But although profane history does not affirm the fact of Cyrenius having formerly been procurator of Syria, yet it does not in any way deny it, and we may therefore safely rest upon the authority of the sacred writer for the truth of this fact, just as we do for the fact of the existence of the first enrolment itself.
2. Another explanation would read the passage thus This enrolment was made before Cyrenius was governor of Syria.' The advocates of this view suppose that Luke inserted this verse as a sort of parenthesis, to prevent his readers from con founding this enrolment with the subsequent cen sus made by Cyrenius. The positive, or rather the superlative, rpoirn, is thus understood in the sense of the comparative n pcor0a, and is made to govern the following genitive. That both the positive and superlative are sometimes used in place of the com parative is doubtlessly true ; but such a construc tion would in the present case he very harsh, and very foreign to the usual simplicity of Luke.
3. Another mode of getting over the difficulty is sanctioned by the names of Calvin, Valesius, Wet stein, Hales, and others. First, changing cairn into abrii they obtain the sense In those days there went forth a decree from Augustus, that the whole land should be enrolled ; but the enrolment itself was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.' The supposition here is that the census was commenced under Saturninus, but was not completed till two years after, under Quirinus. Dr. Robinson (Aa'dit. to Calmet, in ` Cyrenius ') objects to this view the entire absence of any his torical basis for it. But he must at the time have been unmindful of Ilales, who, in his Chronology, has worked out this explanation with more than his usual care and success.
Hales reminds us that a little before the birth of Christ, Herod had marched an army into Arabia, to redress certain wrongs which he had received, and this proceeding had been so misrepresented to Augustus that he wrote a very harsh letter to Herod, the substance of which was, that ` having hitherto treated him as a friend, he would now treat him as a subject.' And when Herod sent an em bassy to clear himself, the emperor repeatedly re fused to hear them, and so Herod was forced to submit to all the injuries (rapaponfas) offered to him (Joseph. Andy. xvi. 9). Now it may be collected that the chief of these injuries was the performance of his threat of treating him as a subject, by the degradation of his kingdom to a Roman province. For soon after Josephus incidentally mentions that ` the whole nation of the Jews took an oath of fidelity to Caesar and the king jointly, except 6000 of the Pharisees, who, through their hostility to the regal government, refused to take it.' The date of this transaction is determined by its having been shortly before the death of Pheroras, and coincides with the time of this decree of enrolment and of the birth of Christ. The oath which Josephus mentions would be administered at the same time, according to the usage of the Roman census, in which a return of persons, ages, and properties was required to be made upon oath, under penalty of confiscation of goods, as we learn from Ulpian.
That Cyrenius, a Roman senator and procurator, was employed to make this enrolment, we learn not only from St. Luke, but by the joint testimony of Justin Martyr, Julian the Apostate, and Eusebius ; and it was made while Saturninus was president of Syria (to whom it was attributed by Tertullian) in the thirty-third year of Herod's reign, corresponding to the date of Christ's birth. Cyrenius; who is de scribed by Tacitus as impiger militiw et acribus ministeriis," an active soldier and rigid commis sioner,' was well qualified for an employment so odious to Herod and his subjects, and probably came to execute the decree with an armed force. The enrolment of the inhabitants, ' each in his own city,' was in conformity with the wary policy of the Roman jurisprudence, to prevent insurrections, and to expedite the business, and if this precaution was judged prudent even in Italy, much more must it have appeared necessary in turbulent provinces like Judzea and Galilee.
At the present juncture, however, it appears that the census proceeded no further than the first act, namely, of the enrolment of persons in the Roman register. For Herod sent his trusty minister, Nicholas of Damascus, to Rome, who, by his ad dress and presents, found means to mollify and unde ceive the emperor, so that he proceeded no further in the design which he had entertained. The census was consequently at this time suspended, but it was afterwards carried into effect upon the deposal and banishment of Archelaus, and the settlement of Judrea as a Roman province. On this occasion the trusty Cyrenius was sent again, as president of Syria, with an armed force, to confiscate the pro perty of Archelaus, and to complete the census for the purposes of taxation. This taxation was a poll-tax of two drachm a-head upon males from fourteen, and females from twelve to sixty-five years of age, equal to about fifteenpence of our money. This was the ` tribute-money' mentioned in Matt. xvii. 24-27. The payment of it became very obnoxious to the Jews, and the imposition of it occasioned the insurrection under Judas of Galilee, which Gamaliel describes as having occurred `in the days of the taxing' (Acts v. 37).
By this statement, connected with the slight emendation of the text already indicated, Hales considers that 'the Evangelist is critically recon ciled with the varying accounts of Josephus, Justin Martyr, and Tertullian ; and an historical difficulty satisfactorily solved, which has hitherto set criticism at defiance.' This is perhaps saying too much ; but the explanation is undoubtedly one of the best that has yet been given (Analysis of Chronology, 48-53 ; Lardner's Credzbiliey, i. 248-329; Robin son, Addle. to Calvin', in `Cyrenius;' Wetstein, Kuinoel, and Campbell, on Luke ii. 2, etc.—J. K.