if he doesn't jump off the temple roof because it's wrong to tempt Gᴏᴅ, wouldn't it also have been tempting Gᴏᴅ to go 40 days without food? like idk maybe that is survivable but you're definitely risking it, especially if you're wandering the desert

headcanon that jesus wandering the desert was him coping with the horrible unrealistic expectations that people foisted on him since he was tiny. he tries suicide, by starving himself, and later by trying to jump from the temple roof

I also wonder if one of the things some people expected of him was to become a king, with all the wealth and power that comes with it. but he feels it's wrong (a temptation from the devil, so to speak) to take power like that, and his preaching when he barges into his childhood temple is anger at everyone who will only think of a better world as one with different boots to lick

I don't really know what to make of the Healing. the demons possessing people making them say things, and him commanding them to leave, reads in context to me like he's authoritatively and charismatically telling off bootlickers and then being taken aback. maybe the other stuff is just exaggerated physical relief from getting psychological relief in a message of hope, or something. or it's made up

the structure of this is very interesting to me, because it's not what I was expecting (having never read it).

because the book starts with "I am writing this to you, person named Theophilos, to give a truthful account of what really happened with this guy". I never really thought of it as having an author (people talk like the author is Literally Gᴏᴅ), let alone being addressed to an individual

also, I feel like the numbered verses might have been an unfortunate translation constraint. because the content of each verse has to independently be matched to the verse it's being translated from, so there isn't the freedom to rearrange sentences to fit a different language's flow. (I mean, english today doesn't flow the same way as english from 200 years ago, so I can't imagine it flows the same way as greek from 2000 years ago.) it gets really awkward and hard to follow at times

the beginning of Luke 5, Simon says (heh) that they've had no luck fishing all night. is fishing a night thing? I've always had this association of it being an early morning thing, but maybe it depends on the fish? or maybe they were just out way too early, and so by the time jesus finishes talking it has become the right time, and that's why suddenly they were catching loads of fish

simon absolutely loses his shit over it, too, getting all "I'm not worthy to be in your presence". and jesus then saying "ur gonna catch people next" sounds to me like he knows he just worked a crowd by knowing the right time to fish, and is telling simon "dude, chill, it just looks impressive, you can do it too"

stuck on the image of people lowering a paralyzed man down from the roof with ropes to get him in front of jesus because they couldn't get through the crowds. like, whose idea was that?

also, I kinda wonder about what paralysis means here. like, I know when I've had shutdowns, it has seemed to some people like a kind of paralysis. and someone telling me in that moment "it's okay, you're not broken or wrong, I know this isn't intentional, you aren't doomed", and then telling people who want me to think I'm broken for not being able to move myself to fuck off, might just get me feeling like I can move on my own

I prefer this interpretation to "disabled people can spontaneously Get Better", personally, although ofc "it was staged" is also a possibility

only just now realized the cw says tweeting instead of tooting 🐘

wait, there are two Judases? as if Simon/Peter/Simon Peter wasn't confusing enough

I'm on the sermon on the plain (a brief wiki look tells me this is similar to but distinct from the sermon on the mount), and *this* is the jesus I learned about in sunday school

wait hang on jesus made a dead person, literally being carried in a funeral procession, come back to life? like, I know the ending of this guy's story and all, but still, zombies, really?

or does the body have to be buried first for it to be a true zombie?

I'm just saying, this would still be an interesting story with only the miracles that leave room for non-miraculous explanations. really, even no miracles at all

I just prefer the idea of a jesus who could be miraculous or could be just clever, and it doesn't really matter cuz they're just a hook (or net #callback) anyway, just getting a crowd to gather so he can spread his genuine positive message

Luke 8 opens with a parable about strewn seeds trying to grow, to show how people can hear the message, even believe it, but not grok it. which feels important, like maybe it could be said that a Good Christian is one who examines whether they are misunderstanding the ideas, or giving up on them when they're hard, or are too distracted or busy to really enact the ideas

this has been a subtoot of *gestures vaguely at ✝️*

Luke 8:22-26, jesus wakes up to the boat he and his followers are in about to sink from a storm, and just wishes it away. and they're all like "omg how??" and he just gives them a wry smile and says "have a little faith, bro"

oh hey, Legion! I remember them from Mass Effect 2!

gotta say, not sure how I feel about how jesus handled this situation. Legion doesn't seem to want the demons (which I am 100% reading as alters) to go. I guess putting them in the pigs is a compromise, but why did the pigs all then stampede off a cliff? did the demon souls spook the pigs' souls or something?

I really want follow ups on all these miracles. did the healed stay healed? did the people forgiven lead better lives after? did Legion stay a singlet? or maybe some helpful alters stayed and it was just the destructive ones that left

call me, netflix

there are several stories where jesus says "don't tell anyone about this miracle" which like. it's in a book. it's in The Book. someone blabbed.

Luke 9 is giving me Troubled Jesus vibes again. he's asking who people think he is, prophesizing his death, saying someone's going to betray him. he heads toward Jerusalem, where he expects to die, and tells people off for things that would slow him down. even potential new followers wanting to bury their father or say goodbye to their family first

I wonder if maybe he's thinking his followers will never really Get his message, seeing that he can't change the world by preaching, feeling hopeless that it will ever change at all. wondering if he should just surrender himself for execution and go out a martyr

troubled jesus reminds me a lot of my ex, who I heard after we broke up had been seen preaching with a puppet in the subway, and would find the comparison wonderfully amusing

the good samaritan is another one of those sunday school values stories that a lot of people who thump the bible seem to have missed

what is the origin of using the word trespasses in the lords prayer, as opposed to debts? and did the word, at that time, have a larger meaning than just being on someone else's land? or was it just "hm we shouldn't tell the peasants it's debts or they might get ideas"

I can't tell if this book is genuinely getting less coherent or if I'm just getting tired

jesus says good people don't have to wash their hands. is this where zealous anti-masking comes from? good christians don't have to wear masks because a good christian couldn't be unclean inside?

putting this down at the end of chapter 11, cuz my eyes are def glazing over a bit

I'm reading the wikisource version (because it's an easier read than any of the, like, Proper olde translations) and spot checking against other versions when something is unclear

I thought it was weirdly idiomatic and jovial that its translation of Luke 12:19 starts "Then I'll tell myself, ‘Self...", but no that's basically what other versions say

sometimes I feel like these parables are deliberately obtuse. I mean I'm probably just missing context, but it could also be that he's saying stuff (or things are written/translated in a way) that seems like it could make sense but doesn't quite, so you think he's clever and understands things better than you

jesus really doesn't care much for the sabbath at all, does he? like idk maybe there's nuance elsewhere (or just not written down), and maybe he's just saying that his ~healing~ should be okay?

Luke 14:26 is a hot take. pretty sure that's against a commandment, isn't it? but also I can see how this informs the way the straights are in their relationships lol

"If anyone wants to come to me and does not hate their father and mother, and spouse and children, and brothers and sisters—yes, and their own life too—they can’t be my disciple"

is Luke 19:12-27 a defense of capitalism? like what happened to all that "people who have should give to people who don't" rhetoric all of a sudden? or are we supposed to think this king is bad?

I'm starting to think jesus decided in the desert it would be wrong to use his alleged godliness for wealth, but grew increasingly okay with using it for power and ego-stroking

this fuckin guy, comes back from the dead, waltzes in to where his friends are trying to figure out whether he's really alive, like "sup losers". they freak out and he's like "y'all, it's just me. see, I got the holes in my hands and everything. got anything to eat?"