2006-12-23 05:47:38 · 8 answers · asked by STFU Dude 6 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
I'm referring, of course, to Mary and Joseph's voyage to Bethlehem.
2006-12-23 05:49:34 · update #1
Or, their trip to Bethlehem. Why would the Romans have a census that way, and in light of the fact that they also ruled much of Europe, why in the winter?
2006-12-23 05:50:56 · update #2
The Roman treasury was emptying faster than tax receipts were coming in due to wars and public construction. By doing it during the noncrop tending season, food supplies were not as disrupted. By having people return to their ancestrial cities, a census could be more easily conducted. The census was to provide a tax basis.
Today, we send census takers out to people's homes. Then people came to the census takers place of business.
By doing it the way the Romans did, the size of the various clans/tribes/families could be more easily calculated.
2006-12-23 05:56:55 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Jesus wasn't born in the middle of winter. Go to the movie the Nativity. It is pretty authentic. It was during the early fall. It was God's plan for Jesus to be born in Bethlehem. They were looking for a man that said that He was Christ, so God used the Romans to do the census to get Mary and Joseph to go there. It was prophesied in Isaiah that He was going to be born in Bethlehem. Read the Old Testament.
2006-12-23 13:57:04 · answer #2 · answered by blazek35 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It wasn't in the middle of winter. It was when Jesus was born, and that would have been in the fall...so the census was at that time....the birth of Christ, which no one knows the exact date of, was added to the celebration of Saturnilia, which the Romans celebrate on Dec. 25th. It is a pagan celebration and was never celebrated by the first Christians.
2006-12-23 17:30:23 · answer #3 · answered by wannaknow 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
We think of the census as being for the purpose of taxation, but it wasn't. It was to reaffirm the pledge of citizens govern by Roman Empire to Augustus Caesar. Herod was three years late in completing this task. Augustus was getting ready to celebrate his Julalee, or 25th anniversary as Emperor, so he sent Quirinius, the Governor of Syria, of which Judea was a province, to complete the task. Herod was holding his position by a thread.
All Roman citizens, including solders, had to reaffirm their pledge, but the Jews probably resented the census because it meant taking an oath on false gods to pledge eternal loyalty to Rome, thereby foreswearing having a true king of their own, instead of Herod, a Roman satrap.
2006-12-23 14:10:04 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
In history, the census happened, Augustus ordered it. The Bible doesn't say it was in the middle of winter.
2006-12-23 14:48:03 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Who knows, it was a long time ago. Maybe so that Jesus birth would happen in the place it was supposed to.
2006-12-23 13:51:49 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
what makes you think it was winter?
Just because we choose to celebrate on December 25th, doesn't mean that is the day He was born. That is the day that is accepted to celebrate it.
2006-12-23 13:51:07 · answer #7 · answered by mikerow992003 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Romans were very ruthless people. They crucified people, even upside down.
2006-12-23 13:53:57 · answer #8 · answered by SeeTheLight 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