66. Was there a Roman census of Judea during the birth of Jesus Christ?

The passage in Luke 2:1-3, which was formerly so frequently quoted by a certain class of Bible critics as a "blunder" on the part of the Gos­pel historian, has in recent years received unexpected confirmation.

It was claimed that Luke's statement regarding a Roman census of Judea was a pure invention and that Cyrenius was a myth.

Now, however, it has been discovered by historians and excavators that the entire passage which has occasioned so much controversy is literal fact.

Sir Wil­liam Ramsay, the noted archeologist, while excavating at Antioch of Pisidia (in Asia Minor) in 1912-13, unearthed inscriptions which re­vealed that Cyrenius was the name of the governor of Syria at the pe­riod of the Advent.

Further, it has been established by careful investigation of ancient historical sources that the Roman authorities took a regular fourteenth-year census, and that under the prevailing law every one at some time within the year had to go and personally register in his native city.