Luke 2:1-2
[1] In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the
world should be registered. [2] This was the first registration when Quirinius
was governor of Syria.
This is the beginning of the story of Jesus birth in Luke. There is,
however, a problem with the text. The problem lies with the timing of the
passage. It seems to indicate that Jesus was born “when Quirinius was governor
of Syria.” The problem is that we know Quirinius was made governor sometime
after Herod the Great died, yet the scriptures indicate that Jesus was born
before Herod’s death. There are at least two solutions offered regarding this
timing issue, both have to do with the difficulties of translation. One
solution is that the word translated “first” in this passage actually means “before”
here. Thus the passage should read, “This was the registration before the time
when Quirinius was governor.” That word is not usually translated “before,” but
it is occasionally translated that way. The second solution is to understand
the text in this way, “This was the first registration when Quirinius was
ruling in Syria.” There is historical evidence that Quirinius has some
oversight before he was made official Governor or Proconsul. The word translated
“governor” can simply mean ruler or one giving oversight.” Either of these
solutions addresses the problem of timing without changing the text.
Why do we need to know that? Well, this is one of those passages that
unbelievers like to point to as an “error” in the Bible. As believers, we need
to know that the text is trustworthy. An accusation of error can sometimes shake
our faith. Historically we know that Quirinius oversaw a registration for taxation
later in his rule. This registration, Luke says, is the first. It precedes the
taxation that we know about. Being as close to the event as Luke was, and being
the researcher that Luke was, he would never have written something that didn’t
match up with historical truth. The problem is in our ability to accurately
translate and understand a passage that Luke’s original audience would have
understood perfectly. The attack against our faith often comes in a couple
different forms. One attack comes in this way, “The Bible is in error and believers
don’t even know it.” The other attack is, “The Bible is in error and church
leaders have been hiding it from you.” Neither is true. Our response is simple,
“We know all about it. The problem is not in the timing, but in the
translation. The Bible is not in error.”
I remember first hearing about the Gospel of Thomas, a Gnostic gospel not
written by the Apostle Thomas, but using his name. I heard, “We’ve discovered a
new Gospel that has truth we didn’t know before.” The response is simple. We’ve
known about the Gospel of Thomas all along. We also know that Thomas didn’t
write it. It was written by Gnostics some time after the Apostles were all
gone. It is not a Gospel at all. Unfortunately I didn’t know this when I first
heard about the Gospel of Thomas. As a result, I questioned whether it was
true, and why I hadn’t heard about it before. When I came to understand that it
was not new, it was not written by Thomas, and we have known about it all
along, my doubts were eased. Similarly, we don’t want people’s faith shaken by
a supposed error in the Bible. We know about the difficulty with the timing in
Luke 2. We have given it much thought, and there are reasonable explanations
that do not undermine the authority or accuracy of the text. We can trust the Bible.
That is a lot of detail about the Christmas Story that seems to have nothing to do with the actual birth of Jesus. But if Luke 2:2 is not accurate, how can we believe anything Luke wrote? How do we know that the story of Jesus’ birth is accurate? How can we know that the record of Jesus’ resurrection is true? The good news is that Luke 2:2 is true. It is trustworthy. It does not contradict known historical facts. We can trust the story. We can trust the truth of the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus. We can trust the gospel. The story of Jesus birth is not simply a parable to teach us some esoteric truth. Our faith is built on truth anchored in space and time. To borrow a phrase from Francis Schaeffer, it is true truth.
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