Читать книгу Two Famous Horoscopes - Владимир Меркулов - Страница 3

Many researchers put trust in the Gospel information about the census, and they are based on this fact, take the year 7 BC as the year of Jesus’ birth.

Luke (2.1)” And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria. And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) | To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child”.

Do you think it is normal that Joseph’s family went from Nazareth to Bethlehem for the census, to walk for 160 km? You would think they had no nothing else to do. But they were of ordinary working people, rather than the Roman nobility which were having many slaves who grew garden plants for them. And Mary, meanwhile, had been pregnant for at least 9 months, then how this distance they could walk in a week, maximum for the month. Is someone reading these terms, under such case, would go to the census even in a car? For this trip they should have a strong reason. Perhaps it was nothing like the persecution of King Herod.

During the reign of Augustus there were three Censuses in the Roman Empire: 28 BC, 8 BC and 14 AD (according to some sources – 7 BC and 13 AD). The census played a huge role, and August ordered to conduct it every five years in Rome for those who had Roman citizenship and were residents of Rome and more than one time in all the other provinces of the empire. Censuses were not held on a particular day, but distributed in time.

There is some information that Publius Sulpicius Quirinius (51 BC – 21 AD), became Procurator of Syria only about 6th or 7th AD and he was not the governor of Syria in 7 BC, but Augustus appointed him the Authorized person to lead to this well known census. There is an inscription in Latin on the stone found in 1764 in Tivoli (ancient Tibure) near Rome, but without specifying the date. The inscription evidenced a double reign of Quirinius. Even the researchers of the Gospels say that the word πρωτος in the proposal for a census (Luke 2.1) is not only “the first”, but the meaning “before”:

Such an explanation refers simultaneously to about two censuses and establishes their chronological relation. And if you use the translation that the census was before the first generally accepted reign of Quirinius, this could be up to 6 AD. This information is very contradictory, but it would be wrong to say for sure that the census didn’t take place.