53. The statement of Tertullian (Against Marcion, iv. 19) that a census
had been taken in Judea under Augustus by Sentius Saturninus, who was
governor of Syria about 9 to 7 B.C., certainly comes from some source
independent of the gospels, and tends to confirm Luke's account of a
census before the death of Herod. That a Roman census might have been
taken in Palestine during Herod's life is seen from the fact that in A.D.
36 Vitellius, the governor of Syria, had to send Roman forces into
Cilicia Trachaea to assist Archelaus, the king of that country, to quell a
revolt caused by native resistance to a census taken after the Roman
fashion (Tacitus, Ann. vi. 41). Herod would almost certainly resent as a
mark of subjection the order to enrol his people; and the fact that he was
in disfavor with Augustus during the governorship of Saturninus (Josephus,
Ant. xvi. 9. 1-3), suggests to Professor Ramsay that he may have sought to
avoid obedience to the imperial will in the matter of the census. If after
some delay Herod was forced to obey, the enrolment may have been taken in
the year 7-6. Since it is probable that the Romans would allow Herod to
give the census as distinctly Jewish a character as possible, it is easy
to credit the order that all Jews should be registered, so far as
possible, in their ancestral homes. Hence the journey of Joseph to
Bethlehem; and if Mary wished to have her child also registered as from
David's line, her removal with Joseph to Bethlehem is explained. Such a
delay in the taking of the census would have postponed it until after the
recall of Saturninus. The statement of Tertullian may therefore indicate
simply that he knew that a census was taken in Syria by Saturninus.

54. The successor of Saturninus was Varus, who held the governorship until
after the death of Herod. How then does Luke refer to the enrolment as
taken when Quirinius was in authority? It has for a long time been known
that this man was in Syria before he was there as legate of the emperor in
A.D. 6. There seems to be evidence that Quirinius was in the East about
the year B.C. 6, putting down a rebellion on the borders of Cilicia, a
district joined with Syria into one province under the early empire.
Varus was at this time governor, but Quirinius might easily have been
looked upon as representing for the time the power of the Roman arms. If
Herod was forced to yield to the imperial wish by the presence in Syria of
this renowned capt