Eyewitnesses!

Original Autograph Unearthed
It was on June 12, 2019 that a team of international archaeologists made the most startling biblical discovery since 1947, the initial finding of the Dead Sea scrolls.
The team was led by veteran archaeologist William D. Johnson, PhDs in archaeology and anthropology from Yale University, and full professor of both at the University of Nebraska. They were digging out some old catacombs that had been partially filled in antiquity not far north of ancient Rome and the Coliseum when they made the find.
What they uncovered was an earthenware jar that contained a letter and pages of written interviews with various people. Truly astonishing is that this is a letter to Theophilus written by the physician Luke, author of two New Testament canonical books.
Luke's letters to Theophilus, this now being the third, all ascribe to him the usual title of an official in the Roman government.
It is assumed from finding this letter in Rome that Theophilus was a government official in Rome who had heard about Jesus from Paul, and maybe Luke himself, and asked to know more. Luke wrote to him the two accounts today recorded in the New Testament as the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles.
First, he told about the life of Jesus and who he was. In that first account, Luke clearly delineated the life and ministry of the Son of God. Luke's account of the life of Jesus is certainly the most well-known of the four gospels in that it shows more of Jesus' humanity and chronological life than the others.
It has been used often over the years in making films, plays and musical adaptations of the life of Jesus. Luke's account of Jesus’ encounters with others is beautiful in that they describe the compassion of the Savoir when dealing with the people for whom he came to serve. It is also the gospel of praise of God and God's wooing of all men.
In his second letter to this Roman official, now known as the Acts of the Apostles, or simply, Acts, Luke tells how the life of Jesus affected those around him; those who became committed followers of the man from Nazareth; those who referred to themselves as members of "The Way."
This second letter concentrates mostly on the life and travels of Paul as Paul sought to serve the Savoir who had miraculously called him into service.
Much of the letter, beginning with Paul’s second missionary journey, is a first person account, showing that Luke was with Paul much of the time that is covered by the account. It ends abruptly with Paul in prison in Rome.
In this third letter, now being revealed to the world for the first time, Luke tells how he hopes to write again to Theophilus and complete the story which the Bible records as Acts. That letter, if it was ever written, remains to be found.
How this third Lucan letter found its way into the catacombs can only be surmised. It was not found with other writings, other than the interviews, but was the sole container of documents in a solitary hiding place.
The original is written on parchment and was found inside an earthenware jar that had been plugged with cloth and the cloth covered with melted beeswax. This formed an airtight seal for these more-than-1900 years, preserving the writing very clearly and keeping the parchment from drying itself to dust.
That it is an original autograph can be doubted none at all. Radio carbon dating of a corner of the parchment on the final leaf confirms the authenticity of the date of the leather.
There were no markings on the jar or anything accompanying the manuscript inside. It was found in the back of a collapsed loculi (rectangular niches used for burials) which was part of a cubicula that was filled with human skeletal remains.
When the bones were removed, a lighter color of fill was noticed about three feet up the side of the back of the burial chamber. Such a discoloration led archaeologists to surmise correctly that something, indeed, was behind the wall.
This lighter fill was slowly and carefully removed and the jar found alone inside a smaller niche that had been dug into the wall, seemingly for the purpose of hiding the jar and its contents.
For several weeks, investigations of the jar proved fruitless in making an identification of its place of manufacture or ownership, but X-rays showed the manuscripts inside.
The origin of the mica temper used to harden the pottery could not be determined; far too much mica exists in the Mediterranean area and this type was very common to many regions and used in many locations for the manufacture of pottery.
Eventually, the jar was opened in a hermetically controlled room where temperature and humidity were carefully monitored. Researchers found the parchment was in incredibly good condition when removed and it was quickly stabilized. Translation was begun immediately.
The manuscript is written in exceptionally fine Greek, even considered classic Greek, much like the opening verses of Luke's first letter to Theophilus.
The interviews, also found in the jar, are all in the same hand so it appears that either Luke or a secretary he hired to take his dictation wrote the first-person accounts as they were given by the interviewee. They are mostly on papyrus, but some parchment.
The accompanying letter is also in the same handwriting, leading most researchers on the project to believe it is Luke, himself, who took down the interviews.
Luke may have used the same amanuensis during the interviews, but that is doubtful as there probably would have been several years between the writing of them and the letter. Most all of these interviews were incorporated into his earlier gospel account, but some were not.