Learning Bible-Cev: Luke's Gospel

The King James version of the Bible is not the most scholarly or painstakingly accurate translation. It remains, however, the most literary and perhaps the most influential version. For people of a certain age, like me, this is the version we heard as children. Biblical thinking is that the gospels were written serperately and at different times for different audiences. It can be instructive to read them seperately. If Luke was the only or the primary text, the early church members who read it would have had a wonderful set of stories from an author (probably not Jewish) writing comfortably in his primary language. They would have had a great nativity narrative, parables including the Good Samaritan, Martha and Mary, the Prodigal Son and the Good Thief. Early church members who did not have Luke available would have missed all that. In Luke, the Sermon on the Mount was given in the valley and blessing for the poor and afflicted alternate with woes predicted for the rich and satisfied. Luke writes about Jesus's message and mercy for all people and social judgement like forgiving debts and freeing prisoners. Whatever else you think about the writer of Luke, he can certainly tell a story.