A hegemon was a ruler; surely 'hegemoneuontos' wouldn't have been used of someone less than the person in charge in
Syria. My lexicons give'ruler, leader, governor' as the meanings, with slight variations. That would have been the Syrian legate; it would surely have referred to him even if he was an absentee. I think there's a lot of special pleading goes on around
Biblical passages!
The Justin Martyr quote is:
And hear what part of earth He was to be born in, as another prophet, Micah, foretold. He spoke thus: "And thou, Bethlehem, the land of Judah, art not the least among the princes of Judah; for out of thee shall come forth a Governor, who shall feed My people." Now there is a village in the land of the Jews, thirty-five stadia from Jerusalem, in which Jesus Christ was born, as you can ascertain also from the registers of the taxing made under Cyrenius, your first procurator in Judaea. Justin was from
Palestine, but I wonder what access someone who wasn't associated with the regime would have
had to the records, or even whether they'd have survived two massive rebellions.
