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This is one of the unfavourable consequences of considering Luke ' s Introduction in connexion with that to Matthew . Luke certainly does not say , or even intimate , that Jesus was born in the reign
of Herod . All he says is , ch . i . 5 , cc [ n the davs of Herod the king of Judea , there was a certain priest . " &c , : and though I
willingly admit that the succeeding narrative strongly implies , that it was in the days of Herod that the angel appeared to him as he was exercising his office , it could not have been in less than fourteen
months from that period that Jesus was born ; and consequently we have no sufficient reason from Luke ' s Introduction to suppose that Jesus was born in less than a year after the death of Herod .
This opinion ( founded on Luke ' s own dates in connexion with the express declarations of the early Christians as to the period of our Lord ' s death ) enables us also to diminish very materially the
difficulty respecting the census , if not altogether to remove it . Lardner has ( with his usual candour and accurate research ) endeavoured to show that this census might have taken place in the life of
Herod : but the opinion is attended with almost insuperable difficulties ; and if the Introduction to Matthew is given upj it is in noway necessary . The greatest difficulty is . that the original of
chap . iu % will not allow of his translation ( which is that adopted by Nevvcome and in the Impr . Vers . ); but certainly implies that at the time of the census Cyrenius was actually governor of Syria * .
* Sec MiddletOM on the Greek article , p . 3 OI—30 J . Abo Primitives in the
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Besides the natural , if not the necessary rendering of the first clause is , ' This enrolment was first made " which is also in
opposition to Lardner ' s opinion . — Middleton has , I think , shewn , that the true rendering of the pasci
sage is to this effect : This en . rolment was first executed by Cyrenius when governor of Syria . ** The state of the case stands thus
Augustus ( according to this Introduction , ch . iL J ») sent a decree that all the land of Palaestinef should be enrolled ; and the
Evangelist informs us ( vs . 3 . ) that in consequence of this all the people went , each to his own city , to be enrolled : but in the intervening verse he tells us that this enrolment was first made when
Cyrenius was governor of Syria , obviously implying that it was not actually made when the people went to be enrolled , but at a subsequent period , which he specifies , and which was well known , viz . about A . D . 6 , when Judaea was
made a Roman province . Now on examining Josephus , we lind , that , on the death of Herod . A ' rchelaus went to Rome
to obtain Augustus ' s confirmation of his apppiutment to the kingdom of his father ; that before he went , his soldiers had , in consequence of a sedition against him , killed 3000 of the ; Jews ; that many of
his relations wis / ied Jvdcea to be made a Roman province ^ and at any rate opposed his plans ; that , though Augustus , on the iirat hearing of the case , treated Arche , laus with kindness , and seemed
1 Monthly Repository , vol . V . j > , 190 . f See JLardiicr , vol . J . p . 241—^ r S « e however , Campbell in toe .
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On the Introduction to St . Lutce * Gospd . 15
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1811, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2412/page/15/
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