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I have a good reason to think that Luke died as a martyr partially because of the continuous persecution and pursuit of Christians by the Roman Empire.

The good reason being, the fact that because of his close companionship with Paul he had received the same fate, but I just want to know more about the consensus (if there is one) and what the truth is because there seems to be other accounts.

Although, I found out while searching for answers on Google on how some actually saying he just died of old age and claiming a location in Greece which is not=fully confirmed.

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    "I have some good reasons" — What are they? ¶ "some actually saying" — Who? And where is it recorded? ¶ "the consensus and what the truth is" — These are often different.
    – Ray Butterworth
    Commented Jun 30 at 21:11
  • @RayButterworth I have mended all the questions in my edit.
    – How why e
    Commented Jun 30 at 22:26
  • to be honest, i think you have to actually look at supporting evidence rather than just make assumptions. We have a number of mid to late second century onwards writers who talk about luke...Tertullian, Eusebius, Polycarp, Jerome etc...none of them as far as i am aware speak of his death as a matyr.Surely if he died a matyr at least one of them would have said so.
    – adam
    Commented Jul 1 at 2:13
  • @adam I mean I haven't looked into those authors, thank you for doing so. I am just pointing from what I have found is said from other Christian forums and sites, one of them being a Catholic one and I partially think they have reasons to say so and this is what it says.
    – How why e
    Commented Jul 1 at 2:56
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    "one of them being a Catholic" — CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA* says: "*it is controverted whether he actually died a martyr's death. St. Jerome writes of him (De Vir. III., vii). "Sepultus est Constantinopoli, ad quam urbem vigesimo Constantii anno, ossa ejus cum reliquiis Andreæ Apostoli translata sunt [de Achaia?]." ("He was buried in Constantinople, to which city in the twentieth year of Constantius, his bones were transferred with the remains of Andrew the Apostle [from Achaia?].")
    – Ray Butterworth
    Commented Jul 1 at 13:50

2 Answers 2

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Luke, the evangelist, was the author of the Gospel which goes under his name. He traveled with Paul through various countries, and is supposed to have been hanged on an olive tree, by the idolatrous priests of Greece.

Bible Study Tools quoting Foxe's Book of Martys

Foxe's Book of Martyrs 1563 -Wikipedia

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  • That Wikipedia article contains a lot of negative views of Foxe's scholarship and reliability. When writing 1500 years after the fact, did he have a source for "supposed to have been hanged", or did he just make it up?
    – Ray Butterworth
    Commented Jul 2 at 0:17
  • Thank you, Nigel. Your help is always appreciated!
    – How why e
    Commented Jul 2 at 0:54
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    @RayButterworth For over four centuries Foxe's Book of Martyrs had pride of place alongside the Authorised Version of the Bible in many homes. He was a respected scholar who reported, faithfully, his own researched findings. Did you just 'make it up' that Foxe mis-reported something ? Or can you substantiate your accusation with hard evidence ?
    – Nigel J
    Commented Jul 2 at 6:03
  • He is more respected now, but for a long time definitely wasn't. E.g. the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica says "The gross blunders due to carelessness have often been exposed, and there is no doubt that Foxe was only too ready to believe evil of the Catholics, and he cannot always be exonerated from the charge of wilful falsification of evidence.", as reported in Foxe's Book of Martyrs - Wikipedia.
    – Ray Butterworth
    Commented Jul 2 at 12:37
  • @RayButterworth Foxe lived in a very different day from us. It is easy to criticise. But unless substantial evidence is available about the particular matter of Luke ., . . . . . . . then Foxe has simply made a suggestion.
    – Nigel J
    Commented Jul 2 at 16:57
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St. Luke the Evangelist

Most reliable info I could find is that:

Luke was 84 years old when the wicked idolaters tortured him for the sake of Christ and hanged him from an olive tree in the town of Thebes, in Beothia of Greece

Source: Nikiphoros-Kallistos Xanthopoulos, Eccles. History XIVth c. AD., Migne P.G. 145, 876

Source: https://catalog.obitel-minsk.com/blog/2016/11/the-life-travels-and-martyrdom-of

This website does not cite any source for this account.

Returning to Greece he again set up churches there, primarily in Boethia, ordained priests and deacons, and healed those sick of body and soul. Like his friend and mentor, the Apostle Paul, St. Luke fought the good fight, finished his course and kept the Faith. At the age of eighty-four, he died a martyr’s death in Achaia, crucified on an olive tree in lieu of a cross. His precious body was buried in Thebes, the principal city of Boetia, where his holy relics, which were responsible for a multitude of hearings, were to be found until the second half of the fourth century; they were subsequently transferred to Constantinople, the capital of the Eastern Empire.

Russian orthodox church:

He was eighty-four years old when wicked idol-worshippers put him to torture for the sake of Christ and hanged him from an olive tree in the town of Thebes in Beothia.

I've also found different accounts from the Ethiopian Orthodox Church...

Source Ethiopian Synaxarium p. 103-104

Saint Luke the evangelist, the physician, became a martyr on November 1 (Tikimet 22).... After the death of Peter and Paul, Luke preached in the country of Rome.....When he had come to Nero, Emperor of Rome, he stood up before him. The emperor said to him, “How much longer will you lead men into error by thy sorcery?” Saint Luke answered and said to him, “I am not a magician, but an Apostle of our Lord Christ, the Son of the Living God.” .... The emperor commanded his soldiers to cut off their heads, the head of Saint Luke the apostle, and the soldiers cut them off. The saints received crowns of martyrdom in the kingdom of the heavens. They placed the body of Saint Luke the apostle in a hair sack and cast it into the sea

It seems there is a seperate account that St Luke was beheaded by Nero. Though more information points to the actual events being the death in or near Beothia in Greece involving an olive tree.

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