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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - Luke 2:2 - 2:2
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The first enrolment (apographē prōtē). A definite allusion by Luke to a series of censuses instituted by Augustus, the second of which is mentioned by him in Act 5:37. This second one is described by Josephus and it was supposed by some that Luke confused the two. But Ramsay has shown that a periodical fourteen-year census in Egypt is given in dated papyri back to a.d. 20. The one in Act 5:37 would then be a.d. 6. This is in the time of Augustus. The first would then be b.c. 8 in Egypt. If it was delayed a couple of years in Palestine by Herod the Great for obvious reasons, that would make the birth of Christ about b.c. 6 which agrees with the other known data
When Quirinius (Kurēniou). Genitive absolute. Here again Luke has been attacked on the ground that Quirinius was only governor of Syria once and that was a.d. 6 as shown by Josephus (Ant. XVIII. I.I). But Ramsay has proven by inscriptions that Quirinius was twice in Syria and that Luke is correct here also. See summary of the facts in my Luke the Historian in the Light of Research, pp. 118-29.