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Eating Your Way Through Luke's Gospel
Robert Karris spreads before us a unique and delightful framing of the food theme in the Gospel of Luke. Karris describes the food and drink popular in Jesus’ day. He also documents the social, political, and general contexts in which the food was prepared and eaten. He outlines the social roles Jesus assumes in Luke’s Gospel in relation to food and meals, as well as the relationship between women and food. Karris also examines the eucharistic implications of the way food and drink are portrayed. This volume invites readers to get actively involved in the process of discovery by checking Scripture references alongside the author. Food themes in the other three Gospels are also briefly compared with Luke’s Gospel. Questions to stimulate an appetite for discussion or reflection and suggestions for further reading are provided at the end of each chapter.
112 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 15, 2024
Robert J. Karris helps you do what his title says, Eating Your Way Through Luke’s Gospel. The book is a biblical theology of dining with Jesus as revealed in Luke’s Gospel with brief overviews of the other three gospels and a speculative attempt to advance egalitarianism.
Karris has contributed to the study of eating in Luke’s Gospel:
“Twenty years ago I introduced two statements. In Luke's Gospel Jesus is either going to a meal, at a meal, or coming from a meal. In Luke's Gospel Jesus got himself killed because of the way he ate. I am happy to say that these two statements have entered into the mainstream of Lukan scholarship. If you have learned anything from this book, it is that Jesus loves to eat and gets himself in deep trouble with the religious leaders of his day because of his eating habits, especially his eating with toll collectors and sinners” (97-98).
“In Luke's Gospel Jesus is either going to a meal, at a meal, or coming from a meal. References to food abound on almost every single page of Luke's Gospel. As one wag said: You can eat your way through Luke's Gospel. In brief, Luke frequently mentions food” (14).
Roses
1. Biblical theological approach to the vital but ignored topic of eating and drinking by means of Luke’s gospel.
2. A simple but eye-opening introduction to eating and drinking in biblical times.
“For Luke and Jesus a symposium was a meal, generally a festive one, at which the participants reclined, ate, drank wine, and conversed. In the strictest sense, the meal was first and was followed by the drinking of mixed wine and conversation.
In Greek, symposium means "drinking with." Places of honor were generally on the middle couch of a three-couch or triclinium setup. On each of the three couches three people reclined. Thus, there would generally be nine people present…In Luke's Gospel Jesus frequently eats at a symposium: with toll collector Levi (5:27-32); with Pharisee Simon (7:36-50); with other Pharisees (11:37-54); with still other Pharisees (14:1-24); with his male and female disciples (22:14-38)” (8-9).
Karris succeeds in exciting “our imaginations to read Jesus' story in Luke more from Jesus' and Luke's perspective on food than from our own” (11).
3. An Berean approach that encourages readers to do their own inductive study of the biblical text.
“Read Luke's Gospel from beginning to end in one sitting. Read with one goal in mind: to jot down all the passages that deal with food. You should find at least fifty references to food. I also wholeheartedly urge you to complete this bit of homework before you continue reading this chapter where I lay out the results of my reading. So no peeking at the answers until you've done your own work (14).
4. Careful to honor the preceding and following contexts of each passage.
5. A light, humorous style where the author does not take himself too seriously while honoring the ability of others to study the Word for themselves.
6. An easy, quick read that will influence your view of eating and drinking throughout the Bible.
7. Included a chapter on “Food and Women” that is very appropriate in a study of Luke (Chapter 7).
Onions
1. The organization was hard to follow and understand at times.
2. Rather than doing a cursory look at the other three gospels in terms of eating and drinking, the book would’ve benefited from a chapter/section on eating in the Book of Acts to see whether or how Luke continues this theme.
3. While recognizing Luke’s (and Jesus’) appreciation of women as valued disciples with valuable ministry, Karris sadly succumbs to a speculative approach to read egalitarianism into Luke’s gospel.
He repeatedly diminished the scripturally valued roles of homemaking, serving, and helping in order to exalt women as prophetesses and gospel witnesses. But there’s no need to pit the two against each other and both complementarians and the inspired text teach this. More can be said to critique this chapter, but it is sufficient to say that his best arguments are based on speculation rather than scripture which is typical of egalitarian scholars.
4. Along the same lines, Karris is passionate to seat female disciples at the Last Supper (cf. 90-91). Whether this is likely or not, the presence of female disciples is not what the inspired text seeks to emphasize about the dinner guests at the Last Supper. Karriis’ passion for this comes across as another egalitarian attempt to emphasize women at the expense of what the text actually says and emphasizes.
5. Karris’ social justice appeal to combat world hunger in the last chapter fell flat and wasn’t consistent with the biblical theology he presented regarding in the rest of the book (cf. 100-02).
Overall, I highly recommend this book for anyone, studying the gospels in general, but particularly preaching through the Gospel of Luke or teaching a series on “Dining with Jesus”!
