Day 16 Luke 2:1-3
15 Dec 2023
You can listen to an audio version of this blog post here -
“In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered in his own town.”
Luke makes the point at the beginning of his gospel that he writes “so that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught”.
There is more than one way of understanding what he means. There is factual certainty - making sure times, dates, places, what people said and did are all accurate and verified. Luke is obviously concerned about that. He spoke to many eyewitnesses to check these things out.
But Luke isn’t just writing a historical document. He wants his readers (us) to be certain of who Jesus really is - so we can confidently put all our faith in him. Much of his opening chapter was faithfully reporting what Zechariah and Mary saw, heard and said - but also drawing attention to the fact that they clearly tell us God is fulfilling his covenant promises in John and Jesus.
This emphasis continues in chapter 2. Our attention moves away from Zechariah back on to Mary and Joseph. Luke records for us an important factual detail to explain where we find them. Caesar has announced a census and Mary and Joseph have to travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem.
However it is this piece of factual information which has caused most difficulty for historians. I listened to an episode of the podcast “The Rest Is History” about Jesus Christ last Christmas. In it the historians Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland discuss the life of Jesus from historian’s point of view. It was a fascinating discussion - they were very positive towards Jesus and the Bible accounts, even to the point of recognising that the most plausible explanation for the fact that the resurrection was preached and the church began was because the apostles genuinely believed Jesus was risen. But the parts they had most difficulty with were the accounts surrounding Jesus’ birth. They, along with other historians, struggle with the fact there seems to be no corroborating evidence for a census at the time Luke says there was.
What do we do with those kinds of questions? It’s important we don’t just dismiss them. But equally, we shouldn’t place too high a value on them and let it shake our faith. It is striking how few questions like this there are about the Bible. Considering it is a book written over hundreds of years recounting many different historical events that says something.
We must not confuse a lack of corroborating evidence, with the assertion that this event has been disproved. Over the years many things in the Bible have been dismissed, only for evidence to turn up (either written or dug up) which prove the truth of what was written. Much historical work comes down to a balance of probabilities, not absolute proof.
There are no questions like this which have not been thought and written about. A good commentary will give some possibilities. On this precise issue Dr Peter Williams (principal of Tyndale House Cambridge) responded on a helpful podcast which you can listen to here.
One of the points he makes is that there may well have been more than one census. Notice Luke talks about the “first registration”. So there may be confusion amongst some historians because they are assuming it is the wrong census (and as a result getting the dates wrong).
I know none of this is a warm devotional thought for the start of the day. But we can ask serious questions of God’s word without losing anything. We don’t need to be worried.