The Fifteenth Person of Christmas is Quirinius

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.)  And everyone went to their own town to register. Luke 2:1-3

I'll bet you are like me.  I'll bet you've never spent much time thinking about Quirinius.  Who cares about him?  What does it matter?  How is he important to the Christmas story?

He matters a lot.  Luke was quite wise to include him in his telling of the birth story, because it gives the world historical proof that what Luke was saying was true.

However, there have been critics through the years who point to this particular passage to say that this story is untrue, or at the very least, that Luke was wrong.  The bible says that Jesus was born before King Herod died.  Herod died in 1 B.C., but Quirinius was not appointed governor of Syria until around 6 B.C.

So either Luke was wrong, or this didn't happen, or history was wrong.

But recently, we've seen that on close examination, the original translations do not say that Quirinius was governor.  It says he was governing.  There's a difference!  If he was working in government in Syria, then Luke's statement is entirely accurate, whether or not Q was the head governor or not.

Why is this important?  It's important because Q's role in this whole story gives a historical foothold to the story of Christ's birth.

And why is that important?

I think Luke must have been an interesting character.  Scholars think that he was a Gentile, highly educated, well traveled, well connected, and extremely widely read. 

But this day isn't about Luke, it's about Quirinius.  So why is he important?

Because I think Luke had a sense of what he was writing, of who he was writing to.  He was not an eyewitness to any of Jesus' life - from his birth to his ministry to his death.  So Luke knew that in order to make a convincing argument for the authenticity of his story, he had to make it factual.

And Q was indeed a Roman governor.  He was appointed to Syria, and one of his first tasks was to carry out a census - part of a world-wide census - for taxation purposes.  Now, the Jews hated the Romans, hated being taxed by them, and a census was forbidden under Jewish law.  Open revolt was on the horizon. 

What does all this mean?  Why am I telling you this?  I am telling you this because Quirinius is important to the Christmas story.  The time was ripe.  The world was ready for a Savior, the Messiah.  Quirinius simply plays a part in the story, a story he probably never knew he was in.  But it's a never-ending, life-changing, world-altering story, nonetheless.