Rendering PRWTH as "earlier" in Luke 2:2

Loo Jaba loojabba at hotmail.com
Tue Dec 12 14:13:58 EST 2000


I was wondering if reading Luke 2:2 as "this earlier census happened while
Quirinius governed Syria" is unnatural in the Greek.  The Greek passage is

hAUTH APOGRAFH PRWTH EGENETO hHGEMONEUONTOS THS SYRIAS KURHNIOU

I've perused the archives
(http://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek/archives/greek-3/msg01118.html;
http://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek/archives/greek-3/msg01182.html) and have
found that PRWTH should (can?) be associated with EGENETO to mean "first
happened," but is it possible to associate it with APOGRAFH as "first
census" or "earlier census?"

Is it unnatural to render it as "earlier census?" There are no "current"
or "second" or "future" censuses being referred to - does this matter?

Thanks for the input,

Loo Jaba



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