(February 12, 2014 at 4:31 pm)Alex K Wrote: I believe Quirinius was actually Governor of Syria. When he ordered which census, however, is less clear. It would make sense to have the census just before Christmas though, when everybody is at home anyways.
It is not unclear at all. Publius Sulpicius Quirinius was appointed Imperial Legate of Syria at roughly the same time as Augustus granted the petition of Judaea to oust Archelaus from his position as tetrarch and become a Roman prefecture under the auspices of the Imperial Legate of Syria. A man by the name of Coponius was appointed Prefect. Josephus makes it clear that one of the first undertakings that Quirinius undertook was to conduct the census. That would place it in 6 AD.
Of course, as Legate of Syria with the newly added territory of Judaea he would not have been the least concerned with fucking "Nazareth" which, even if it existed was in Galilee and would have been under the rule of Herod Antipas until 39 AD.
