Important Dates in the Lives of Jesus and Mary 

title of governor. Pilate was the governor of Judea in the sense of being ruler over Judea, but not as an official 

title (his title was Procurator). In the same way, the Gospel of Luke may be saying merely that Quirinius was 

one of the rulers over Syria, not necessarily its official governor.

237

 Quirinius certainly did have much authority 

at this time, since he was both a Roman consul and in charge of the census in Syria and Israel. 

A Revised Chronology 

    The above argument, concerning Quirinius and the first census, falls within the range of ideas put forward 

by various scholars in the current debate over the year for the Birth of Jesus Christ. However, at this point, I 

must depart from the usual arguments to introduce a new idea into the chronology of this time period. I have 

reached the conclusion that the usual dates given for events during the reign of Caesar Augustus, including the 

dates for the above mentioned censuses (stated as 12 

B.C.

 and 

A.D.

 6), are off from the true dates by 4 years. A 

lengthy argument in support of this conclusion is given in chapters 12, 13, and 14 of this book. The result is 

that the census of 12 

B.C.

 actually began in 16 

B.C.

 and the census of 

A.D.

 6 actually began in 

A.D.

 2. 

    Though a census is usually referred to by the year in which the census began, each census took two years to 

complete. According to Vardaman, the taking of the census began with a public announcement in May or 

June, and the people then had 12 months to  file their returns. 

238

 The first 12 months of the census 

overlapped two calendar years, which is why the year for a census is sometimes written with both calendar 

years, e.g. 12/11 

B.C.

    Nikos Kokkinos adds that, after the initial 12 period for census taking, there was a second 12 month period 

for collecting the tax.

239

 Thus the census of 16 

B.C.

 would cover a 2 year period of time: the first year, from mid 

16 

B.C.

 to mid 15 

B.C.

, and  the second year, the collecting year, from mid 15 

B.C.

 to mid 14 

B.C.

 This is 

written as: 16/15 

B.C.

   15/14 

B.C.

 (Note that Kokkinos wrote that the census at the time of Christ's Birth 

his date is 12 

B.C.

 was a local census undertaken by Herod, not an empire wide census.) 

240

No Other Census 

    Whether one accepts my revised chronology or not, there is no other census under Quirinius which could 

possibly fit the description of the Gospel, other than the 12/11 

B.C.

 census (my revised date is 16/15 

B.C.

). The 

census of 

A.D.

 6 (

A.D.

 2, revised) is too late to be the census at the time of Christ's Birth. The Gospel of 

Matthew indicates that the death of king Herod occurred as long as 2 years or more after the Birth of Christ 

(Mt 2:16 19). Some scholars present arguments placing the death of Herod as late as 1 

B.C.

, but there is no 

support for a date for the death of Herod later than 

A.D.

 1.

241

    Josephus describes an event occurring about 3 2 

B.C.

 (the usual date), in which the Jewish people were 

required to take an oath to Caesar.

242

 Some scholars have tried to equate this oath taking with the census or 

enrollment described in the Gospel of Luke (Lk 2:1 2). However, the 3 2 

B.C.

 `census' was only for the purpose 

of taking an oath of allegiance to Caesar, not for taxation. Josephus records that some Pharisees refused to 

take the oath, and so had to pay money to Caesar, but only as a fine.

243

 One can infer from the text that, if they 

had taken the oath, they would not have had to pay anything. 

    Furthermore, Justin Martyr (

A.D.

 c. 114 165) described the census at the time of Christ's Birth as a taxation, 

not an oath taking.  Now there is a village in the land of the Jews, thirty five stadia from Jerusalem, in which 

Jesus Christ was born, as you can ascertain also from the registers of the taxing made under Cyrenius, your 

first procurator in Judaea. 

244

    The second census under Quirinius was clearly a taxation, as Josephus describes it.

245

 But Sacred Scripture, 

in saying that the census at the time of Christ's Birth was the first under Quirinius, implies not only that there 

was a second census, but also that the first was like the second. Otherwise, they would not be seen as being 

related, and the census of Luke 2:2 would not have been called the first. Thus, the first census (of Lk 2:2) must 

also have been a census for the purpose of taxation. 

    Also, there seems to be no reason why such an oath taking would require people to return to their place of 

birth. Whereas, if the census was for purpose of taxation, people would have had to return to their place of 

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