charges against him, he was banished to Gaul. Judæa, Samaria and Idumæa were now
incorporated into the Roman province of Syria, under its Governor, or Legate. The
special administration of that part of Palestine was, however, entrusted to a Procurator,
whose ordinary residence was at Cæsarea. It will be remembered, that the Jews
themselves had desired some such arrangement, in the vain hope that, freed from the
tyranny of the Herodians, they might enjoy the semi- independence of their brethren in the
Grecian cities. But they found it othe rwise. Their privileges were not secured to them;
their religious feelings and prejudices were constantly, though perhaps not intentionally,
outraged;9 and their Sanhedrin shorn of its real power, though the Romans would
probably not interfere in what might be regarded as purely religious questions. Indeed,
the very presence of the Roman power in Jerusalem was a constant offence, and must
necessarily have issued in a life and death struggle. One of the first measures of the new
Legate of Syria, P. Sulpicius Quirinius,10 after confiscating the ill- gotten wealth of
Archelaus, was to order a census in Palestine, with the view of fixing the taxation of the
country.11 The popular excitement which this called forth was due, probably, not so much
to opposition on principle,12 as to this, that the census was regarded as the badge of
servitude, and incompatible with the Theocratic character of Israel. 13 Had a census been
considered absolutely contrary to the Law, the leading Rabbis would never have
submitted to it;14 nor would the popular resistance to the measure of Quirinius have been
quelled by the representations of the High-Priest Joazar. But, although through his
influence the census was allowed to be taken, the popular agitation was not suppressed.
Indeed, that movement formed part of the history of the time, and not only affected
political and religious parties in the land, but must have been presented to the mind of
Jesus Himself, since, as will be shown, it had a representative within His own family
circle.
3. Ab. v. 21.
4. Yoma 82 a.
5. Comp. also Maimonides, Hilkh. Chag. ii. The common statement, that Jesus went to
the Temple because He was 'a Son of the Commandment,' is obviously erroneous. All the
more remarkable, on the other hand, is St. Luke's accurate knowledge of Jewish customs,
and all the more antithetic to the mythical theory the circumstance, that he places this
remarkable event in the twelfth year of Jesus' life, and not when He became 'a Son of the
Law.'
6. We take as the more correct reading that which puts the participle in the present tense
(αναβαινοντων), and not in the aorist.
7. Jer Kidd. 61 c .
8. From 4 b.c. to 6 a.d.
9. The Romans were tolerant of the religion of all subject nations - excepting only Gaul
and Carthage. This for reasons which cannot here be discussed. But what rendered Rome
so obnoxious to Palestine was the cultus of the Emperor, as the symbol and
impersonation of Imperial Rome. On this cultus Rome insisted in all countries, not
perhaps so much on religious grounds as on political, as being the expression of loyalty to
the empire. But in Judæa this cultus necessarily met resistance to the death. (Comp.
Schneckenburger, Neutest. Zeitgesch. pp. 40-61.)
10. 6-11 (?) a.d.
11. Acts v. 37; Jos. Ant. xviii. 1. 1.