In English, Theophilus is also written "Theophilos", both a common name and an honorary title among the learned (academic) Romans and Jews of the era.
[citation needed] Similarly, John Wesley in his Notes on the New Testament recorded that Theophilus was "a person of eminent quality at Alexandria", which he understood to be the tradition 'of the ancients'.
Some biblical interpreters have concluded that he was a Roman official who had been initiated into the church's teachings, for whom Luke now provided a full narrative.
[5] However, since it is not certain whether the κράτιστε was meant as a technically correct form of address for a Roman nobleman or merely as a general honouring statement about Theophilus, it is not possible to prove that he belonged to the upper class.
In this tradition the author's targeted audience, as with all other canonical Gospels, were the learned (academic) but unnamed men and women of the era.
[8] To support this claim people appeal to the formal legalese present in the prologue to the Gospel such as "eye witnesses," "account," "carefully investigated," "know the certainty of things which you have been instructed."
Some have suggested that Luke's Gospel could be seen as an allegorical (רֶמֶז remez) reference to Jesus as "the man called the Branch" prophesied in Zechariah 3:8; 6:12–13, who is the ultimate high priest foreshadowed by the Levitical priesthood.
The Parables about the Good Samaritan, the Unjust Steward, the Rich Man and Lazarus and the Wicked Tenants are directed to the Sadducees who controlled the temple establishment.
This means that the religious authorities controlled tremendous wealth that had been in times past properly distributed to the people as part of the institutional form of almsgiving.
The priests in these parables are unfaithful, dishonest and disobedient because, inter alia, they have not invited the poor, the maimed, the lame and the blind to the banquet table.