I confess that, when I see the self-satisfied and pretentious ignorance of the critical theologians miscalling and vilifying this most wonderful little gem of historical insight and word-painting [Luke's world-wide census], I find it difficult to restrain my indignation. These are the dull and blind servants whom the modern world has accepted as learned, and to whom so many have humbly bowed down and done homage and worship.
The man who cannot see the splendor of this passage, when he sets aside all theological or anti-theological bias, must be blind to the spirit of history. Augustus the mighty Emperor, and Mary with her infant child, are set over against one another. Luke was sensitive to the dramatic character of the episode: in fact, some critics have distrusted him, because he has too clear perception of the dramatic and literary aspect of his subject. He knew what he was telling. The autocracy of the Empire, the free voluntary obedience of the Church to its legitimate orders and its freedom where the Imperial right ceased: these were the chief factors in history as Luke saw it. Here they are set side by side in this opening scene, The Birth of Jesus.
The man who cannot see the splendor of this passage, when he sets aside all theological or anti-theological bias, must be blind to the spirit of history. Augustus the mighty Emperor, and Mary with her infant child, are set over against one another. Luke was sensitive to the dramatic character of the episode: in fact, some critics have distrusted him, because he has too clear perception of the dramatic and literary aspect of his subject. He knew what he was telling. The autocracy of the Empire, the free voluntary obedience of the Church to its legitimate orders and its freedom where the Imperial right ceased: these were the chief factors in history as Luke saw it. Here they are set side by side in this opening scene, The Birth of Jesus.
- from pages 305-306, The Bearing of Recent Discovery on the Trustworthiness of the New Testament