Exegesis:
edoxe kamoi ‘it seemed good to me also…’; here begins the main clause (see above).
dokeō ‘to believe,’ ‘to seem,’ also impersonal dokei ‘it seems,’ or, with following infinitive ‘it seems good.’
parēkolouthēkoti anōthen pasin akribōs ‘having investigated from the beginning everything accurately.’ This participial phrase serves to bring out the qualification of the author for his task.
parakoloutheō ‘to follow,’ ‘to accompany,’ or ‘to trace’ (Phillips), ‘to investigate’ (An American Translation). When taken in the former sense of the word would imply that Luke had been familiar with what he described (cf. The Four Gospels – a New Translation, “having kept in close touch with the whole course of events”), that he was “a contemporary witness” (Mouton-Milligan s.v., p. 486, cf. also the literature quoted there). But this is against the general idea of the preface of Luke’s Gospel, according to which Luke ranks himself with the many Gospel-writers who have to rely upon that which the original eyewitnesses have handed down to them, cf. kamoi ‘to me also.’ This has also a bearing upon the interpretation of anōthen.
anōthen ‘from the beginning,’ ‘for a long time,’ syntactically going with parēkolouthēkoti. When interpreted as ‘from the beginning’ it goes semantically with the following pasin, ‘all things,’ because it refers to the beginning of those things, not to the investigation, cf. “from their beginning” (Schonfield); when rendered ‘for a long time’ it qualifies the investigation as to its duration.
pasin, scil. pragmasin (cf. v. 1) ‘all things.’
akribōs ‘accurately,’ qualifies parēkolouthēkoti when that word is interpreted as ‘having investigated’ (see above); when, however, parēkolouthēkoti is interpreted as ‘having been familiar with,’ akribōs must go with grapsai ‘to write.’
kathexēs soi grapsai ‘to write for you in proper order,’ without grammatical direct object. Therefore several translations render the adverb kathexēs by means of a substantive which serves as object with grapsai, cf. Revised Standard Version, New English Bible, An American Translation.
kathexēs (also 8.1) ‘in proper order,’ not necessarily chronologically but rather systematically, cf. Acts 11.4.
soi ‘for you,’ i.e. ‘for your benefit,’ as explained in v. 4, or ‘in dedication to you,’ cf. The Four Gospels – a New Translation, not ‘to you,’ which would make the Gospel a letter to Theophilus.
graphō ‘to write,’ ‘to compose.’
kratiste Theophile ‘most excellent Theophilus’ or “your Excellency” (Moffatt, Translator’s New Testament, and others). This title implies that Theophilus is considered to be a man of high social status. The question whether or not Theophilus was a Christian at the time when this was written is much debated but cannot be decided, since nothing is known of him beyond the mentioning of his name here and Acts 1.1. A majority of scholars favours the opinion that he was not (yet) a Christian (some think that the omission of kratiste or a similar adjective in Acts 1.1 implies that he became a Christian during the time between Luke’s Gospel and Acts). From this supposition it follows that Theophilus is not to be included in en hēmin (v. 1), or in hēmin (v. 2).
Translation:
This and the preceding verse specify in detail how Luke came to know the events he was to report in his Gospel. Such specification will be important for translators working in languages where the form of the entire narrative, or of parts of it, is dependent on the kind of evidence available to the speaker. Cf. e.g. Guaica, Warao and Shipibo-Conibo, where a narrator has to indicate whether the events described and the speeches reported have been personally witnessed by him, have been told to him by others, are a conjecture, or are legendary.
It seemed good to me, or, ‘I was of the opinion (lit. the saying of my heart was)’ (Tae’), ‘I decided’ (Kituba; similarly Batak Toba, lit. ‘I made-one my-mind’), ‘I conceived the plan’ (lit. ‘it got into my head’) (Sranan Tongo).
Having followed all things closely for some time past, to write …. The participial phrase may be taken as having temporal or casual force. Where co-ordination is preferable one may say e.g., ‘to look into all things…, to put them on paper’ (Sranan Tongo); or, supposing another possible order of events, “I…, as one who has gone over the … events, have decided to write…” (New English Bible), ‘I also have investigated all things … Therefore I decided to write….’ Having followed, or, ‘investigated’ (see Exegesis); or, ‘I have enquired from those who know’ (Tae’ 1933). All things, i.e. all the things meant in v. 1; hence, ‘all the events,’ ‘all that.’ — It is often not easy to reproduce this accumulation of qualifying expressions without producing a cumbersome sentence. One may bring together two terms in one phrase, e.g. “the whole course of these events” (The Four Gospels – a New Translation, New English Bible), combining Gr. anōthen ‘for a long time’ and pasin ‘all things’; or in one compound verb, combining the ideas ‘closely’ and ‘investigation’ (Javanese); or in one adverbial expression built on a root meaning ‘complete,’ combining ‘all things’ and ‘closely’ (Thai). But one may not omit one or two of these qualifications, as has sometimes been done.
To write an orderly account, or, ‘write one-after-another that-which happened’ (Apache), ‘write-completely item-by-item’ (Ekari), .’.. to put them on paper, to fit-everything-together just as it happened’ (Sranan Tongo). In the latter case the resulting series of three co-ordinated clauses each beginning with a verb (cf. above on “having followed all things”, etc.), suggests urgency and accumulation, and thus Sranan Tongo reproduces a closely equivalent stylistic effect, though using syntactic means different from those of the original.
For you, most excellent Theophilus. In languages using honorifics, pronoun and epithet may have to be combined in one honorific pronoun, or pronominal expression, cf. ‘Your Excellency’ in modern English versions.
The vocative, or form of address, most excellent Theophilus, may have to be marked as such by a preposed exclamational particle (e.g. in Batak Toba), or by a possessive (e.g. in Sranan Tongo, lit. ‘my grand-master T’). In some languages it must have another position, e.g. at the beginning of the discourse, or inserted close to the first words or phrases, e.g. ‘As you know, Theophilus, many…,’ or must become an independent clause or phrase at the head of the dedication, e.g. ‘To (lit. offered to) The Honourable Teofilus’ (Balinese). In some languages the use of vocatives is restricted to special cases, for instance, to calling a person’s attention when his attention has strayed (Machiguenga); then it may better be simply omitted here, or be shifted to another syntactic position, as mentioned above for Balinese. — Most excellent. Of this and comparable epithets or titles, such as, ‘highly respected’ (Navajo), ‘dear’ (English), ‘rich/fortunate’ (Kannada, used in addressing people of high position, socially or economically, and in Christian circles, the apostles), it is, of course, the conventional connotation that matters, not the literal meaning. Some languages, however, entirely lack such conventional epithets of polite address; then the translator has either to translate the word literally, with as result a term or phrase which by its very newness has a higher information load than the original (e.g. in Batak Toba), or to neglect it (as has been done in Batak Toba 1885, Tboli). Usually the first solution is chosen, because of the feeling that a Bible translator should translate everything that is in the original. Yet a normal form of address with some informational loss may be preferable to an abnormal expression with an increase in information load. In Shipibo-Conibo long epithets are far from polite, because they express ridicule; therefore the version simply has ‘strong’ here.
Quoted with permission from Reiling, J. and Swellengrebel, J.L. A Handbook on the Gospel of Luke. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1971. For this and other handbooks for translators see here . Make sure to also consult the Handbook on the Gospel of Mark for parallel or similar verses.