Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Was there no room at the inn or in the guest room? And doesn't Caesar Augustus himself describe his census? More Questions from readers Answered by Bart D. Ehrman Read by John Paul Middlesworth Here are some more particularly interesting and significant questions I received from readers with answers for all here to check out.
[00:00:25] Dr. I find it interesting how the understanding of the Greek translation might affect such a crucial NT story. Also, it is in Luke's narrative that we get the no room at the inn comment. I have read one commentary that the Greek original literal translation is more like the traveler's shelter was not for them. Do you have any thoughts on the Greek original of Luke 2. 7?
[00:00:50] It's a tricky Greek word, kataluma, that could mean either in or guest room. It is found in only two other places in the Mark 14:14 and Luke 22:11. Luke has copied Mark's verse verbatim where Jesus is clearly referring to a room, not an inn in Luke 2. 7, though the context appears to suggest a place where travelers stayed rather than a particular room in a house, since having not found a place to stay in it, the kataluma they end up having to stay with the animals as shown by the presence of a donkey, ox and sheep. They aren't mentioned but by the fact that they were forced to use a feeding trough, a manger for a crib. In any event, I suppose a traveler's shelter would be an inn if it were a building. If it involves simply a lean to or free hut, I'm not sure the word ever meant that. We're certainly not talking about a five star or even one star accommodation, even if it is some kind of building that charged a fee.
[00:01:57] Do you think that the occupation of builder of Jesus and his Father could be symbolic? That perhaps the authors were indicating that Jesus is the Logos of God and that through him all things were made. That he is a divine architect who became human so it would be fitting for him to be born as the son of a builder and that he himself is a builder who has come to topple the temple and rebuild it within us so as to take humanity back to Eden.
[00:02:27] Interesting idea, but it seems unlikely to me. The word that is used is not maker or creator in an elevated sense. Tecton refers to a commonplace occupation and could be anyone who makes something with their hands. Tectons did make things if they worked with wood, then gates and yokes, etc. Or with metal smiths or stone masons, etc. But they were not thought to be creative specialists bringing fine things into being, but more like those who provided the basic stuff needed by a household.
[00:03:02] The literary elite placed tectons among the lower, despised by elites social classes, so it would not be the likely designation for a divine builder.
[00:03:13] Is it true that Res gesti Divi Augusti tells about a census under Augustus in the year 8 BCE?
[00:03:21] If so, can this be the census Luke writes about The Res Gesti Divi Augusti, Latin for the achievements of the deified Augustus, is a text dictated by Caesar Augustus himself near the end of his life 14 cell that explained his major accomplishments over the 41 years of his rule. It was published publicly in an inscription on his mausoleum in Rome and then copied in other parts of the empire in public spots. A few of these still exist. The description it gives of Augustus activities is frustratingly sparse and of course self serving. Among other things in the text, Augustus mentions three separate lustrums. Roughly speaking, a lustrum is a special religious ceremony, in this case in the city of Rome that involved a highly orchestrated animal sacrifice to the gods to purify the people for the sake of divine favor. When Augustus mentions these occasions, he indicates that a census was taken of Roman citizens, apparently in the empire. In the 1 in 8 BCE there were just over 4 million citizens enrolled. This was not a census of all the people living in the Empire, unlike Luke's, but only the citizens of Rome. There were about 60 million people altogether in the empire at the time. Being a citizen was a special privilege for the elite members of Roman society and passed on through their families.
[00:04:50] This census, also unlike Luke's, did not involve any travel for those being enrolled. Citizens were simply counted. It had no effect on non citizens. Could Luke have had a vague understanding of one of these censuses when he wrote up his account of the travels of Joseph and Mary to register? Possibly, but if so, what he says doesn't match up with what the census actually was. Luke indicates that the census involved travel to one's ancestral home, that it was for everyone, not citizens, including the very poor, and that it happened in the days when Quirinius was the governor of Syria, which was 20 years after the census of 6 CE.
[00:05:34] Like most ancient authors, Luke didn't have much of any way to date events very well, and maybe he heard of this census and somehow transformed it into the event he describes in Luke 2. The irony is that those who want to claim that the event in Luke is historical, since it could align with a census mentioned in the Res gesti, are thereby required to admit that Luke basically got everything wrong about it.
[00:06:00] Dear Professor Ehrman, though I am very much interested in the history of Christianity, especially the first few centuries, I have recently felt more and more the need to know the sources upon which historians actually rely. In other words, I don't just want to know what happened, I also want to know how it is possible to know what the sources are, where they are found, what it takes to read and understand them. To your knowledge as an expert in the field, has anybody ever attempted the task of writing a history of how historians have managed to put together the big jigsaw puzzle that Christianity is? Has anybody ever collected and catalogued all the primary sources upon which our understanding is based for the reconstruction of the history of Christianity?
[00:06:45] Oh yes, there are a number of books that do this. There are several older patrologies that describe all the ancient Christian writings. For example a multi volume work by a scholar named Quaston, when they were written, who their authors were, where they lived, what their sources of information were, how reliable the manuscripts of their works are, what their major themes are, etc, etc. But most of these are out of date. You'd be better off going with something like the Dictionary of Early Christian Literature by S. Dop or the Encyclopedia of Early Christianity by E. Ferguson or well in the just now released and very expensive multi volume set that all scholars are lusting after but can't afford by Brill, the Brill Encyclopedia of Early Christianity. Another great option is the Oxford History of the Christian Church edited by E. Livingstone, which covers all of Christianity down to the modern world and is a fantastic resource in general. You'll find basic information about various early Christian writings in any of the smaller collections of them. For example my two volume edition of the Apostolic Fathers published by Harvard Press and for the non canonical gospels of the early centuries in my edition of that which I published with my colleague Zlatkoplegia called the Other Gospels published by Oxford Press.
