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a taxation heinously, yet did they leave off any further oppo sition to it.” (Ant. XVIII 1:1)
    We should point out here that the Archelaus Josephus mentions is Herod Archelaus , the son of Herod the Great, and recently deposed ethnarch of Judea. Augustus named Herod Archelaus ruler of Samaria, Judea, and Idumea following his father’s death. He ruled from 4 BC until 6 AD when Augustus removed him because of incompetence. So in the Jewish homeland the census served a two-fold purpose. First, it fulfilled the edict of Caesar Augustus and facilitated his new tax. Secondly, it closed the books on Archelaus ’ administration before the territory was annexed to the Provence of Syria and Coponius took office as the regions first Prefect.
    Archelaus appears in Matthew’s Gospel in Chapter 2:20-23 where he is cited as the reason Joseph chose to go to Nazareth rather than return to Judea where they had lived prior to the flight into Egypt. ‘“Rise, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child's life are dead. And he rose and took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus reigned over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there, and being warned in a dream he withdrew to the district of Galilee. And he went and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, ‘He shall be called a Nazarene.’”
    But the census of 6 AD can’t be the one Luke is referring to. Since it was specifically designated for the military, the Roman troops would have conducted the census. There would have been no going “ to be enrolled, each to his own city. ”
    Going Back to Ancient Writers
    Recall that Dio Cassius tells us that this was the second attempt at a military tax and that it had been introduced once before, but later abolished and was now being revived. There was only one prior tax designated specifically for the military, and this must be the decree Luke referred to. The decree for taxation combined with a census at the time of Jesus' birth was likely that first unsuccessful attempt to support the military treasury.
    However, because there’s no record of when the first tax was imposed, it can’t be dated with certainty. But we can find mention of it by other early writers. Tertullian (155-245), the Christian theologian, notes that a census in Judea took place under Sentius Saturninus , who served from 9-6 BC. He writes, “But there is historical proof that at this very time there were censuses that had been taken in Judea by Sentius Saturninus , which might have satisfied their inquiry respecting the family and descent of C hrist.” (Against Marcion IV :19 )
    Re visit ing the Gospel of Luke
    It’s very plausible that Luke's intent was to say that the enrollment at the time of Jesus’ birth was the first one, as distinguished from the later one when Quirinius was governor of Syria. Quirinius, by the way, was appointed Governor of Syria in 6 AD and was in office during the second census to complete the transition from Archelaus to Coponius . The Greek can be interpreted to say: “This census was first one, which came before the one Quirinius held while governor of Syria,” which validate s the historicity of Scripture.
    And finally, one must reconcile the seeming contradiction that Luke describes the Jewish method of returning to one's tribal headquarters to be counted when the Romans typically counted people where they were. The key difference is that this census was to establish inheritance taxes and people would have to go back to tribal region regardless of who was conducting the count. As a descendant of David, and thereby of the tribe of Judah, Joseph had to go back to town where the necessary land record s and genealogies were located.
    It is known that a significant number of Judeans relocated to Galilee in the latter years of the First Century BC. The fact that after