Has History Disproved Christmas?. MATTHEW'S STORY 1:1-17 Genealogy 1:18-23 Joseph finds out 1:24-25 Joseph marries Mary 1:25b Jesus born 2:1-12 Magi 2:13-15

Has History Disproved Christmas?

MATTHEW'S STORY 1:1-17 Genealogy 1:18-23 Joseph finds out 1:24-25 Joseph marries Mary 1:25b Jesus born 2:1-12 Magi 2:13-15 Flee to Egypt 2:16-18 Herod kills babies 2:19-23 JM&J go to Nazareth

after Herod dies.

LUKE'S STORY 1:1-25 John's birth foretold 1:26-38 Jesus' birth foretold 1:39-56 Mary visits Elizabeth 1:57-80 Birth of John 2:1-5 Census 2:6-7 Birth of Jesus 2:8-20 Shepherds and Angels 2:21 Circumcision of Jesus 2:22-38 Presentation at the

Temple 2:39-40 JM&J go to Nazareth


CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER Luke 1 Matthew 1:18-25 Luke 2:1-21 Matthew 2:1-12 Luke 2:22-39 Matthew 2:13-23 Luke 2:40-52


COMMON FEATURES Mary and Joseph engaged Jesus conceived by the Holy Spirit Angels announce it Jesus born in Bethlehem Herod Move to Nazareth


MATTHEW'S PRIORITIES

Jesus as the True Israel Joseph's POV Jesus as the one who

comes out of Egypt Jesus as the one who

receives the riches of the nations

Opposed by the existing Israel

LUKE'SPRIORITIES

Jesus as the includer of the excluded Mary's POV Shepherds

Focus on the Temple Zechariah Simeon, Anna


“THE CENSUS PROBLEM”

1.There was no known empire-wide census under Augustus

2.No Roman census would have required Joseph to go to Bethlehem to register

3.Israel under Herod wasn't part of the Roman Empire

4.Josephus wrote that the first Roman census was under Quirinius in AD6, and that caused a revolt

5.Quirinius wasn't governor of Syria until 10 years after Herod died.


TIMELINE

36BC Herod the Great becomes King of Israel, with Roman support

4BC Herod the Great dies. Israel is split up into Roman provinces.

AD6 Quirinius becomes governor of Syria after Herod's son, Archaelus, is sacked by Rome.

AD6 Large census in Judea leads to rioting.

AD525 Dionysius Exiguus invents the AD/BC dating system. He guesses when Jesus was born based on dates of Roman Emperors.


DEALING WITH THE PROBLEMS

1) The Romans liked doing censuses because they liked taxing people. We know there was ongoing census activity across the Roman Empire at the time of Herod.

3) We also know that vassal kings (like Herod) did censuses too when Rome told them to. There's even evidence that Jews under Herod were paying Roman taxes (and hence had been censused).


DEALING WITH THE PROBLEMS

Luke is generally a very reliable historian. If there was a census for Roman taxation and at Roman command under Herod, it makes sense that...

2 & 4) If Herod did a census (before 4BC), he might have done it Jewish-style rather than Roman-style. A Jewish-style census could well involve going to ancestral towns, especially if Joseph owned land in Bethlehem as he might well do if descended from David. A Jewish-style census wouldn't have caused riots like the Roman-style one in AD6 and so is less likely to be mentioned by Josephus.


PROBLEMS FOR THE PROBLEMS

There's other evidence that the census is an otherwise unknown one before 4BC.

No other period would have required going from Nazareth to Bethlehem – they were in different provinces after 4BC

Luke clearly knows about the 6AD census and the rebellion – he mentions it in Acts 5:37. This is a different census...

We only have one person outside the Bible writing about this period in Israel, Josephus, and he's focusing on how the Romans ended up destroying Israel. He has no reason to mention a peaceful census.


SO WHAT ABOUT QUIRINIUS?

Luke 2:2 This was the first census that took place whilea Quirinius was governor of Syria. (NIV 2010)

Footnote - “Or this census took place before...”

The word in question is πρωτος - dictionaries define it as “first, before, greatest”. So it could be talking about the census BEFORE the one where Quirinius was governor of Syria (the one in AD6 which caused all the trouble).


SO WHAT ABOUT QUIRINIUS?

Alternatively, the verse literally reads

“this was the first census of Quirinius, governor of Syria.”

Q may well have been asked to administer the census by Herod, even though he wasn't governor of Syria yet, in the same way we might talk about “President George W Bush” for something he did as a young man.


CONCLUSIONS

Evidence from historians of the time and archaeology is necessarily incomplete. We shouldn't expect them to tell us everything.

The events described in the Bible fit with each other, and don't directly contradict what else we know of the period. Some details (e.g. Herod's character) fit very well with what we know of the period.

If God became man at Christmas, we'd expect there to be miracles, angels and so on, so they don't cause a problem.

Therefore history has not disproved Christmas.


Documents

Has History Disproved Christmas?. MATTHEW'S STORY 1:1-17 Genealogy 1:18-23 Joseph finds out 1:24-25 Joseph marries Mary 1:25b Jesus born 2:1-12 Magi 2:13-15