GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
LUKE 2:1-2
Just as chapter 1 carried us through the birth, circumcision and youth of John, so also chapter 2 carries us through the birth, circumcision and youth of Jesus.
2:1-7 The birth of Jesus
2:8-20 Proclamation and witness: the angels and the shepherds
2:21 The circumcision of Jesus
2:22-38 The presentation of Jesus in the temple; Simeon and Anna
(2:29-32, The Nunc Dimittis)
2:39,40 The return to Nazareth
2:41-52 The boy Jesus in the house of God
Jesus Is Born
2 In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that a census be taken of all the world. 2 (This was the first census taken when Quirinius was governing Syria.)
Of all of the information we have about judging the date of the birth of Jesus Christ, this passage must stand and reign above everything else. Let’s take what’s presented here and look at it as carefully as we can.
Luke’s phrasing of this passage is brilliant. The Caesars felt that they ruled the whole world and used the word for “world” here (oikoumene) as a synonym for “empire.” By using the term, Luke sets out minds thinking about the extent of that empire, and how the world was and is so much more. But referring to the census, Luke also gets us thinking about the number of inhabitants of the whole world as individuals, one by one, rather than as a mass of uncountable faces. They are indeed countable: the Romans did it many times with their impressive slice of its population, and God constantly knows how many of us there are, who we are, and every detail about our lives. “Indeed,” Jesus said, “the very hairs of your head are numbered” (Luke 12:7). So here we have two events that affected the whole world: the Roman census, and the birth of Jesus Christ.
Caesar Augustus reigned from about 27 BC (he was “Imperator” already in 29 BC) until his death in 14 AD. Herod the Great, who is also involved in the story (Matthew 2:1-19), died shortly after the birth of Jesus. Herod died in March or April of the year we call 4 BC. This is our latest date for the birth of Jesus (sometimes called a terminus ad quem).
Before we get to the census, who was this Quirinius? And when did he replace Cyrenius in my old King James Version? Taking the second question first, the ancient Greek letter “Q” (which was qoppa and looked like Ϙ) was no longer in use when the New Testament was written. Latin words (like the name Quirinius) had to be written out with a K, so that we get Κυρηνίου (Kyreneiou) in the Greek manuscripts. The King James translators did their best, but it’s an oddity that when the Latin version was made, Jerome followed the Greek (Cyrino) instead of reverting to the actual Latin spelling for Quirinius. Publius Sulpicius Quirinius (51 BC – 21 AD) was a Roman aristocrat who was governor of Syria and Judea until about 12 AD when he was called to Rome. He had served as governor of Galatia prior to his rule over Syria, and also over Crete and Cyrene (in north Africa, modern Libya). Quirinius was governor of Syria from 6 AD until 12 AD, but no Greek text says that he was governor with the noun Hegemon (ὁ ἡγεμὼν; cp. Matthew 27:11,15). All manuscripts of Luke refer to Quirinius “governing” Syria with the participle ἡγεμονεύοντος (hegemoneuontos). If he were exercising authority in Syria (as governor the nearby Galatia and military ruler of Cilicia) and later on became governor of Syria, it would not be unusual to talk about him “governing” Syria when he passed along orders from Rome. Luke is not in error here, even though this man was not actually governor until Jesus’ childhood years.
As for the census, we need to reckon with the phrase “the first census,” and for that, we should know that there was a later census that went very badly, and many after that. The “bad” census was in 6 AD. The actual papers of a regular Roman census have been discovered which include a registration that took place every fourteen years. These documents date unquestionably to the following years (counting backward from 230 AD): 230, 216, 202, 188, 174, 160, 146, 132, 118, 104, 90, 62, 34 and include references that show that there were also registrations in 48 and 20. Counting back fourteen years from 20 AD we arrive at 6 AD. This was the census that caused a great uprising when a certain Judas the Galilean provoked a rebellion (Acts 5:37). Subtracting fourteen from 6 AD, we reach a Roman census that would have been issued in 8 or 9 BC (we do not calculate a “year zero;” 1 BC is followed by 1 AD in chronology and chronometry). Long communication lines and other difficulties make it likely that an order issued in a given year might not be fully carried out in distant provinces for another two or even three years. Although the census clearly became routine later on, this was “the first census,” and anyone who has been involved in any bureaucracy knows that there is no such thing as “routine” in any event involving tens or hundreds of thousands of people. The dates, therefore, that is the earliest date (the terminus a quo) for this census would be about 8 BC. The date of Jesus’ birth, then, lies somewhere between 8 and 4 BC, and probably either 5 or 6 BC. In Herod’s reign, and especially late in his reign, carrying out this kind of census would have had many problems and obstacles, and it simply would have taken time.
What we know for certain are these details:
1. Caesar Augustus ordered this census.
2. It took place while Quirinius was in some sense in power in Syria.
3. Herod the Great was still living, but in the final year or so of his life.
The census affected a lot of people, and it took time for news about it to spread. The birth of Jesus affect all people for all time, and the news is still spreading.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Archives by Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: http://www.wlchapel.org/worship/daily-devotion/
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota