Was Luke an Apostle?

[Theban]

So I was praying the Matutinum this morning when I came across this in a homily by St. Ambrose:

“…even Luke, who earned to himself to be an Evangelist, albeit he was not an Apostle…”

Now it was my understanding that all of the 12 Disciples were also Apostles, yet here St. Ambrose seems to say Luke was not. So am I missing something, or is St. Ambrose just making an honest mistake here?

 

[BartholomewB]

No, Luke was not one of the Twelve.

 

[Theban]

Oh, hahaha sorry my mistake. Guess I need to go over my basics again

 

[angel12]

Oh, hahaha sorry my mistake. Guess I need to go over my basics again

It’s so easy to forget that he wasn’t, with 2 books of the New Testament to his credit.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

It was generally thought for a long time that Luke was a gentile who was converted by St. Paul (who also wasn’t one of the Twelve), although some have disputed this and claimed he was a Hellenized Jew.

Just for the record, the Twelve were: Peter and Andrew (brothers), James “the greater” and John “the Evangelist” (brothers), James “the lesser”, Matthew, Bartholomew, Thomas, Philip, Simon the Zealot, Jude, and Matthias (who was chosen to replace Judas).