THEOPHILUS (Θεόφιλος, “friend of God”). – A person to whom the Evangelist St Luke dedicated his books (the Third Gospel, Acts of the Apostles).
Some have supposed that T. was a fictitious name, collectively indicating the Christian, the friend of God, but the title “most excellent” (κράτιστε, Vulgate optime), attributed to T. in the Gospel (Lk 1:3) and in Acts to the Roman procurators Felix (Acts 23:26; 24:3) and Festus (ibid., 26:25), leads one to believe that he was an illustrious and authoritative personage. T., however, remains unknown. Conjectures identifying him with some governor are unfounded. From the absence of κράτιστε in the address of Acts 1:1, some suppose that, in the interval between the composition of the Third Gospel and the Acts, T. had at first categorically received baptism.
Pietro De Ambroggi