How long did it take Mary and Joseph to get to Bethlehem from Nazareth?

Question

I can't say I'm religious, but I do believe in Christianity.

How long did it take Mary and Joseph to get to Bethlehem from Nazareth after King Herod sentenced the order that all men must return to the land of their ancestors?

Also, how long was the journey? In 'The Nativity Story', it was claimed to be over 100 miles, but I've read 80, 100, 120, etc..

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Joseph had to go to Bethlehem to pay taxes. He and Mary lived in Nazareth before the birth of Jesus, and they later returned to Nazareth when Jesus was a young boy, but not before fleeing to Egypt when Herod ordered the murder of all male children under the age of 2 in Judea (not just Bethlehem).

According to the Bible, they travelled 60 leagues through the desert to reach Bethlehem from Nazareth. Since a "league" has a different meaning in different places (in Britain it's 3 miles; in France it's a little over 3 miles; in some Latin countries it's 4 miles) then we will base it on the historical Roman mile: 1 "ligua" = 1.5 Roman miles; 1 Roman mile = 5,000 feet.

Therefore the distance of travel would have been about 80 miles, give or take.

Answer 2

Nazareth To Bethlehem

Answer 3

It must have taken a very long time since there's no evidence that there was a town named Nazareth until the 5th century.

http://www.bidstrup.com/apologetics.htm

[Excerpt]

The Existence of Nazareth

"McRay claims that skeptics are wrong in insisting that Nazareth didn't exist as a town during the time Christ presumably lived. This is a half-truth. The town existed. There's no doubt about that. It was a tiny rural hamlet. The problem is that it wasn't known by that name. It was actually a tiny, unnamed collection of about a dozen huts near the town of Gat-Hyefer, and was never known by the name of Nazareth until it was picked by a fifth-century Christian Roman emperor to be Nazareth, because he was embarrassed by the fact that no town by that name actually existed. Anyway, McRay says there is recent archaeological evidence (without citing it) that shows that after the destruction of the Second Temple, some of the temple priests were relocated there. Whether that is true doesn't matter. In any event, what is known is that it certainly was a very small and inconspicuous settlement that wasn't called Nazareth. And neither was any other town in Galilee at that time."

Answer 4

The degree was from Caesar Augustus, not Herod. There were several routes. The Jews didn't like traveling through the land of the Samaritans so they would often go the long way. I think the short way was about 80 miles. It probably took them about a week to make the trip if Mary rode.

Answer 5

the thing i always find hilarious about this story is the idea that the roman army of occupation would ask every middle-class male (every taxpayer) to return to his ancestral town for a financial levy.

don't christians think this through? all the carpenters, the masons, the tanners, the silversmiths, the weavers, the farriers all on the road (all over the country), all going home to their ancestral towns, and all at the same time?

doesn't anybody think that if everybody in america today had to return to the town where their great great grandparents were born for voter registration we might get gridlock for a day or two?

but that isn't the start of it. there is no police force in first century palestine. all those middle-class houses guaranteed to be unoccupied for just over a fortnight:- guys, what do you think the burglars are going to get up to?

oh wait: there weren't any burglars in first century palestine. of course there weren't, because if there were this story makes no kind of sense at all.

Answer 6

http://www.geocities.com/glory_ark/springbirth.html


It is about 65 miles ( here's a link to a map). If traveling that distance on bad or non-existant roads, by foot and with a hugely pregnant woman riding a donkey, accounting for several stops for rest, probably the most they could travel per day would be about 10-12 miles.

So, it took them about a week or a little more.

Answer 7

I was just told about 100 so I think way over a week but maybe not a month.

Answer 8

read (Saint) Anna Catherine Emmerich on that period of Jesus' life.

Answer 9

A week...or close to it...

Answer 10

9.5 months give or take a couple of days.