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2. It is said ‘that in any case Herod, being a rex socius (for Judaea was not annexed to the Province of Syria till the death of Archelaus, A.D. 6), would have been exempt from such a registration.’ The answer is that (α) the Clitae were obliged to furnish such a census though they were under an independent prince, Archelaus (Tac. Ann. VI. 41; cf. I. 11, regna). (β) That Herod, a mere creature of the Emperor, would have been the last person to resist his wishes (Jos. Antt. XIV. 14. 4; XV. 6. 7; XVI. 9. 3). (γ) That this Census, enforced by Herod, was so distasteful to the Jews that it probably caused the unexplained tumults which occurred at this very period (Jos. Antt. XVII. 2. 4; B. J. I. 33, § 2). This is rendered more probable by the Targum of Jonathan on Hab 3:17, which has, “the Romans shall be rooted out; they shall collect no more tribute (Kesooma = census) from Jerusalem” (Gfrörer, Jahrh. d. Heils, I. 42). That the Emperor could issue such a decree for Palestine shews that the fulfilment of the old Messianic promises was near at hand. The sceptre had departed from Judah; the Lawgiver from between his feet.
As regards both objections, we may say (i) that St Luke, a writer of proved carefulness and accuracy, writing for Gentiles who could at once have detected and exposed an error of this kind is very unlikely (taking the lowest grounds) to have been guilty of such carelessness. (ii) That Justin Martyr, a native of Palestine, writing in the middle of the second century, three times appeals to the census-lists (ἀπογραφαὶ) made by Quirinus when he was first Procurator, bidding the Romans search their own archives as to the fact (Apol. I. 34. 46; Dial. c. Tryph. 78), as also does Tertullian (Adv. Marc. IV. 7. 19). (iii) If St Luke had made a mistake it would certainly have been challenged by such able critics as Celsus and Porphyry;—but they never impugn his statement. On every ground therefore we have reason to trust the statement of St Luke, and in this as in many other instances (see my Life of St Paul, I. 113) what have been treated as his ‘manifest errors’ have turned out to be interesting historic facts which he alone preserves for us. Special monographs on the subject have been written by Zumpt, Huschke, Wieseler, and others. Among many divergences of opinion it is now generally admitted, on grounds of simple history, that a census of some kind or other took place at this time.
πᾶσαν τὴν οἰκουμένην. ‘the habitable world,’ i.e. the Roman Empire, the orbis terrarum (Act 11:28, &c.; Polyb. VI. 50).