Overview
Herod I (Herod the Great, c. 72 – 4 BCE), was a Roman
client king whose territory included
Judea. Upon his death, his kingdom was
divided into three, each section ruled by one of his sons. In 6 CE, Emperor
Augustus deposed
Herod Archelaus, who had ruled the largest section, and converted his territory into the
Roman province of Judea.
Publius Sulpicius Quirinius, the
legate (governor) of the province of
Roman Syria starting in 6 CE,
[2] was assigned to carry out a census of the new province of Judea for tax purposes.
[3] This was a property tax, and required that the value of real property be registered along with the identity of the owners.
[4] The census triggered a revolt of Jewish extremists (called
Zealots) under the leadership of
Judas of Galilee.
[5] (
Galilee itself was a separate territory under the rule of
Herod Antipas.) Judas seems to have found the census objectionable because it ran counter to a biblical injunction (the traditional Jewish reading of
Exodus 30:12) and because it would lead to taxes paid in
heathen coins bearing an image of the emperor.
[6]
Gospel of Luke[edit]
Contrary to the
Gospel of Matthew, which places
Jesus's birth in the time of Herod I,
[10] the
Gospel of Luke (
2:1–5) correlates Christ's birth with the census:
Most
biblical scholars have acknowledged that Luke is erroneous.
[11] The gospel's author seems to have incorporated the census to move Joseph and Mary from Nazareth, "their own city" (
Luke 2:39), to Bethlehem, where the birth was to occur. (Matthew's author had the reverse problem; believing that Joseph, Mary and Jesus lived in a house in Bethlehem prior to their
flight into Egypt, they
move to Nazareth to avoid the recently appointed Herod Archelaus.)
[12][13] Luke's author may also have wanted to contrast the rebellious Zealots with the peaceable Joseph and Mary, who had obeyed the Roman edict, and to find
a prophetic fulfilment of Psalm 87:6: "In the census of the peoples, this one will be born there." (In the Greek or
Septuagint version, it is "princes" who will be born.)
[14]Census of Quirinius - Wikipedia
Scholars point out that there was no single census of the entire Roman Empire under Augustus and the Romans did not directly tax client kingdoms; further, no Roman census required that people travel from their own homes to those of their ancestors. A census of Judea would not have affected Joseph and his family, who lived in Galilee under a different ruler; the revolt of Judas of Galilee suggests that Rome's direct taxation of Judea was new at the time.[16] Catholic priest and biblical scholar Raymond E. Brown postulates that Judas's place of origin may have led the author of Luke to think that Galilee was subject to the census, although the region is clearly distinguished from Judea elsewhere in the gospel.[17][18] Brown also points out that in the Acts of the Apostles, Luke the Evangelist (the traditional author of both books) dates Judas's census-incited revolt as following Theudas's rebellion of four decades later.[17]