apostles and other key witnesses such as Stephen, Philip, and Paul. This essay challenges the majority opinion in arguing that numerous parallels between the characters in the infancy narrative and the disciples as portrayed in Luke 24 and Acts signal the evangelist's intent to present the faithful heralds of John's and Jesus' birth in Luke 1–2 as among those who are ‘eye-witnesses and ministers of the word’.