Theophilus

Theophilus is the name or honorary title of the person to whom the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles are addressed. It is thought that both the Gospel of Luke and Acts of the Apostles were written by the same author, and often argued that the two books were originally a single unified work

The name “Theophilus” is actually a joining of two Greek words, theos and phileo, which mean God and love respectively. Thus the combination would be Theophilus or “lover of God.” If this is true it could refer to either an individual or a group of people who loved God.
He was the High Priest in the Second Temple in Jerusalem from 37 to 41 CE according to Josephus’s Antiquities of the Jews.

The Gospel of Luke was written with the intention of leading Theophilus, a lost man, to faith in Christ. He became intentional by presenting the claims of Christ to him in written form so that Theophilus could have a clear understanding of all he needed to know about Jesus.

His name appears only two times in Scripture and both times in the writings of Luke (Luke 1:3, Acts 1:1). It is uncertain what role in the early church he played but he is noteworthy in the thinking of Luke for he directs both the Gospel account and the Acts account to Theophilus.
Various suggestions have been offered as to the identity of Theophilus. It is suggested that he is an actual person, perhaps a patron, of Luke and his work. Some have wondered if Luke was commissioned by Theophilus to prepare a record of both Jesus and the beginnings the church that bears Christ’s name (Romans 16:16). Cadbury notes that Theophilus was a common name for Jews and dates to at least the third century BC So it is unlikely we can determine much from the name itself.

He was the son of Annas and the brother-in-law of Caiaphas before whom Jesus was tried. The date of service was likely completed before Luke’s writings and therefore he probably should be discounted as the intended recipient.

Another High Priest named Mattathias ben Theophilus served from 65-66 AD and was overthrown in the time immediately before the destruction of Jerusalem. In his case, Theophilus is actually the name of his father, the aforementioned priest. His service also appears to come too late to have been the recipient.
Theophilus may have been a name given to the earliest believers in Jesus.
This seems an unsatisfactory conclusion for such naming conventions are generally foreign to the New Testament. But perhaps even more difficult is the context of Luke 1:3 where the reference is to “most excellent Theophilus.” In every other New Testament usage, the phrase, e