A Census of ‘All the Land’:Two Fateful Mistranslations in Luke-Acts

Abstract Few historical claims in the canonical Gospels have excited such puzzlement and even derision among exegetes as Luke’s assertion that Jesus was born amid an Empire-wide census (Lk 2.1–2). Similar problems have bedevilled the interpretation of Acts 11.28–30, which describes a similarly unsubstantiated ‘great famine in all the world (λιμὸν μεγάλην…ἐφ᾽ ὅλην τὴν οἰκουμένην)’. This paper argues, following Charles Torrey’s earlier but neglected proposal, that in our Greek versions of these passages, πᾶσαν τὴν οἰκουμένην/ὅλην τὴν οἰκουμένην mistranslates the Hebrew, כל־הארץ and the Aramaic כלה ארעא, each of which could mean either ‘all the earth’ (Gen 1.26) or ‘all the land [of Israel]’ (as in Jos 2.24, 9.24, 1 Sam 13.3, 2 Sam 24.8, 2 Kgs 17.5, Isa 10.23, Jer 23.15, etc.).