/ Gathering Stones aka Biblical Archaeology: August 2006

Sunday, August 27, 2006

Luke 2:1-5 The Census

1 And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.
2 (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)
3 And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.
4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David
5 To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.


This posting will be about the census. Critics of the Bible will cite that there wasn't a census in the year that Jesus was born. Well, there are evidences concerning other census in the Roman Empire, and there are evidences that THIS census, did, in fact, exist. Records indicate that a census was taken every 14 years according to Roman law.

Quoting, the text, “Justin Martyr and Tertullian (second century A.D.) stated that the record of this census was in the archives in Rome” ("Handbook of Biblical Chronology," Princeton University Press, 1964)....

and a papyrus found in 1905
http://www.kchanson.com/ANCDOCS/greek/
census.html

which records the Roman census decree for the then Roman-ruled Egypt. The decree states,Gaius Vibius Maximus, the Prefect of Egypt , declares:

The census by household having begun, it is essential that all those who are away from their nomes be summoned to return to their own hearths so that they may perform the customary business of registration and apply themselves to the cultivation which concerns them. Knowing, however, that some of the people from the countryside are required by our city, I desire all those who think they have a satisfactory reason for remaining here to register themselves before . . . Festus, the Cavalry Commander , whom I have appointed for this purpose, from whom those who have shown their presence to be necessary shall receive signed permits in accordance with this edict up to the 30th of the present month E . . . (Translation by K. C. Hanson)

I bring it to your attention that this was a “customary” act, not a “one-time” action of requiring people to “return to their own hearths”.

Some critics would debate that Cyrenius was not governor of Syria at the appropriate time...

“Jerry Vardaman has discovered the name of Quirinius on a coin in micrographic letters, placing him as proconsul of Syria and Cilicia frm 11 B.C. until after the death of Herod.”("Archaeology and the New Testament," McRay, 1991, Baker Book House, page 154)

(Years in red, footnotes in blue)

“The censuses to which Luke refers, both in his Gospel and in Acts 5:37, have been illuminated....There is a form in the British Museum dated by George Milligan and Adolf Deissman to A.D. 104.12 Although we have nothing as yet from the years 90 and 76, there is one from 62. 13 Another is dated by Milligan to 48, 14 and yet another dates to 34. 15 A fifth census form, although it contains no date, is considered by its editor to have been produced in 20 16 Acts 5:37 and Josephus in Antiquities refer to another in the year 6, to which year B. P Grenfell 17 and A.S. Hunt date Oxyrhychus papyrus 256. 18 Finally, Gertulian records a census when Sentius Saturninus (9-6 B.C.) was governor of Syria, which would have been in the year 9 B.C. according to the fourteen-year cycle established by the dated papyri. 19...

however a census begun in Syria in 9 B.C. may have taken a long time to be completed in Palestine.” ("Archaeology and the New Testament," McRay, 1991, Baker Book House, page 154, 155)

Notes:
12 British Museum P Lond 904—Frederick G. Kendon and H. Idris Bell, Greek Papyri in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1907) 3.125, plate 30; George Milligan, Greek Papyri (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1910) 72-73:Adolf Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East, trans. Lionel R. M Strachan (New York” George H. Doran. 1927), 270 n. 7
13 B. P. Grenfell, A.S. Hunt, et al., Oxyrhynchus Papyri (London:Egypt Exploration Fund, 1898), 2.207
14 Ibid., 2.255, Milligan, greek Papyri, 44
15 James H. Moulton and George Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1952), 59-60
16 Grenfell et al., Oxyrhynchus Papyri, 2.254; Moulton and Milligan, Vocabulary, 60.
17 Josephus antiquities 18.2.1 (26).
18 Moulton and Milligan, Vocabulary, 60.
19 Tertullian, Adversus marcionem 4.19

Additional sites for notes and support


http://www.tektonics.org/af/censuscheck.html

http://www.angelfire.com/nt/theology/16jesus.html

for a discussion on the reign of Quirinius (Luke 2) http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/
justinmartyr-firstapology.html

posted by ~serapha~ at 7:45 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Luke 1:1-25 Zachariah and Elizabeth

The first passages in Luke talk about Zechariah and Elizabeth and the miracle given to them from God in the nature of a child, John the Baptist, who would foretell of the coming Messiah to the Jewish people. John would be the last prophet of the Old Testament time, though he is identified in the New Testament books.

