Luke 2:1

ἐξῆλθεν δόγμα παρὰ Καίσαρος Αὐγούστου�. The verb ἐξῆλθεν is a Hebraism in this sense, Daniel 9:2-3. ‘That there should be an enrolment of the habitable world.’ The verb ἀπογράφεσθαι is here probably passive (Vulg[56] ut describeretur), though we have the aorist middle ἀπογράψασθαι ‘to enroll himself’ in Luke 2:5. The registration (ἀπογραφὴ) did not necessarily involve a taxing (ἀποτίμησις), though it was frequently the first step in that direction. Two objections have been made to the historic credibility of the decree, and both have been fully met:

[56] Vulg. Vulgate.

1. It is said ‘that there is no trace of such a decree in secular history.’ The answer is that (α) the argumentum e silentio is here specially invalid because there happens to be a singular deficiency of minute records respecting this epoch in the ‘profane’ historians. The history of Nicolaus of Damascus, the flatterer of Herod, is not extant. Tacitus barely touches on this period (Ann. I. 1, “pauca de Augusto”). There is a hiatus in Dion Cassius from A.U.C. 748–752. Josephus does not enter upon the history of these years. (β) There are distinct traces that such a census took place. Augustus with his own hand drew up a Rationarium of the Empire (a sort of Roman Doomsday Book, afterwards epitomised into a Breviarium), which included the allied kingdoms (Tac. Ann. I. 11; Suet. Aug. 28), and appointed twenty Commissioners to draw up the necessary lists (Suidas s.v. ἀπογραφή).