THE WITNESS OF ARCH^iOLOGY TO THE BIBLE. 



219 



is infinitely varied. . . . Legal proceedings are taken against 

 Paul and his friends in many places, and accusations have to be 

 made in each case according to the forms of Eoman law. The 

 accusation varies in each case; it is nowhere tihe same as in 

 any other city ; yet it is everywhere in accordance with Eoman 

 forms.* *' In Jerusalem and Palestine Luke's language is far 

 more Hebraistic in type, in Athens it has Attic flavour : in the 

 Greek world generally Luke has the general dialectf. . . . The 

 whole account of Paul before the Areopagus is expressed by Luke 

 in the tone and style and language in which the action was 

 transacted. . . . The scene is bathed in the light of Attic suns. " § 



But if Luke is provocative as a historian in the Acts, he is 

 much more so in the opening words of the second chapter of his 

 Gospel. In Luke ii. 1-3, " there are four statements about the 

 action of the Roman Imperial Government which the critics of 

 the New Testament pronounced to be incredible and false, "'^f 



" The reason," Sir William Eamsay wTites, " for the feeling 

 of triumph on the part of many critics lay, of course, in the 

 desire to discredit the superhuman element in history. Their 

 hostility to Luke arose out of their refusal to admit the super- 

 human element in the government of the world. ""^^"^ 



It was confidently declared that Augustus never ordered any 

 general " enrolment," or census. That even if he did it would 

 not have extended to Palestine. That even if a census had been 

 held in Palestine it would not have been necessary for Joseph, 

 and still less for Mary, to go up to their own city of Bethlehem 

 to be enrolled; and, further, that Quirinus never governed Syria 

 during the life of Herod. 



From archaeological discoveries in Egypt and in Asia Minor 

 every one of the statements by Luke has been proved correct. 



Discovery confirms the correctness of all the facts that Luke 

 mentions regarding the census and its manner and its dates. . . .f f 

 He gives us a very striking picture of a splendid piece of govern- 

 mental work. "'*''!' 



Sir William Ramsay brings out the skill of Luke as a historian 

 in contrasting the religion of freedom with the power of Imperial 

 Eome, destined for centuries to contend with each other. " The 

 man who cannot see the splendour of this passage must be blind 

 to the spirit of history. Augustus, the mighty Emperor, and 

 Mary, with her infant child, are set over against one another. "ff-|- 



* " The Bearing of Recent Discovery on the Trustworthiness of the 

 New Testament," p. 97. 

 t p. 96. 

 § p. 140. 

 *+ p. 223. 

 ** p. 225. 

 + + p. 235. 

 ***V. 248. 

 ■^ + + p. 306. 



