This gesture, together with the use of kneeling in Luke's birth narrative, has had a very important effect on Christian religious practices.

As is the case with Matthew, much controversy has surrounded the Lukan birth narrative.

This gesture, together with Luke's birth narrative, had an important effect on Christian religious practices.

A springtime date is only preferable if you think that Luke's birth narrative is actually true, with its shepherds and sheep.

I went to the birth narratives and thought, Look at this!

The text shows a familiarity with the infancy narrative of Luke 1:5 despite lacking a birth narrative of its own.

According to this hypothesis, the evangelist added material from Mark and the birth narratives later.

Still, the gospel might have circulated originally without the birth narrative in the first two chapters.

The birth narratives in both Luke and Matthew seem to be the latest component of the Gospels.

As a result, modern scholars generally do not use much of the birth narratives for historical information.