Spoke 20 Proverbs, Luke, 3 John

Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us, Even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the word; It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus, That thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed.[Same purpose as Prov 1:3, 22:21] Luke 1:1ff (Spoke 20, Cycle 2)

Luke addressed his Gospel to the most excellent Theophilus, which means Friend of God, from the roots Theos (God) and philos (friend). Most commentators think that Theophilus was a real person, while others suggest he might be symbolic of all who would become a friend of God through faith in Jesus. It does not really matter what Luke intended, because the Divine Intent shines with perfect clarity. About 63% of all instances of philos in the Five New Testament History Books appear in Luke's Gospel, as shown in the graph below. This the links directly to its Hebrew equivalent, the Resh KeyWord reyah. The theme based on these words distinctly flavors his Gospel, as noted above by Geldenhuys and here again in this quote Herbert Lackyer's All the Parables of the Bible , (emphasis mine):

As we shall see, these parables peculiar to Luke are characteristic in that they are taken up with the great truths of love, grace, forgiveness and condescension. ... It is most distinctive of him to select for his narrative those incidents and discourses which speak most eloquently of Jesus as the Friend of all sinners, even the most depraved, the Associate and Healer of all souls even the most sick and wounded. ... It is Luke, above all others, who represents the Son of Man as the Physician whose joy it is to give access to Himself in the most diseased and sunken among them.

The miracle of God is that these themes are also characteristic of Proverbs. The graph below shows the distribution of the word "friend" in the KJV on the Wheel. The largest black peak represents the 20 hits from Proverbs. It aligns with the second largest peak of 15 hits found in Luke. And what of that little white bar on top of the peak on Spoke 20? That marks the two hits from the tiny Book of 3 John! The common theme of Spoke 20 is now visually evident. The graph shows in a glance what would be plainly evident after a carefully reading of all the Books of the Bible. The theme of friend, based on the Resh KeyWord reyah, dominates Spoke 20. Indeed, "there is a friend [Jesus Christ] who sticks closer than a brother" (Prov 18:24).

Yet there is still more! The word friend also distinguishes parallel passages between Matthew and Luke. The table on the next page lists four where Luke adds a reference to friend not found in Matthew. This should be compared to the dominance of righteousness in Matthew (BW book pg 325).