Introduction (1:1-4).
In approaching this introduction we should recognise that it conforms with literary practise in the world of Luke's day.
Josephus in ‘Against Appion' opens his writings similarly. In his opening to book 1 he says, “In my history of our Antiquities, most excellent Epaphroditus, I have, I think, made sufficiently clear to any who may peruse that work the extreme antiquity of our Jewish race, the purity of the original stock and the manner in which it established itself in the country which we occupy today..... Since, however, I observe that a considerable number of persons,.... discredit the statements in my history concerning our antiquity,.... I consider it my duty to devote a brief treatise to all these points, in order at once to convict our detractors of malignity and deliberate falsehood, to correct the ignorance of others, and to instruct all who desire to know the truth concerning the antiquity of our race.”
He then commences book 2 in this way:
“In the first volume of this work, my most esteemed Epaphroditus, I demonstrated the antiquity of our race, corroborating my statements by the writings of the Phoenicians, Chaldaeans, and Egyptians..... I also challenged the statements of Manetho, Chaeremon and some others. I shall now proceed to refute the rest of the authors who have attacked us.” It will be seen how similar in general terms this is to Luke's openings, not because either was acquainted with the other, but because it was a standard literary method of the day.
But note that Luke is able to point to eyewitnesses, which Josephus was necessarily unable to do.