it would take several years to carry out such a decree, and its execution in the provinces would be
modified according to national customs. Zumpt assumes that Sentius Saturninus,^133 who was sent
as governor to Syria a.u. 746 (b.c. 9), and remained there till 749 (b.c. 6), began a census in Judaea
with a view to substitute a head tax in money for the former customary tribute in produce; that his
successor, Quintilius Varus (b.c. 6–4), continued it, and that Quirinius (b.c. 4) completed the census.
This would explain the confident statement of Tertullian, which he must have derived from some
good source, that enrolments were held under Augustus by Sentius Saturninus in Judaea.^134 Another,
but less probable view is that Quirinius was sent to the East as special commissioner for the census
during the administration of his predecessor. In either case Luke might call the census "the first"
under Quirinius, considering that he finished the census for personal taxation or registration according
to the Jewish custom of family registers, and that afterwards he alone executed the second census
for the taxation of property according to the Roman fashion.
The problem is not quite solved; but the establishment of the fact that Quirinius was
prominently connected with the Roman government in the East about the time of the Nativity, is
a considerable step towards the solution, and encourages the hope of a still better solution in the
future.^135
The Forty-Six Years of Building of Herod’s Temple.
(5) St. John, 2:20, furnishes us a date in the remark of the Jews, in the first year of Christ’s
ministry: "Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou raise it up in three days?"
We learn from Josephus that Herod began the reconstruction of the temple in Jerusalem in
the eighteenth year of his reign, i.e., a.u. 732, if we reckon from his appointment by the Romans
(714), or a.u. 735, if we reckon from the death of Antigonus and the conquest of Jerusalem (717).^136
The latter is the correct view; otherwise Josephus would contradict himself, since, in another
passage, he dates the building from the fifteenth year, of Herod’s reign.^137 Adding forty-six years
to 735, we have the year a.u. 781 (a.d. 27) for the first year of Christ’s ministry; and deducting750-760, and is not as impartial a historian as Luke, nor worthy of more credit. Cassiodorus (Variarum, iii. 52) and Suidas (s.
v., ἀπογραφή) expressly assert the fact of a general census, and add several particulars which are not derived from Luke; e.g.
Suidas says that Augustus elected twenty commissioners of high character and sent them to all parts of the empire to collect
statistics of population as well as of property, and to return a portion to the national treasury. Hence Huschke, Wieseler, Zumpt,
Plumptre, and McClellan accept their testimony as historically correct (while Schürer derives it simply from Luke, without being
able to account for these particulars). Wieseler quotes also John Malala, the historian of Antioch, as saying, probablyon earlier
authorities, that "Augustus, in the 39th year and 10th month of his reign [i.e. B.C. 5 or 6] issued a decree for a general registration
throughout the empire." Julius Caesar had begun a measurement of the whole empire, and Augustus completed it.(^133) Not to be confounded with L. Volusius Saturninus, who is known, from coins, to have been governor of Syria a.u. 758 (a.d.
4).
(^134) Adv. Marc. iv. 19: "Sed et census constat actos sub Augusto tunc in Judaea per Sentium Saturninum, apud quos genus ejus
inquirere potuissent."
(^135) Zumpt, the classical scholar and archaeologist, concludes (p. 223) that there is nothing in Luke’s account which does not
receive, from modern research,"full historical probability" ("volle historische Wahrscheinlichkeit"); while Schürer, the theologian,
still doubts (Matt. 28:17). Dr. Woolsey (s. v."Cyrenius," in "Smith’s Bible Dict.," Hackett and Abbot’s ed., p. 526), decides that
"something is gained." In the art. "Taxing" he says that a registration of Judaea made under the direction of the president of Syria
by Jewish officers would not greatly differ from a similar registration made by Herod, and need not have alarmed the Jews if
carefully managed.
(^136) Antiqu. xv. 11, 1: "And now Herod, in the eighteenth year of his reign (ὀκτωκαιδεκάτον τῆσ Ἡρώδον βασιλείας ἐνιαυτοῦ)
... undertook a very great work, that is, to build of himself the temple of God, and to raise it to a most magnificent altitude, as
esteeming it to be the most glorious of all his actions, as it really was, to bring it to perfection, and that this would be sufficient
for an everlasting memorial of him."
(^137) Bell. Jud. I. 21, πεντεκαιδεκάτῳ ἔτει τῆς βασιλείας αὐτὸν δὲ τὸν ναὸς ἐπεσκεύασε
A.D. 1-100.