DAY 182
CHALLENGE
“Luke is mistaken when he says Jesus was born during ‘the first enrollment, when Quirinius was governor of Syria’ (Luke 2:2). That census happened in A.D. 6–7, long after Jesus’ birth.”
DEFENSE
There are multiple solutions, some of which are presented here.
First, the word for “first” (Greek, prōtē) can mean “before.” Taken thus, Luke would be saying this was a census before the famous one in A.D. 6–7.
Second, if prōtē is translated “first,” this implies there was a second census under Quirinius. The second census would need to be famous for Luke to point out that Jesus was born during the first one, and the second census may have been the famous one of A.D. 6–7.
Third, the event may not have been a census. Luke says it was an “enrollment” or “registration” (Greek, apographē). This may refer to an event in 3–2 B.C. (the year of Christ’s birth; see Day 159) when the people of the Roman Empire acknowledged their allegiance to Au- gustus Caesar (except a few thousand Pharisees who Josephus records refused the oath; Antiquities of the Jews 17:2:4). Augustus himself mentions this in an inscription, stating: “In my thirteenth consulship [i.e., 2 B.C.] the senate, the equestrian order, and the whole people of Rome gave me the title of Father of my Country” (Res Gestae Divi Augusti 35, emphasis added).
Fourth, if the event was a census, the basis for dating it to A.D. 6–7 is based on Josephus’s statement that the event occurred in “the thirty-seventh year of [Augustus] Caesar’s victory over Antony at Actium,” or A.D. 6–7 (Antiquities of the Jews 18:2:1). However, internal indications in Josephus’s text suggest he was confused regarding when this event happened (see Steinmann, below).
Luke, writing around A.D. 59 (see Day 79) was closer in time to the events than Josephus, who was writing around A.D. 94. The events were more important to Luke than to Josephus, indicating a greater likelihood that his date was correct.
Finally, Quirinius’s career is uncertain. Luke says he was “govern- ing” (Greek, hēgemoneuntos) Syria, not that he had the formal title “governor.” This event could have fit different places in his career.
TIP
See Jack Finegan, Handbook of Biblical Chronology, 2nd ed., and Andrew E. Steinmann, From Abraham to Paul.