a 12 year old boy, finding himself left behind in a strange city, hangs out in the temple while he waits for his parents to come back. when they do come back, they're all worried, and he's like "wait you just left me here by accident? I thought you wanted me to spend some time at my Dᴀᴅ's place!" like it's some kind of split custody arrangement. he's a sweet little 12 year old kid, he never really questioned when his parents told him his real dad is Gᴏᴅ

I'm starting with luke. more or less at random, since apparently matthew and mark are basically the same story anyway, there's just three versions with some subtle differences and overlaps and extra stories. then there's john, which also tells some of the same stories but mostly other stories. and then some other stuff I guess?

john has only come up in passing in the first few chapters, but I'm already getting the sense that he was exactly the kind of toxic ass that makes this fandom so awful. and this is clarifying to me what it means when southern baptists call themselves baptists, cuz that was john's Thing. so it's maybe more about following john than jesus, which would explain why it feels like the jesus I was taught as a kid (love and kindness and such) is so utterly unrelated to the version sbc seems to believe in (fire and brimstone and such)