The chief authority for the census of A. p. 6 is Josephus ; nnd an eminent German scholar, I>r. Tb. Zabn, put forward in 1"»93 Uie view that it was .Tosephus who was al fault in dating from tlds vear an event which really foil in n.c. 4-;J ( S'eitf Kirch- ticfte ZdUchyift, pp. 68;i-t»54). "This bronpbt tlic data more nearly, tUoUKb still not cntirelv, into agreement with St. Luke. The theory need not, however, be more fiilly considered, as it has not met witli acceptance, and there can be little doiiljt that it seeks a solution of the ditliculties in the wrong direction.
There was one little expression which might have given pause to the critics of St. I^uke, viz. his careful in.sertion of the word 'first' ('the lirst eunihiiBiit made when Q. was governor of Syria'). It might have .shown that he was in possession of special knowledge which would not permit him to confuse the earlier census with that of .\.I). 0. And yet the existence of the earlier census re- mained without confirmation, nntil it siuldenly received it from a quarter which iniglit have been described as unexpected if experience did not show- that there is hardly anything that may not be found there — the rubbish heaps of papyras fragments in Egypt.
Almost at the same time, in the year when Dr. Zalm made his ingenious bitt unsucces.sful attempt (180:!), three scholars, one English and two German, made the discovery that periodical enrolments (d7ro7pa0ai) were held in Egypt under the Roman empire, and that they came round in a fourteen- year cycle. The proof of this was at first produced for the enrolments of A.D. 90, 104, 118, 132, and onwards ; but in rapid succession the list was carried back to A.D. 76, 62, and 20.
This gave the clue, which was almost at once seized, and the whole problem worked out afresh in masterly fashion by Prof. W. M. Ramsay, first in two articles in Exp. 181I7, and then in his volume. Was Christ born at Bethlehem f A Sltidij in the CredibiUty of St. Luke (London, 1898). It would be too much to say that every detail is absolutely verified. The age of Augustus as com- liared with that which precedes and with that which follows is strangely obscure, and the authori- ties for it defective. But considering this, the sequence of argtnnent which Prof. Ramsay unfolds is remarkably clear and attractive, (i.) He .shows it to be very probable that there was a .series of periodical enrolments initiated by Augustus at the time when he first received the tribunician power, and his reign formally began in li.c. 23 (this is the official date usual in inscriptions,
p. 140). (ii.) He also makes it probable that this w.as part of a deliberate and general policy— that the census - takings were not confined i.i Egypt, but extended to other part.s of the emijirc, and more particularly to Syria. Here, too, there was a temlency to periodic recurrence, though the evidence is not, and is not likely to be, so complete as in the case of Egypt, (iii.) He luus shown that Palestine was regarded as part of the ' Roman world,' i.e. of the empire. Though Herod had the liberty of a rex socius, the Roman power and the emperor's will were always .n the background; he had to see that the whole ..ewish people took an oath of allegiance to the emperor; lie couUl not make war without being called to account ; he could not determine his own successor or put to death his own son without an apjical to Rome ; in a moment of anger Augustus threatened that wherea.s he had hitherto treated him (lleroil) a-s a friend, he would henceforth treat him :is a subject (Jus. Ant. .\vi. ix. 3). It was therefore likely enough that Herod would wish, if he Wiis not positively ordered, to fall in with the imperial jiolicy by taking a cen.sus of his people, as aiiidlicr subject king did in Cilicia in A.D. 3'). (iv.) But although Herod held a census at the instance of Augustus, it would be in keeping with his whole character ami conduct to temper it to .Jewish tastes as much as pos.sible ; and he would do this by following the national custom of numbering the peo]>le by their tribes and families. This was the broad distinction between this enrolment of Herod's and the subsequent censiLs of A.D. (i or 7. The latter was carried out by Roman officiali; and in the Roman manner, which wa-s the real cause of the offence which it gave, and of the armed resist- ance which it excited, (v.) Some uncertainty still hangs over the mention of (iuiriniu.s. Mommsen thought that he was the acting leijatus of Syr-a iii li.c. 3-1. Prof. Ramsay inclines to the view uliat he held an extraordinary command by the side of Varus some years earlier, as Corbulo did by t In- side of Ummidius Quadratus, and Vespasian by th^ side of Mucianus. Such a command might carry with it the control of foreign relations, and be in- eluded uiuler the title -nyefidiv.
V. The Meaniny of the firr/in-Iiirth. — It is but a very few years since there arose in tiermany (the date was 1892) a rather shari) controversy in which many leading theologians took part over the clause of the Apostles' Creed, 'Conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary.' The echoes of that controversy reached this country, and, although not much -was .said in public, it is probable that .some imi)re.ssion was made upon public opinion. This impression was strengthened by the publica- tion soon afterwards of the Sinai-Syriac with its peculiar reading, which was not unnaturally caught at as representing a more ancient and trtier text than that to which w-e are accustomed. But if what has been written in the preceding sections has been followed, it will have been .seen that belw-een that time and the present (end of 1898) there has been a steady reaction. The eccentric reading has found its level. As it stands, it cannot po.ssibiy be original ; and however it arose, it cannot really affect the belief of the C i:rch. as it introduces no factor w-hich had not been already allowed for. And at the same time the historical value of tlie documents, especially Lk 1. 2, has been gradually rising in the estimation of scholars, until the climax has been reached in the recent treatise of Prof. Ramsaj'. Even those who desire to see things severely as they are must feel that the opening chapters of St. Luke are full of small indications of authenticity, that they are really not behind the rest of the Go.spel, and that they form no exception to the claiiu made at the outset