Publius Sulpicius Quirinius

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Publius Sulpicius Quirinius (* around 45 BC , † 21 AD ) was a Roman senator and temporary governor of Syria . His function in the Roman administration in Palestine during the turn of the ages concerns the Christmas story in the Gospel according to Luke because of the census mentioned there . A contradiction arises here, the attempt of which occupied many theologians and historians.

Life

Publius Sulpicius Quirinius was born around 45 BC. Born in Lanuvium , a city near Rome . His family was wealthy but had not yet produced any senators.

In the wake of the rise of Octavian, who became the first Roman emperor as Augustus , previously closed career paths opened up for Quirinius. No information is available about the course of Quirinius' early career. In the year 15 BC He became proconsul (governor) of the province of Creta et Cyrene .

Here Quirinius successfully fought the Garamanten , a tribe that lived south of the border of its province in the Sahara. He returned to Rome as a war hero and was born in 12 BC. Chr. To Consul selected. Augustus later appointed him governor of the province of Galatia in what is now Turkey. Quirinius fought there in the years 5 to 3 BC. The warlike tribe of Homonadens .

Quirinius married Aemilia Lepida , a daughter of Quintus Aemilius Lepidus , between AD 3 and 5 , but divorced her again shortly afterwards. In AD 20, when she was already married to Mamercus Aemilius Scaurus , he charged her with various crimes, including the planned poisoning attack on his person. She was found guilty and banished.

Quirinius died the following year. A public memorial service was held in his honor. He left no children with either Aemilia Lepida or his first wife Claudia Appia .

Career

According to Tacitus , after his consulate in 12 BC , Quirinius BC and before his special command in the staff of the Augustus grandson Gaius Caesar in the Orient in 1 BC. Waged the war against the homoadese in southern Asia Minor. Milestones of the Via Sebaste indicate the year 6 BC in the crisis area. As completion of the road, so the enemies have been defeated beforehand; the military colony local chose gratitude the Quirinius to their " duumvir " (Mayor), as is apparent from two inscription stones. An inscription found in Tibur without a name, the so-called Akephale Tiburtine inscription names a governor who has been to Syria twice: proconsul Asiam provinciam opti [nuit legatus pro praetore] divi Augusti iterum Syriam et Pho [enicen optinuit] . Even Theodor Mommsen identified these two-time governor as Publius Sulpicius Quirinius., But after Edmund Groag it is probably Marcus Plautius Silvanus and after Ronald Syme to Lucius Calpurnius Piso . Today it is assumed that the statement actually refers to Quirinius, but is factually incorrect.

It is uncertain whether Quirinius was also appointed governor of the rich province of Asia . However, it is certain that he had earned Augustus' trust through his success and was therefore appointed rector (head, supervisor) for Gaius Caesar , the grandson and designated successor of the emperor. Gaius Caesar was to travel with Quirinius to the eastern provinces of the empire in order to gain experience in government matters there; he started the journey on January 29, 1 BC. Chr. Quirinius was probably there when Gaius Caesar met the Parthian king Phraatakes , and he was certainly his military adviser when the young Caesar invaded Armenia . Gaius Caesar was wounded in the process and died of the consequences of his injury during his return to Rome in 3 AD.

Very soon after these events, Quirinius was appointed governor of Syria , one of the most important provinces of the Roman Empire. In this capacity he commanded four legions ( legio III Gallica , legio VI Ferrata , legio X Fretensis , legio XII Fulminata ). In the area of Judea to the south, there was an uproar, due to the incompetence of the local ruler Herodes Archelaus . In the year 6 n. Chr. Augustus dismissed the Judean princes of his office and incorporated Judea as an autonomous region that henceforth a Roman prefect was assumed the province of Syria.

After Judea had thus become part of his office, Quirinius had to organize the tax system of the new prefecture. To do this, it was necessary to record the taxable population in lists. This census in 6 AD, described in great detail by Flavius ​​Josephus , met with resistance, among other things because the images and inscriptions of the Roman coins required to settle taxes in the future are usually Roman deities or a portrait of Augustus in his function as divine emperor showed; both appeared to the Jewish population to be incompatible with their monotheistic beliefs. Nevertheless, the high priest Joazar finally succeeded in persuading the majority of the population to cooperate.

However, the resistance did not completely subside. The Pharisee Zadok and the scribe Judas of Gamala equated taxation with the introduction of slavery . They also proclaimed that God alone was ruler of Judea and that it would therefore be blasphemy to pay taxes to another gentleman. A rebellion would therefore be favored by God.

It is true that there was not a major uprising that would have required the intervention of Quirinius' Syrian legions; But the governor's census and the unrest that went with it were so clearly remembered by the Jewish population that two generations later the author of the Gospel of Luke could assume that the governor Quirinius was well known to all of his readers.

