Hitler Homer Bible Christ by Richard Carrier

Author:Richard Carrier [Carrier, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Philosophy Press
Published: 2014-01-19T05:00:00+00:00

1.5 Second Attempt: Inventing a Second Governorship for Quirinius

Even fishing a different date out of Luke would leave a contradiction within Luke, since the only chronological detail about Jesus that Luke is absolutely clear on is that he was born during “the first census when Quirinius was governing Syria” (2:2). All evidence confirms that Quirinius first became governor of Syria in 6 a.d. and the first Roman census of Judaea occurred at that time, and Luke clearly says this was a Roman census (2:1-6). So Luke didn’t leave much room to maneuver. To reconcile Luke with Matthew, one must invent two facts nowhere in evidence: some other Syrian governorship for Quirinius and some other census affecting Judaea, both before Herod the Great died.

But trying to invent an earlier Syrian governorship for Quirinius is a lost cause. Not only is there no evidence of it, and not only does it go against a plain reading of all the evidence we do have, but it’s essentially impossible. No one ever governed the same province twice in the whole of Roman history. So the claim that Quirinius was the sole known exception is so extraordinary it certainly can’t be maintained without evidence. Such an astonishing and unique honor could not have been omitted by Josephus or Tacitus (Annals 3.48), yet both describe his career without any mention of it. Historical evidence also confirms other men governed Syria between 12 and 3 b.c., so Quirinius could not have [p.218] been governor then, and he was not qualified to hold that office before the year 12.[156]

Stymied by all these facts, inerrantists have resorted to everything from fabricating evidence of dual governorships or other fictional offices Quirinius is supposed to have held, to changing the year of Herod’s death. None of this is even remotely reasonable, and most of it is based on the fantasies of amateurs or the abandoned conjectures of long dead historians. First, the alleged physical evidence:

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