@izzythepush,
Quote: Luke lied about the Census of Quirinius, so he's not to be trusted.
Those who wish to attack and denigrate the Holy scriptures, and are totally ignorant to the scriptures that they attack, will say that the Roman census which was taken in Israel at the time of the birth of Jesus, was the census of Quirinius the governor of Syria, and therefore the scriptures cannot be trusted, but of course it wasn’t.
The Census of Quirinius was a census of Judea taken by Quirinius, Roman governor of Syria, in 6 CE, 9 years after the death of Herod the Great in 4 B.C.
The census taken, during which census Jesus was born, was not a census of Judea, but a census of the entire Roman Empire, decreed by Caesar Augustus in 8 B.C., which took some 5 years to complete.
Quirinius was a Roman aristocrat, who, after the banishment of Herod Archelaus from the tetrarchy of Judea in 6 AD, 8 years after the death of his father ‘Herod the Great’ was appointed legate governor of Syria, to which the province of Judaea had been added for the purpose of a census.
During the census of the entire Roman Empire, which was decreed by Caesar Augustus in 8 B.C., Quirinius was on a campaign in Syria as Augustus’ Vicegerent, and that census was not an exercise in tax collecting, but an exercise in information gathering, which took some 5 years to implement and complete
The Greek word “Apographe,” used in Luke 2; and Acts 5; is erroneously translated as “TAX.” But according to Young’s Analytical Concordance, it means, “A writing off or Register.” And Rome did not tax Judea until a Roman Procurator was put in place of the banished Herod Archelaus some years after the birth of Jesus.
The Amplified version…. Luke 2: 1; In those days it occurred that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole Roman Empire should be REGISTERED. Luke 2: 2; This was the first enrolment, and it was made when Quirinius was “hegemon” in Syria. Luke 2: 3; And all the people were going to be REGISTED, each to his own city or town.
Early in the twentieth century, a papyrus was discovered which contained an edict by G. Vibius Maximus, the Roman governor of Egypt, stating: Since the enrolment by households is approaching, it is necessary to command all who for any reason are out of their own district to return to their own home, in order to perform the usual business of the taxation… (Cobern, C.M. 1929. The New Archeological Discoveries and their Bearing upon the New Testament. New York and London: Funk & Wagnalls, p. 47; Unger, M.F. 1962. Archaeology and the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, p. 64).
The same papyrus also confirms Luke’s assertion that a man had to bring his family with him when he traveled to his place of ancestry in order to be properly counted by the Roman authorities (Lk. 2:5). The document reads: I register Pakebkis, the son born to me and my wife, Taasies and Taopis in the 10th year of Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus Imperator [Emperor], and request that the name of my aforesaid son Pakeb[k] is to be entered on the list” (Boyd, R.T. 1991. World’s Bible Handbook. Grand Rapids, MI: World Publishing, p. 415).
This sheds light on why Joseph had to bring his highly pregnant fiancée and Soon to become wife along with him when he went to Bethlehem. Such discoveries caused the late George A. Barton, Ph.D., Professor of Biblical Literature and Semitic Languages at Bryn Mawr and former Director of the American School of Oriental Research in Jerusalem, to comment: Luke’s statement, that Joseph went up from Nazareth to Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to enrol himself with Mary (Luke 2:4, 5), turns out to be in exact accord with the governmental regulations as we now know them from the papyri.
The Living New Testament….. Luke 2: 1; About this time Caesar Augustus, the Roman Emperor, decreed that a census should be taken throughout the nation. Luke 2: 2; this census was taken when Quirinius was “hegemon” in Syria. Luke 2: 3; Everyone was required to return to his ancestral home for this ‘REGISTRATION.”
RSV…… 2: 1; In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be ENROLLED. Luke 2: 2; This was the first ENROLLMENT, when Quirinius was “hegemon” in Syria.
Luke does not specifically state what the Roman office held by Quirinius actually was when the first registration or enrolment was made in Judaea in 6 B.C. But in reference to the position he held, Luke uses the Greek word “hegemoneuontos tes Surias Kureniou.’ “hegemon,” Which the authors of the English bible have erroneously translated as “Governor.”
We know that in the time of Caligula, the African administration was divided in such a way, that the military power, and with it the foreign policy of the Province, was controlled by a Lieutenant of Augustus, while the internal affairs of the Province were left to the ordinary governor, a Proconsul.
Quirinius was a special Lieutenant of Augustus, who conducted the war against the Homonadenses, while Varus, the Governor, administered the ordinary affairs of Syria. The duties of Quirinius might be described by calling him dux in Latin, and the Greek equivalent is necessarily and correctly hegemon, as Luke has it.
Around the year of 6 B. C., the Governors of Galatia and Syria were involved in the construction of a system of military roads and garrison cities. They had a major problem. The Homonadenses had taken control of a Roman client nation located in the Taurus mountains which traversed the centre of these operations. Syria and Galatia would normally be required to intervene but Galatia had no army and Varus had no military experience. Whereas Quirinius was a general and famous for having quelled the Marmaridea rebellion in Cilicia (Libya) in BC.14. Quirinius was the one who Caesar Augustus sent to conquer the Homonadenses nation. This campaign had to have been implemented from Syria, as the Taurus Mountains, marked the northern limit of the Syrian plain from where Quirinius would have undoubtedly launched his campaign.
It necessarily follows that in 6-5 B.C., General Quirinius dealt with the Homonadenses situation as Augustus' vicegerent or special Lieutenant, whilst Varus attended to the internal administration of Syria.
As Herod the Great died in 4 B.C. believing that Jesus was over 12 months old and ordering the death of all the male children two years and below, or all who were born in and after 6 B.C., we can now safely assume that Jesus was born in 6 B.C., when the census of ENROLLMENT was taken in Judaea, while General Quirinius in 6-5 B.C., was dealing with the Homonadenses in the Taurus Mountains, which marked the northern limit of the Syrian plain from where Quirinius would have undoubtedly launched his campaign against the Homonadenses.
This reveals that the census of Israel in 6.B.C, when Quirinius was on a campaign in Syria as Augustus’ Vicegerent, was not an exercise in tax collecting, but an exercise in information gathering, which was a census of the entire Roman Empire, decreed by Caesar Augustus, It would have taken a few years to implement and complete this. It was decreed in 8 BC. and the completed set of documents, which registered the loyalty of Roman citizens and people of note in subject nations to Caesar Augustus, was presented to him in 3 BC.
The following is Augustus' own account: Page 1. "during my sixth term as consul (BC.28), I, along with my comrade Marcus Agrippa, commanded a census to be taken of the people. I directed a lustrum, the first in forty-one years, in which 4,063,000 Roman citizens were counted. And once again, with imperial authority, I single handedly authorized a lustrum when the consuls of Rome were Gaius Censorinus and Gaius Asinius (8 B.C.), during which time 4,233,000 Roman citizens were counted."
In Luke’s day there was no B.C. (Before Christ) or C.E. (Christian Era). So, in what year did Luke say that the census of Caesar Augustus was held in Israel? [
ANSWER] In the year that General Quirinius, as Augustus’ Vicegerent or special Lueitenant, was on a campaign in Syria dealing with the Homonadenses situation, which we now know as the year 6 B.C. in which Jesus was born and two years before the death of Herod the Great in 4B.C/
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