Session 38: Luke 2: 1-38 - Timing controversies, the dignity of the poor, and the universality of the Gospel.

Key Points:

Ch.2 v. 1- Skeptics would say Caesar Augustus never ordered an empire-wide census.
(Cencuses were typically recorded for purposes of taxation.)  This census may have been to, instead, register that subjects swore allegiance to the emperor.

v.2 Skeptics would say Quirinius was not the governor of Syria until years after Christ was thought to be born.  Answer: perhaps he was like a “leutenant governor” at the time, so he was involved in “governing”, perhaps in charge of a smaller area.

“First-born” was a legal term, and did not mean that there was necessarily a “second-born.”  (Regarding Mary’s perpetual virginity.)

The value of the poor in Luke’s birth-of-Jesus account:
Shepherds- the lowest of the low.

Manger (feeding trough for animals.)

Mary’s sacrifice at temple of 2 birds was that required of the poor, per Lev. 12:8.

Simeon proclaims Jesus will be “revelation to the GENTILES”, another of Luke’s themes.