Karris has contributed to the study of eating in Luke’s Gospel:
“Twenty years ago I introduced two statements. In Luke's Gospel Jesus is either going to a meal, at a meal, or coming from a meal. In Luke's Gospel Jesus got himself killed because of the way he ate. I am happy to say that these two statements have entered into the mainstream of Lukan scholarship. If you have learned anything from this book, it is that Jesus loves to eat and gets himself in deep trouble with the religious leaders of his day because of his eating habits, especially his eating with toll collectors and sinners” (97-98).
“In Luke's Gospel Jesus is either going to a meal, at a meal, or coming from a meal. References to food abound on almost every single page of Luke's Gospel. As one wag said: You can eat your way through Luke's Gospel. In brief, Luke frequently mentions food” (14).
Roses
1. Biblical theological approach to the vital but ignored topic of eating and drinking by means of Luke’s gospel.
2. A simple but eye-opening introduction to eating and drinking in biblical times.
“For Luke and Jesus a symposium was a meal, generally a festive one, at which the participants reclined, ate, drank wine, and conversed. In the strictest sense, the meal was first and was followed by the drinking of mixed wine and conversation.
In Greek, symposium means "drinking with." Places of honor were generally on the middle couch of a three-couch or triclinium setup. On each of the three couches three people reclined. Thus, there would generally be nine people present…In Luke's Gospel Jesus frequently eats at a symposium: with toll collector Levi (5:27-32); with Pharisee Simon (7:36-50); with other Pharisees (11:37-54); with still other Pharisees (14:1-24); with his male and female disciples (22:14-38)” (8-9).
Karris succeeds in exciting “our imaginations to read Jesus' story in Luke more from Jesus' and Luke's perspective on food than from our own” (11).
3. An Berean approach that encourages readers to do their own inductive study of the biblical text.
“Read Luke's Gospel from beginning to end in one sitting. Read with one goal in mind: to jot down all the passages that deal with food. You should find at least fifty references to food. I also wholeheartedly urge you to complete this bit of homework before you continue reading this chapter where I lay out the results of my reading. So no peeking at the answers until you've done your own work (14).
4. Careful to honor the preceding and following contexts of each passage.
5. A light, humorous style where the author does not take himself too seriously while honoring the ability of others to study the Word for themselves.
6. An easy, quick read that will influence your view of eating and drinking throughout the Bible.
7. Included a chapter on “Food and Women” that is very appropriate in a study of Luke (Chapter 7).
Onions
1. The organization was hard to follow and understand at times.
2. Rather than doing a cursory look at the other three gospels in terms of eating and drinking, the book would’ve benefited from a chapter/section on eating in the Book of Acts to see whether or how Luke continues this theme.
3. While recognizing Luke’s (and Jesus’) appreciation of women as valued disciples with valuable ministry, Karris sadly succumbs to a speculative approach to read egalitarianism into Luke’s gospel.
He repeatedly diminished the scripturally valued roles of homemaking, serving, and helping in order to exalt women as prophetesses and gospel witnesses. But there’s no need to pit the two against each other and both complementarians and the inspired text teach this. More can be said to critique this chapter, but it is sufficient to say that his best arguments are based on speculation rather than scripture which is typical of egalitarian scholars.
4. Along the same lines, Karris is passionate to seat female disciples at the Last Supper (cf. 90-91). Whether this is likely or not, the presence of female disciples is not what the inspired text seeks to emphasize about the dinner guests at the Last Supper. Karriis’ passion for this comes across as another egalitarian attempt to emphasize women at the expense of what the text actually says and emphasizes.
5. Karris’ social justice appeal to combat world hunger in the last chapter fell flat and wasn’t consistent with the biblical theology he presented regarding in the rest of the book (cf. 100-02).
Overall, I highly recommend this book for anyone, studying the gospels in general, but particularly preaching through the Gospel of Luke or teaching a series on “Dining with Jesus”!
June 30, 2025
This was good but felt a little unfocused and surface level. By the end, the author is surveying food references in all of the gospels which just felt unnecessary when the point of the book is food references in Luke. Also wished there was more interpretation of the food references and an overarching argument of the point of the food references. I did get a few really good nuggets out of this and I really appreciate his close reading of Luke and letting Luke stand on its own without trying to harmonize it or blend it with the other gospels.
April 3, 2016
Though a little more word study than I had hoped, there was a lot of great information--I could see how this would really inform a dinner study of the Gospel and would be a great way to frame a Bible study of the entire Gospel.
September 25, 2025
Our priest referenced this book a few weeks ago in his homily. I was interested in the message,and the title was intriguing, so I got a copy.
I thought the combination of references to eating (and drinking) in Luke matched with the explanation of social behaviors around food in Jesus’ time to be really interesting. Towards the end of the book Robert Karris extends these thoughts to the other Gospels.
There are some times when the book seems a little academic, but generally it is quite readable and provides a new perspective on a number of Gospel stories.
I thought the combination of references to eating (and drinking) in Luke matched with the explanation of social behaviors around food in Jesus’ time to be really interesting. Towards the end of the book Robert Karris extends these thoughts to the other Gospels.
There are some times when the book seems a little academic, but generally it is quite readable and provides a new perspective on a number of Gospel stories.
December 24, 2025
Interesting insight on Luke!
March 7, 2017
A few choice morsels, but mostly bone and gristle.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews