the_cave

I've found some stuff floating around the web that suggests a) that Herod may have died later than 4BC, b) that there was a census for the purposes of swearing loyalty to the Emperor around that time as well, and furthermore c) it's possible Quirinus may have briefly been legate around that time, too. The evidence for b) seems pretty sound, as it's mentioned in Josephus. What about the others? Can anyone here comment on any of these? Are these legitimate, if minority, opinions, or are they nothing but crackpot theories?

Toto

I think you will find all of these issues discussed in Richard Carrier's The Date of the Nativity in Luke.

the_cave

Fascinating. Thanks!

I suppose it's possible Herod died a year later--I'm not much of a scholar, I'm just going by what I read. It does sound like Quirinus probably didn't have a double reign or something. I am kind of interested in the fealty oath that Joesphus mentions...in my opinion, Luke probably just got confused about which census was when, but that's just my take on it. I would agree it's still not much of a good reason for Joseph and Mary to go anywhere, but on the other hand it seems to me that they may not have been from a place called Nazareth at all, so interestingly enough for apologists there might not even be much of a problem there.