What Does Luke 2:2 Mean in the King James?
(And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
A “taxing” here is also an enrollment: power makes a population legible by writing it down.
THE MEANING
A public count happens within someone’s rule; it has a named governor and territory. You live among records that turn people into entries and totals, and this verse keeps the authority behind the count in view.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A public count is neutral arithmetic, detached from power.
THE ROOT
ἀπογραφή
apographē
GROWS FROM
γραφ-
graph-
to write or inscribe
“taxing” in this verse is apographē. Alongside the levy, ἀπογραφή carries the sense of enrollment: people entered on a written register. Its γραφ- seed, “write or inscribe,” makes the census a record of those within a governor’s reach.
ALSO GROWS
apographō: to register or enroll
ἀπογράφω
The verb shows the action behind the census noun: people are entered onto a record.
graphē: writing or a written document
γραφή
The shared seed links the registration to the written record it creates.
epigraphē: inscription or title
ἐπιγραφή
This branch makes the act of writing visible as words set onto a surface.
THE PATTERN
When people are counted, scripture shows the record as consequential: it marks belonging, obligation, or authority.
When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel after their number, then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul unto the LORD, when thou numberest them; that there be no plague among them, when thou numberest them.The LORD shall count, when he writeth up the people, that this man was born there. Selah.After this man rose up Judas of Galilee in the days of the taxing, and drew away much people after him: he also perished; and all, even as many as obeyed him, were dispersed.THE THREAD
After this man rose up Judas of Galilee in the days of the taxing, and drew away much people after him: he also perished; and all, even as many as obeyed him, were dispersed.The Greek noun ἀπογραφή (apographē), “registration,” appears in both verses. Acts makes the stakes of that word visible: the count belongs to a public order in which people can be drawn into conflict.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
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