Luke 2:3

And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. AND ALL WENT TO BE TAXED, EVERYONE INTO HIS OWN CITY - i:e., the city of his extraction, according to the Jewish custom; not of his abode, which was the usual Roman method....

1-7 The fulness of time was now come, when God would send forth his Son, made of a woman, and made under the law. The circumstances of his birth were very mean. Christ was born at an inn; he came into the world to sojourn here for awhile, as at an inn, and to teach us to do likewise. We are become by sin like an outcast infant, helpless and forlorn; and such a one was Christ. He well knew how unwilling we are to be meanly lodged, clothed, or fed; how we desire to have our children decorated and indulged; how apt the poor are to envy the rich, and how prone the rich to disdain the poor. But when we by faith view the Son of God being made man and lying in a manger, our vanity, ambition, and envy are checked. We cannot, with this object rightly before us, seek great things for ourselves or our children....

Verse Luke 2:3. _AND ALL WENT TO BE TAXED, EVERY ONE INTO HIS OWN CITY._] The Roman census was an institution of _Servius Tullius_, sixth king of Rome. From the account which _Dionysius_ of _Halicarnassus_ gives of it; we may at once see its nature. "He ordered all the citizens of Rome to register their estates according to their value in money, taking an oath, in a form he prescribed, to deliver a faithful account according to the best of their knowledge, specifying the names of their parents, their own age, the names of their wives and children, adding also what quarter of the city, or what town in the country, they lived in." _Ant. Rom_. l. iv. c. 15. p. 212. Edit. Huds. A Roman census appears to have consisted of these two parts: 1. The _account_ which the people were obliged to give in of their names, quality, employments

EXPOSITION LUKE 2:1 _The Redeemer's birth_. LUKE 2:1 THERE WENT OUT A DECREE FROM CAESAR AUGUSTUS, THAT ALL THE WORLD SHOULD BE TAXED; more accurately, _that there should be a registration_, etc.; that is, with a view to the assessment of a tax. On the historical note of St. Luke in this passage much discussion has arisen, not, however, of much real practical interest to the ordinary devout reader. We will glance very briefly at the main criticism of this and the following verse. Respecting this general registration it is alleged (1) no historian of the time mentions such a decree of Augustus. (2) Supposing Augustus had issued such an edict, Herod, in his kingdom of Judaea, would

AND ALL WENT TO BE TAXED,.... Throughout Judea, Galilee, and Syria; men, women, and children; EVERY ONE INTO HIS OWN CITY; where he was born, and had any estate, and to which he belonged....

We WILL now read the story of our Saviour's birth as it is recorded in the Gospel according to Luke. Luke 2:1. _And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the City of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) to be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child._ Little did any idea enter into Caesar's head that he was accomplishing the purpose of God by bringing Mary to Bethlehem, at that particular time, so that her child might be born there. But God can accomplish the purpose of his providence, and of his grace, in any way that he plea

CHAPTER 2 _ 1. The Birth of Christ at Bethlehem (Luke 2:1)_ 2. The Glad Tidings Announced to the Shepherds. (Luke 2:8) 3. The Circumcision and Presentation (Luke 2:21) 4. Simeon and His Prophecy (Luke 2:25) 5. Anna the Prophetess (Luke 2:36) 6. In Nazareth (Luke 2:39) 7. In the Temple (Luke 2:41) 8. The Increase ...

THE BIRTH OF JESUS. Lk. only. In obedi ence to a decree of the Emperor Augustus, ordering a general census (the first, during the Syrian governor ship of Quirinius), every man went to his own city. Thus Joseph, being of Davidic lineage, journeys from Nazareth to Bethlehem, and with him Mary his betrothed (according to the Syr. Sin. his wife), though far advanced in pregnancy. At Bethlehem her son is born, in a stable, for Joseph had been unable to find a better abode. (The word for inn may denote either a khan or a lodging-place in Luke 22:11 it is translated guest chamber.) Thus Jesus is connected with the shepherd David. Shepherds in the district are startled by seeing an angel and the Shekinah radiance, but are reassured and told that Messiah has been born in the village, where they will find him in a stable. A choir of angels appears and sings of glory to God and peace among men. The...

In these days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that a census should be taken of all the world. The census first took place when Quirinius was governor of Syria; and everyone went to enroll himself, each man to his own town. So Joseph went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judaea, to David's town, which is called Bethlehem, because he belonged to the house and the line of David, to enrol himself with Mary who was betrothed to him and she was with child. When they arrived there her time to bear the child was completed; and she bore her first-born son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the place where they had meant to lodge. In the Roman Empire periodical censuses were taken with the double object of assessing taxation and of discovering those who were liable for compulsory military service. The Jews were...

EVERY ONE, &c.. Papyrus (in British Museum), being. rescript of the Prefect Gaius Vibius Maximus (A.D. 103-4), shows that Herod must have been acting under Roman orders. Vib. Max. was Prefect _of_ Egypt, and wrote: "The enrolment by households being at hand, it is necessary to notify all who for any cause soever are outside their homes to return to their domestic hearths, that they may accomplish the customary dispensation of enrolment, and continue steadfastly in the husbandry that belongeth to them. "There is. large number of Papyri relating to these enrolments. See Deissmann's _Light from the Ancient East, pp._ 268, 269. INTO. unto. Greek. _eis._ App-104....