Why are you a Theist?

[jstrodel]

Seeing as though you're so read up on everything jstrodel, can you please explain to me why Luke fabricated a census?

I have not studied the issue much, here is one assessment of it:

The solution to the apparent chronological problem was proposed in 1938 by historian F. M. Heichelheim, in his work on the history of Roman Syria. Examining the Greek grammatical structure of Luke 2:2, he argued that the original meaning was properly rendered as: “This census was the first before (=πρώτη) that under the prefectureship of Quirinius in Syria.”[2] He observed that the Greek word “protos”, usually translated as “first”, may also mean “before” or “former” when followed by the genitive case. Thus, St. Luke was saying that the census which prompted the Holy Family to go to Bethlehem was before the census conducted by Quirinius. The more famous census of Quirinius in A.D. 6 was simply serving as a marker for the reader of Luke’s Gospel, allowing Luke to point to a census that had occurred previously. Luke intended to place the events around the birth of Jesus before Quirinius's governorship and census in A.D. 6.[3] Heichelheim rightly observed that this translation would resolve “all difficulties”. This proposal has found acceptance as a legitimate resolution to the problem from several other scholars, including Nigel Turner,[4] F. F. Bruce,[5] Brook W. R. Pearson,[6] Ben Witherington III,[7] H. W. Hoehner, [8] and many more.[9]

↑ Nigel Turner, Grammatical Insights into the New Testament, pp. 23-24.
↑ F. F. Bruce, Jesus and Christian Origins Outside the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans), p. 192.
↑ Brook W. R. Pearson, ‘The Lukan Census, Revisited’, in Catholic Biblical Quarterly, vol. 1, no. 2 (April 1999).
↑ Ben Witherington III, What Have They Done With Jesus? (Aan Francisco: Harper, 2006), p. 101.
↑ H. W. Hoehner, Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1977), p. 21.
↑ The list is too long to mention in totality, some other examples include L. H. Feldman in W. Brindle, "The Census and Quirinius: Luke 2:2" in JETS 27 (1984), pp. 48-49; P. W. Barnett, ‘Apographē and apographesthai in Luke 2:1-5’, Expository Times 85 (1973-1974), 337-380;; Norman L. Geisler and Thomas Howe, When Critics Ask (Wheaton, Ill.: Vicor, 1992), p. 185.


FF Bruce and Ben Witherington are good sources, the source I posted it from is questionable.