In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.)
Luke 2: 1-2
I'm sure we all know some of the problems with this - e.g. King Herod (cf. Luke 1: 5 and Matthew 1-2) died before Quirnius was governor. Richard Dawkins takes great delight in highlighting them in The God Delusion.
In my mind there are three questions:
1. What is the correct translation of verse 2? Especially of 'prote' (= first above) - is it possible to translate it 'before Quirnius was governor'? Or is that merely an attempt to harmonise the gospel accounts with history?
(Herod died in 4BC, the census that was finalised under Quirnius happened 6/7 AD.)
2. What do we think is the most likely historical reconstruction of what happened? And in doing that, how do we weigh up conflicting accounts? With things like censi (is that the plural of census or a martial arts expert?) sometimes taking decades to complete are we reading a modern notion of history back into the text?
3. How does this all fit with Luke's introductory appeal to Theophilus? If Luke has got it all wrong then doesn't that seriously undermine his claim to have investigated eye-witness accounts?
This is not merely academic to me. At the moment my first point from Luke 2 is going to be - Jesus is a real person because he had a birth certificate. That comes from the text but I want to be able to preach that with confidence and integrity.
7 comments:
Yes Herod the Great was dead by this time, but you also have to remember that immediately following his death, there were 4 Herods ruling Israel, the Herodean Tetrachs. This could have firstly brought up some confusion, but secondly, in Luke's account, Herod is not mentioned (he is only mentioned in Matthew's account related to the birth of Christ).
Thanks Alphonse - but Herod is mentioned in Luke's account - chapter 1 verse 5 explains that the announcement of John the Baptist's birth (and of Jesus' birth six month's later) happened in the reign of Herod.
What do you mean by "birth certificate"?
@ Bill
A birth certificate is a formal document of proof of birth. Whenever I take a wedding both parties have to produce a birth certificate (if Australian) to prove they are who they say they are.
Luke appears to be saying that Jesus had one ... archived somewhere.
Tertullian said something closer to that, but Tertullian named Saturninus as Governor. As it so happens, Tertullian was probably right.
The census of Luke 2:1-5 is one thing. Quirinius' disputed involvement is another. The question of what 2:2 means, explicitly, is yet a third challenge. The best apologetics for 2:2 give us no help in reconstructing the census.
Back to the certificate, though. That would be nice, but I don't see Luke implying that, as you do.
Can you elaborate?
Hi Bill - how on earth did you stumble across this blog?
I'm not sure how the appeal to Tertullian helps us. There is no MS evidence that Luke meant Saturninus, nor is there any evidence for a census by Saturninus.
(BTW I'm using Howard Marshall's commentary on the Greek text of The Gospel of Luke.)
Back to the birth certificate - obviously that is a modern contextualisation, nevertheless the details Luke gives in chapter 2 fit with his expressed aim in the opening verses of chapter 1 - Luke is locking the person of Jesus into human history.
Nice to meet you too, brother John. I found your post because I receive a daily "Google Alert" for 7 AD.
* Luke most certainly attests that Jesus was born. I don't think Luke attests there was an official document registering that birth.
* The best christian apologetics on Luke 2:2 show that Quirinius is not an obstacle to accepting Tertullian's dating.
* Tertullian himself does not help us engage with Luke. Tertullian and Luke together might help us to reconstruct an historical event sequence, and (together with Josephus and Dio Cassius) a chronological event sequence at that.
Like I said, that's a whole different ball game from just doing exegesis on Luke (which is also fine, of course).
You might enjoy what I'm working on here.
Grace & Peace in the Lord.
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