Quirinius in the Gospel of Luke

Mary and Joseph inscribing before Quirinius , Byzantine mosaic, 14th century

According to the Gospel according to Luke ( Lk 2.2  EU ), the command of the Emperor Augustus was issued to “register” the imperial population “when Quirinius was governor in Syria”. The governorship of Quirinius in Syria is documented from 6 AD, and since that time Judea has also belonged to the province of Syria. According to the presentation in the Gospel according to Matthew ( Mt 2  EU ), however, Jesus was born in the time of Herod the Great, who wanted to have him eliminated ( child murder in Bethlehem ). Herod died 4 BC - no later than this year was the birth of Jesus. According to Luke ( Lk 1.5  EU ), the birth of Jesus belongs to the time of Herod. So these details do not match.

Census as a literary tool

Many theologians believe that giving a census in the Gospel of Luke is a literary means that should explain why Jesus was born in Bethlehem: According to this point of view, this should not be regarded as a historical statement, but as a means of expressing Jesus' messiahship .

Gerd Theißen and Annette Merz suspect "that Lukas accidentally incorrectly harmonized chronological information that did not match one another".

The information given by Lukas is historically assessed

Some theologians consider the statements of Luke ("the historian") to be historical. Frederick Fyvie Bruce translates Luke 2.2 as follows:

"This registration took place before that which was made when Quirinius was governor of Syria"

In addition to this translation option, Bruce also discusses indications that Quirinius as early as 7 BC in his article on Quirinius in The Great Biblical Lexicon . Was responsible for Syria and that there was a census even then.

The assumption of a census of Quirinius already at the time of Herod can be linked to the fact that Luke 2.2 says that this was "the first" count - so Luke seems to have known of at least two counts. The objection is that this time is presented in more detail by Flavius ​​Josephus and that he does not report any such census; In addition, the Jewish reactions to the Quirinius census are such that one was not used to a Roman census.

Theodor Zahn thinks that Flavius ​​Josephus “was poorly informed about this time”. Joazar was the last appointed by Herod the Great and was appointed by Archelaus in the winter of 4/3 BC. High priest deposed. He exercised a soothing influence on the population when they first “enrolled”. It is not known that Joazar was later high priest again. Josephus reports that a certain Judas died in the summer of 4 BC. Started a revolt in Galilee. This one could be identical to that Judas from Galilee, of whom Josephus reports that he instigated an uprising against the Roman tax collection (where Josephus here presupposes that it is another Judas and that this uprising occurred around 7 AD in Galilee took place). Zahn thinks it possible that Quirinius died in the years up to 4 BC. Was active as a representative of Augustus in Syria and neighboring regions (and also had the aforementioned estimate carried out), and then became governor of Syria.

The assumption of a census at the time of King Herod meets the objection that Rome did not interfere in the internal affairs of Judea at that time.

Theo Mayer-Maly views this census from the perspective of Roman law. He suspects a provincial census; Since there were many such censuses under Augustus, Luke spoke of an inscription of the entire inhabited earth. As part of a census, poll taxes were levied on the peregrini . This first census carried out by Quirinius in Syria could have dragged on over several years, perhaps from 7 BC. Chr. To 7 AD Henrike Maria Zilling considers it possible that Rome, when the end of the reign of Herod the Great was in sight, decided to send the Syrian governor or a legate with an imperial special mandate (Quirinius?) And one Carry out kind of preliminary census in preparation for a possible later provincialization.

Martin Hirschmüller offers an overview of the research with careful appreciation of this historical approach: Der Zensus des Quirinius .

