Did You Know?
Luke has been called a “first-rate historian” by a man who was an atheist. This atheist (Sir William Ramsay) set out to prove the Bible false by traveling the same route that the Apostle Paul traveled. However, he found that everything Luke said was 100% accurate, even down to the names and ranks of various Roman officials at the time Paul went through (though those officials may have later changed roles).
Perhaps the most contested part of Luke’s writing, from a historical standpoint, was his statement about a census during the governership of Cyrenius over Syria. It was stated that (1) Cyrenius was never governor over Syria—he held a different role; and (2) there was no record of a census (“taxing”, KJV) during the time under consideration. Sir William Ramsay, an archaeologist himself, discovered inscriptions in Syria, dating from that same time period, describing Cyrenius as “governor.”
Never once has archaeology found anything that disproves the biblical record. Not once.
-Bradley S. Cobb