Luke 2:1-2 - True Truth

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.” 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 had 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 skeptics 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 he was, Luke would never have written something that didn’t match up with historical fact. 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 of 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. I was in a Pamida store and they had a book rack near the front of the store. I was looking through the books when I discovered a book called The Gospel of Thomas. The Gospel of Thomas, by the way, is a Gnostic gospel that was not actually written by the Apostle Thomas at all. It was written by someone using Thomas’s name. The book jacket said something like, “We’ve discovered a new Gospel that has truth we didn’t know before.” But the truth is, we’ve known about The Gospel of Thomas all along. It’s nothing new. We also know that Thomas didn’t write it. It was written by Gnostics sometime within the first 200 years of the church’s history, probably around 140 AD. It is not a Gospel at all. In my ignorance, 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.