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Quotation: “If the construction took place after the war, then the command of Quirinius in Galatia against the Homanadenses preceded the governorship of Cornutus Aquila. The present writer no longer subscribes to that view. ... The important point is that these roads had not yet penetrated the homeland of the Homanadenses, south of Lake Trogitis, by 6 BC Construction was concentrated in western Pisidia. The closest of the milestones to their homeland are those from Selki Saray, a good 45 miles away. … Of course, there may be other milestones dating from 6 BC from places closer to the Homanadenses. - Cf. Ronald Syme , Galatia and Pamphylia under Augustus, Klio 27 (1934), pp. 136–37, note 7: 'If there were milestones dated to 6 BC on another road, a branch which leaves the Via Sebaste just before Selki Serai and then runs south-eastwards towards and through the land of the Homanadenses around lake Trogitis, that would be another question, and would provide evidence that the war was over. '”In: Hildegard Temporini: Rise and decline of the roman world: Geschichte u. Culture of Rome in the mirror d. recent research. Volume 7: Political History, Half Volume 2 (Provinces and Marginal Peoples, continued). Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, New York 1980, ISBN 3-11-008015-X , p. 966, note 45 ( online ).
  2. ↑ Tacitus, Annalen 3,48 : consulatum sub divo Augusto, mox expugnatis per Ciliciam Homonadensium castellis insignia triumphi adeptus, datusque rector C. Caesari “he received a consulate under the divine Augustus, then the triumphal insignia , as he stormed the fortresses of the Homonadens in Cilicia and was given to C. Caesar as a supervisor ”.
  3. ↑ CIL 6, 17130 and CIL 8, 68
  4. ↑ W. Ramsay (Journ. Rom. Stud. VII, 1917, p. 299 ff., Esp. P. 237 ff.) And Th. Corbishley date the homosexual war to the time 11–7 BC. (Horst Braunert, The Roman Provincial Census and the Estimation Report of the Gospel of Luke, Historia 6, 1957, pp. 192–214); see also the theory of Philipp Filtzinger in Bethlehem. The Christian legend: a historic event in the consular year of Gaius Censorinus and Gaius Asinius 8 BC Chr. ( PDF; 632 kB ). Publius Sulpicius Quirinius, with the supreme command of the Syrian legions during the war of the homosexuals 11–7 BC. At that time was supposedly governor in the province of Syria / Judea. See also [1] .
  5. ↑ Gustav Baron Bedeus von Scharberg: The Chronology of the Life of Jesus. Sibiu 1928, p. 138 ( online )
  6. ^ "Recent study by David French of seven milestones along the Via Sebaste indicate that it was built in 6 BC under Caesar Augustus' direction. Note 21: French, The Roman Road System in Asia Minor, p. 707 “(Conrad Gempf: The Book of Acts in Its First Century Setting. Volume 2, Graeco-Roman Setting. Eerdmans, USA 1994 ISBN 0-8028-4847-8 , Paternoster ISBN 0-85364-564-7 , p. 384 ( online ))
  7. ↑ CIL 14, 3613 = Hermann Dessau , Inscriptiones Latinae selectae , 918.
  8. ↑ Mommsen, Res gestae Divi Augusti 2. S. 175 f.
  9. ^ Edmund Groag: Prosopographic contributions. In: Annual Issues of the Austrian Archaeological Institute in Vienna 21–22 (1924), p. 448 ff.
  10. ^ Ronald Syme : Galatia and Pamphylia under Augustus. In: Klio: Contributions to ancient history 9 (1934), p. 133.
  11. ↑ G. Alföldy: Un celebre frammento epigrafico Tiburtino anonymo (P. Sulpicius Quirinus). In: I. di Stefano Manzella (ed.): Le iscrizioni dei Cristiani in Vaticano. 1997, pp. 199f.
  12. ^ W. Eck: Sulpicius II 13 (PS Quirinius). In: The New Pauly.
  13. ↑ Among other things, a coin, minted and found in Judea, with the inscription: in the 36th year of Caesar (= in the 36th year after Actium (a year zero does not exist)), in: Burnett, Roman Provincial Coinage, 1992, no . 4954, after: Richard Carrier: The Date of the Nativity in Luke (6th ed., 2011)
  14. ↑ Flavius ​​Josephus , Antiquitates Judaicae 18.1 ff.
  15. ↑ In the original versions of the Vulgate and the Luther Bible , the name Cyrenius , in the Elberfeld translation Kyrenius , originated from the reverse transcription of the Greek writing of the Gospel of Luke ( Κυρηνιος ) into the Latin alphabet.
  16. ↑ Gerd Theißen , Annette Merz: The historical Jesus: a textbook . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, pp. 149f.
  17. ^ FF Bruce: Contemporary History of the New Testament . Part I: From Babylon to Golgotha . Wuppertal 1975, p. 36. Bruce bases his translation on Nigel Turner: Grammatical Insights into the Greed New Testament . Edinburgh 1966, p. 23 f.
  18. ↑ The Great Bible Lexicon . Wuppertal, Gießen 1996, Vol. 5, pp. 1946f.
  19. ↑ So also Luke 2.2 after the translation of the Good News .
  20. ↑ Theodor Zahn: Outline of the story of the life of Jesus . Hänssler, Holzgerlingen 1999 (reprint of the 1928 edition, now with an introduction by Armin Daniel Baum , pp. 29–32.)
  21. ^ Theo Mayer-Maly: Legal history of the Bible. Böhlau, Vienna a. a. 2003, pp. 11–16: "The Census Edict of Augustus".
  22. ↑ Henrike Maria Zilling: Considerations on the Quirinius census. In: H-Soz-u-Kult, December 22, 2006 .
  23. ↑ Martin Hirschmüller: The census of Quirinius . In: Jahrbuch für die Evangelical Theologie 8, 1994, pp. 33–68. Volker Gäckle also refers to this overview : Historical Analysis II: The Greco-Roman Environment . In: Heinz-Werner Neudorfer, Eckhard J. Schnabel (ed.): The study of the New Testament. Vol. 1: An introduction to the methods of exegesis . Wuppertal, Gießen, 2nd edition 2000, pp. 193-230, there p. 203.
personal data
SURNAME Quirinius, Publius Sulpicius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Roman senator and governor of the province of Syria
DATE OF BIRTH around 45 BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 21st