Nativity Fun Facts: On Luke’s Census

A short video on the historical and rhetorical background of the census mentioned in Luke 2.

[colinrow]

Just found your content recently and I really appreciate and enjoy it. I hope you have a wonderful Christmas Dr. McClellan!

[FeetOrSleep-udor]

Some people say ‘well this is the first census’ what would be the response to this people claiming Quirinius inducted a census bevause ‘the romans frequently implemented a census every 5 years’ so Herod might of?

[ChildOfTheCorn]

I mean, impossible question here, but what was Luke's goal messing up the timeframe and reasoning to travel home? Just a bad study guide?

[brendab.]

Dr.McClellan, I have a couple questions, I don’t know if you could discuss in a video or have a book you recommend but my questions are . . . is there enough evidence to say that Jesus was an actual person that existed in history? I also was told by someone that when 500 people that witness an event is consider a true event and I wanted to know if that was true or not. I watch a video where someone claimed that YHWH broken down in Hebrew characters are translated into the elements (water, fire, spirit, air and earth), I wonder if this is true? And last question is that our DNA is the god (YHWH) code sequence, would you happen to know? I apologize for bombarding you with questions, I just don’t know where to look. Thank you for all that you 😊😊

[lostfan]

I don't understand it. This material is taught in seminaries all over the world. How can someone learn this material and still be Christian?

[emptyhand]

Christopher Hitchens cited this historical error as proof that Jesus existed. He explained that if Jesus was fictionalnthey could have had him born anywhere, but since there was an actual man from Nazareth, his origin story had to be tailored to match a prophecy.

[christsdisciple]

Census was started before the death of Herod the great, but wasn't finished until well after. Wasn't the only time a census took many years. I believe Testify has a video on it.

[ranilodicen]

wow!
so we could never really know when jesus was born

[mcba]

I wish people wouldn’t keep insisting there aren’t answers to these challenges. Inspiring philosophy has at least a couple videos that address these in great detail. Check them out. Maybe one day this challenge will be like the many other atheistic challenges that have since been debunked based on archaeological evidence but for now there are very legitimate possibilities to explain this.

[adrianpettifer]

KRINGLE BELLS

Here we go again
The old Nativity tale
Shepherds and wise men
In a stable humbly quail
But let us disentangle
Two separate Yule narrations
That Luke and Matthew dangle
To describe divine gestation

In Matthew they already have
A house in Bethlehem
Wise men led by star nav
Some curious gifts on them
Frankincense and gold and myrrh
Sit round their Christmas tree
And from these presents we infer
Those magi numbered three

Pity poor King Herod
Dreads this son of a virgin
His reputation buried
Slaughtering innocent urchins
They rush off to the Delta
Think "Herod don't you slay us"
Then in Nazareth shelter
To avoid King Archelaus

But Luke tells us from Nazareth
To Bethlehem they go
To sign up for a census
Though why, we'll never know
Baby's in a horse trough
There's no room at the inn
Shepherds turn up, caps they doff
And they all go home again

Luke and Matthew get combined
In every Christmas play
Mark and John, they both decline
To join the Nativity fray
None of the Gospels give a date
That's absolutely clear
It's only December the twenty-fifth, mate
Since the Council of Nicaea

It would chase my gloom away
And help me through this chorus
If He really shared the day
With Mithras, Sol and Horus
Still, it's the rebirth of the sun
And welcome winter cheer
So merry Christmas everyone
And a promising new year!

[jonpalmer]

No offense i believe Luke's account over some "historical" account probably written a century or 2 after the birth of Christ.

[carlcizek]

The Census of Quirinius was a census of the Roman province of Judaea taken in 6 CE, upon its formation, by the governor of Roman Syria, Publius Sulpicius Quirinius. The census triggered a revolt of Jewish extremists (called Zealots) led by Judas of Galilee.
The Gospel of Luke uses the census to date the birth of Jesus, which the Gospel of Matthew places in the time of Herod the Great (who died between 5 BCE and 1 CE). Most critical scholars acknowledge that Luke is in error, while religious academics have attempted to explain the confusion with historically unverified claims?

They over look the simplicity..

First, it is rather doubtful that πρώτη here is used superlatively: “first of at least three.”  Not only is the usage of πρῶτος for a comparative well established in the NT (cf., e.g., Matt 21:28 [“a man had two sons; he came to the first. . .”]; John 20:4 [“the other disciple came first to the tomb”]), but it is unnecessary to compound the historical difficulty this text presents.  A second census is hard enough to find!1
Second, it has sometimes been suggested that the text should be translated, “this census was before the census which Quirinius, governor of Syria, made.

[masterbaiter]

Roman provinces had a lot of flexibility on how to rule and conduct certain censuses. In Egypt in the 2nd century AD, there was a census where the citizens had to go to their home towns to go register, so there's a good chance you're wrong.