Journal: Tyndale Bulletin
Volume: TYNBUL 69:1 (NA 2018)
Article: Detaching The Census An Alternative Reading Of Luke 2:1–7
Author: David J. Armitage

TynBull 69:1 (2018) p. 75

Detaching The Census
An Alternative Reading Of Luke 2:1–71

David J. Armitage

([email protected])

Summary

This paper offers an alternative approach to Luke 2:1–7, assuming for argument’s sake that Luke’s presumed chronology agreed with modern reconstructions in placing Quirinius’ census some years after Herod’s death. It is proposed that, on this basis, a coherent reading of the text is feasible in which the reference to Quirinius marks 2:1–5 as a digression, bounded by distinct transition markers, describing events several years after Jesus’ birth. This digression, which claims that Joseph and Mary registered in Bethlehem in AD 6, despite having resided in Nazareth for several years, emphasises the family connection to Bethlehem and therefore to David.

1. Introduction

The association in Luke 2:1–7 of the birth of Jesus with a census, identified with reference to Quirinius, is widely regarded as problematic.2 Josephus (Ant. 18:1) links Quirinius with a census following the banishment of Archelaus in AD 6 whilst Luke 1:5 places

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the birth narratives in the time of Herod the Great, who died in around 4 BC. It has therefore been widely supposed that the Lukan account is misleading here and that the association of Jesus’ birth with Quirinius’ census is impossible.3 Others, noting that Luke seems at least to be attempting credible history, have proposed a reference to an earlier – otherwise unattested – census. One version of this proposal associates the hypothetical census with an earlier deployment, absent from extant records, of Quirinius to Syria.4 Alternatively, some have suggested that a different governor responsible for this earlier census has been misidentified as Quirinius.5 Still others have argued that Luke actually describes a census before the famous example overseen by Quirinius.6 A difficulty with all proposals of an earlier census, besides lack of corroborating evidence, is that a census initiated by the Romans in Herodian Judea is hard to reconcile with the degree of independence which the Romans are widely thought to have exten...