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Fair enough. And what about all the inconsistencies I mentioned? What do they prove or disprove?

I am not of that view. I focus on the inerrancy of the message of a given passage, rather than of the extraneous details with which the passage is adorned. Consider, for example, Mark 2:26, which quotes Jesus as saying that David entered the house of God and ate the altar bread “when Abiathar...

I like to gather perspectives on such matters from serious thinking people. I find it helpful.

I might. Any first-century historian who investigates events of decades earlier -- no library of books, no newspaper collection, no internet to consult on the topic -- is largely an interviewer, and thus subject to potential error from the mistakes made by his sources. I hope we can agree on...

Maybe. But uniquely among the gospel writers, Luke says he investigated the facts in order to create his account. If divine inspiration disclosed facts to him as well -- like the tile roof that got us started on this path -- he doesn't say so. From what he has told us, it's all on him. And...

To see how a contradiction between synoptic accounts gets harmonized.

And that's my point. He refers in Luke 1:3 to his “investigating everything carefully from the very first” (NRSV). The oral and written accounts of decades-old events that he gathered before putting pen to parchment are thus declared to be his source material; he makes no claim that his gospel...

If you've posted anything here -- whether quoting from the synoptics or not -- which harmonizes the discrepancies I've mentioned, please point me to the post(s).

You are now suggesting second-hand hearsay accounts as Luke's source. That's different from what you said, and what I was responding to: Luke didn't interview Zechariah. Nor the shepherds (at least it's highly unlikely, whether they were alive or not). Nor Jesus, for that matter. Luke...

Can you point me to them?

As an impartial observer of the thread, can I make a suggestion? Leave the attempts at humor aside. Then you won't risk being exasperated.

It is worth noting that Luke doesn't always agree with Mark/Matthew. Joseph’s lineage is traced from David through Solomon in Matt. 1:6, but through Nathan in Luke 3:31. The transfiguration was six days after the promise of Jesus that “some standing here will not taste death until they see...

There are some verses in his gospel that no witness could have related to Luke. Like what the angel said to Zechariah (Luke 1:12 et seq.), who was surely deceased before Luke ever got the notion to write his gospel. Like what the angels said to the shepherds at Christ's birth (Luke 2:10-12)...

It’s hard for me to view Luke as the careful historian you make him out to be, given his Gamaliel gaff in Acts 5:36-37. We know from Josephus’ Antiquities that the Theudas incident occurred in 45 C.E., yet Luke quotes Gamaliel – speaking around ten years earlier – as placing the Theudas uprising...

I wonder if our Bibles must have different translations of Luke 1:3. MIne says "With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account." Does yours say "With this in mind, I let God move my pen on the parchment...

Meaning, something other than what you believe, which is the inerrancy of every word? Or, are you using "broken" in a different sense?

Thanks for the tip. But God's character is the discussion topic.

And what character lesson is that, exactly? That God metes out eternal torture as punishment for sin?

1 Peter 2:5 (KJV) admonishes that believers are "an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." The word for "sacrifices" here, thysias, Is the same word found in Hebrews 5:1 ("For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things...

"Luke embellished the story" I think he did. "Luke is an unreliable writer" As to theologically irrelevant details, yes, but quite reliable on the ultimate message he puts forth. "what else is Luke fabricating?" Hard to say. He purports in Luke 1:3 to be an investigative historian, so a few...