The Historical Reliability of the New Testament

[Angrboda]

There is absolutely no question about the fact that the Luke who wrote Luke-Acts is the same person as the travelling companion of Paul. You may consider the case of the "we" passages in Acts, for example. The author is travelling with Paul - hence he says "we..." instead of merely "Paul...".

The traditional view recognizes that Luke was not an eyewitness of the events in the Gospel, nor of the events prior to Paul's arrival in Troas in Acts 16:8, and the first "we" passage in Acts 16:10.[13] In the preface to Luke, the author refers to having eyewitness testimony of events in the Gospel "handed down to us" and to having undertaken a "careful investigation", but the author does not mention his own name or explicitly claim to be an eyewitness to any of the events, except for the we passages.

Earlier in this thread, I provided all of the scriptural references from Paul to Luke. They influenced each other. So, what?

Neither of them was present at the Last Supper. So, either Luke got his source materials for the words "Do this in remembrance of me" from his own interviews and research (and Paul copied it) or Paul got it from the apostles in Jerusalem during his visits there (and Luke copied Paul).

Either way, the dating material would be very early, and this is something that skeptics cannot allow.

No, the materials would not be dated very early either way.  That's the point.  If Paul was the source of the common passages referenced by Paul, then you cannot date the composition of Luke-Acts prior to Paul.  The textual evidence in Acts suggests that it was Luke who was influenced by Paul in his later account.  This deprives you of justification for the early dating.  Hearsay from someone who wasn't even there at the time, written years — even decades later — is hardly a testimony to historical reliability of the documents.  You need an early date because Paul is a relatively poor source for historical details about Jesus; without the early date, the historical reliability of the accounts of Jesus' life is put in doubt.