There was an inscription found in Absolom's tomb in Jerusalem in 2003 containing these words, "This is the tomb of Zachariah, the martyr, the pious, the father of John."
(http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2003/s900660.htm)

Biblical Archaeology Review has comments on the inscription in their Nov/Dec issue, page 19.

"The angled light of the setting sun, a persistent anthropologist and a learned epigrapher have all helped to discover a nearly invisible Greek inscription in Absalom's pillar.....
"Archaeologists have dated the tomb itself to the time of Jesus...
"Critics and skeptics will point to the inscription and say that there is no way to prove that the inscription relates to Zachariah and John the Baptist, but the history of inscriptions does show that during the early centuries, that supporters of Christianity did inscribe particular areas and artifacts so that their location/identification could be understood throughout the ages. http://www.angelfire.com/trek/billprothero/page9.html

“AP notes that the Jewish historian Josephus writes that a priest named Zachariah was slain by Zealots in the temple, and his body was tossed into the Kidron Valley below. If that is true, it explains why the word "martyr" is in the inscription. Scholars do not believe that Zachariah is buried in this tomb. But the inscription does give a unique insight into the local lore surrounding the early figures of the Christian church--and how the words came to be there.

Byzantine Christians most likely added the inscription to the tomb several hundred years after Zachariah's death and after the tomb's construction. Why? It was common for this group of Christians in the 4th and 5th centuries to mark sites that they believed were linked to the Bible's main characters.”

Luke 1:5, 8-9
5 In the days of King Herod of Judea, there was a priest of Abijah's division named Zachariah.
8 When his division was on duty, and he was serving as priest before God,
9 it happened that he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and burn incense.

http://www.stathanasius.org/bible/su..._epiphany.html

“His Parents: Zachariah (or Zacharias) was the Chief Priest of the 8th Lot (Luke 1:5, 1 Chronicles 24:10). This meant he was in charge of the 8th Lot priestly duties for one week, then went home for 23 weeks until his turn came up again. Elizabeth was a cousin of the Virgin Mary. This means John and Jesus were second cousins.”The priestly line was divided into 24 "families", and each served for one week's service, and with about 20,000 descendents serving in the priesthood, there usually was just one time when each member would be given the opportunity to enter the sanctuary and burn incense.

Luke 1:26 And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth,
39 And Mary arose in those days, and went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Juda;

Just a small note, that the sixth month would still be within the 24-family division of Levitical priest which Zachariah was a member, and wherever Zachariah and Elizabeth lived, in the sixth month, they would be "into a city of Juda" to be a part of the levitical service in the temple.

Quoting from J.D. Crossan (The Historical Jesus)
“It names Nazareth as one of the places in Galilee where the priestly families of Judea migrated after the disastrous Hadrianic war of 135 CE. Such groups would only settle in towns without gentile inhabitants, which ruled out nearby Sepphoris. Apparently, the priests had been divided from ancient times into twenty-four 'courses' that took weekly turns in Temple service. The restored inscription reads:
'The eighteenth priestly course [called] Hapizzez, [resettled at] Nasareth.'”

63 And he asked for a writing table, and wrote, saying, His name is John. And they marvelled all.

In ancient times, when a temporary record was needed, then the information would be stored on wax. The wax was melted and poured into a small tray. When the wax was cooled, it would serve as a temporary writing surface. The trays could be tied together to make a book, but again this was a temporary form of retaining records. Usually records were retained in temporary wax until such time as they could be recorded onto a more permanent source such as pottery sherds or papyrus. The University of Michigan has a large collection of such examples of waxed wooden trays that have been preserved with the text intact in the collection of papyrus, ostraca, and inscriptions.

~serapha~

posted by ~serapha~ at 9:35 PM 0 comments