Indeed of all the
meanings of this word noble is the least proper. No judgment therefore
can be pronounced in favour of a title by any analysis of the word.
[Footnote 50: [Greek: kralistos]]
Let us now examine it as used by St. Luke. And here almost every
consideration makes against it, as an established title. In the first
place, the wisest commentators do not know who Theophilus was. It has
been supposed by many learned fathers, such as Epephanius, Salvian, and
others, that St. Luke, in addressing his gospel to Theophilus, addressed
it as the words, "excellent Theophilus" import, to every "firm lover of
God," or, if St. Luke uses the style of [51]Athanasius, to "every good
Christian." But on a supposition that Theophilus had been a living
character, and a man in power, the use of the epithet is against it as a
title of rank; because St. Luke gives it to Theophilus in the beginning
of his gospel, and does not give it to him, when he addresses him in the
acts. If therefore he had addressed him in this manner, because
excellent was his proper title, on one occasion, it would have been a
kind of legal, and at any rate a disrespectful omission, not to have
given it to him on the other. With respect to the term noble as used by
St.
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