2007-12-06 00:31:18 · 7 answers · asked by Grinning Football plinny younger 7 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Just out of interest did anyone find that funny, because Yahoo suggested putting it in jokes and riddles. If so can someone please explain.
2007-12-06 00:32:26 · update #1
There is a corollary question and that would be "Did Caesar order a census of people where they had to return to their birth town?" Another question would be "What was the normal practice for censuses in the Roman Empire?"
The one recorded in the Bible seems like it would be a bad idea, as it would cause more confusion and loss of work.
2007-12-06 00:37:53 · answer #1 · answered by Pirate AM™ 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
it is a joke because there was no census outside of rome during the time of augustus. anyway bethlehem was in a client kingdom and there would have definitely been no census as the client king would only pay tribute to rome. there was no requirement by the romans to return to your city of birth because their tax system worked on the city and locality where you lived, you paid a land tax or poll tax to the city, the city would deduct what it wanted for local needs and pass the required amount on to rome. also the tax collection was often farmed out to individuals who would pay the tax up front and make a profit on collection. i almost forgot, non citizens like joseph would not have been liable to the full tax even if he had been living in the empire instead of a client state.
2007-12-06 00:41:33 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
As pointed out above, it was the governor, Cyrenius (or Quirinius, depending on which school you went to) who ordered the census. But the thing about Roman censuses is that they didn't want everyone traipsing about the countryside, they wanted you to wait until the officials got round to you. That whole business of making people travel to the town of their ancestry was invented by Luke to make his biography of Jesus fit in with the old prophecies.
2007-12-06 00:42:55 · answer #3 · answered by Scumspawn 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Ceaser didn't call the census, it was a governor of Syria called Quirinius and when it was called Herod would have been dead for six years so no massacre of the innocents.
2007-12-06 00:35:03 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
What the hell is an Invigilator?
2007-12-06 00:34:58 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
That would have been too simple.
2007-12-06 05:39:22 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
dunno why it would be funny
it is much easier to get the people to do the work than organising it all yourself.
2007-12-06 00:33:34 · answer #7 · answered by The Drunken Fool 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