Gospel of Luke: Geography and Places

I promise that it is not my plan to simply try the patience of any readers (or, for material like this, skimmers). But please bear with me while I finish up the canonical gospels here, before I get to the ultimate point.

Here are places you can find referenced in the Gospel of Luke, once again in roughly the order in which they are first named:

• Judea
  
• Temple
  
• At the Temple: the right side of altar of incense
  
• Galilee
  
• Nazareth
  
• hill country
  
• Israel
  
• Syria
  
• Bethlehem
  
• Jerusalem
  
• Iturea
  
• Trachonitis
  
• Abilene
  
• Jordan
  
• Capernaum
  
• Sarepta (Zarephath)
  
• Sidon
  
• Simon's house (4:38)
  
• lake of Gennesaret
  
• Levi's house (5:29)
  
• Tyre
  
• Nain
  
• house of Simon the Pharisee (7:36-40)
  
• person referred to as Magdalene
  
• Gadarenes
  
• Sodom (historical reference)
  
• Chorazin
  
• Bethsaida
  
• Jericho
  
• person referred to as Samaritan
  
• home of Martha (Luke 10:38)
  
• people referred to as Ninevites (historical reference)
  
• Nineveh
  
• Siloam (in reference to a tower)
  
• Bethphage
  
• Bethany
  
• house with an upper room
  
• Mount of Olives
  
• high priest's house
  
• person referred to as Cyrenian
  
• person referred to as "of Arimathea"
  
• sepulcher
  
• Emmaus

In Luke's gospel, again we see the author paying attention to the details of where events had taken place. Often we see actions that took place in private -- in the homes of people we know such as Simon Peter, Levi, Martha, or Simon the Pharisee. Sometimes we see a home whose owner is not introduced, such as the home in Jerusalem with an upper room where they ate the Passover.

Luke's gospel, like those of Matthew and Mark, has events that can be placed on a map. Often there is enough information so that someone from that time could have located the house or building -- or even the room within the building -- where something was said or done. In the Gospel of Luke, again we see Jesus spending his time in known places that were identified for the first readers of the gospel.