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 captain, the statement of Luke is confirmed, and the census at which Jesus was born was taken, according to a Jewish fashion, during the life of Herod, but under compulsion of Rome exacted by Quirinius, while he was in command of the Roman forces in the province of Syria-Cilicia.  This gives as a probable date for the birth of Jesus B.C. 6, which accords well with the hints previously considered, inasmuch as it is earlier than the death of Herod, and, if born in B.C. 6, Jesus would have been thirty-two at his baptism in A.D. 26.