Who directed Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem?

Answer 1

But it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census should be made of all the habitable world.

So Joseph had to go to his home city, Bethlehem to register.

Answer 2

No one ever told Jesus to go to Bethlehem. Joseph went to Bethlehem, not Jesus. He went because the king of Judea wanted to take a census of all the people in his realm so he could calculate how much he should tax his people, and everyone was ordered to return to the town of his forefathers.

Answer 3

Luke 2

1And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.

2(And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)

3And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.

4And 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:)

5To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.

some say this census was prior to the 6AD census. They believe there is evidence of several census called during the reign. Josephus mentions only that a census occurred, not that it was the first. So, Luke's account is accurate in Augustus being the one to issue the decree.

Answer 4

Mary gave birth to Jesus in Bethlehem(Ephrathah), which fulfilled the divine prophecy. (Luke 1:26-38; 2:4-7)Bethlehem, David's city( John 7:42), was long prophesied as the location from which the Messiah would come (Matthew 2:3-6/Micah 5:2). Joseph, being a member of David's family, went to Bethlehem(the city of his birth) when Caesar Augustus ordered the registration(Luke 2:1-7, 11) and this was under God's direction.

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Answer 5

The rules of the census decreed that Joseph should return to Bethlehem, as that was the origins of his family. The census was called by the Romans and it was also prophesied that Jesus would be born there.

Answer 6

In Matthew's Gospel, there is no order to go to Bethlehem. Bethlehem seems to be their home town, to which they planned to return after the flight to Egypt, but they turned aside and migrated to Galilee instead.

In Luke's Gospel, they were required to go to Bethlehem on the orders of Quirinius, governor of Syria, who was conducting a census as part of the empire-wide census.

Scholars and historians say that they could not have been ordered to travel to Bethlehem: Quirinius was not governor of Syria until 6 CE, ten years after the death of King Herod and did not hold any senior position in Syria before that time; there never was a census of the entire empire under Augustus; the Jewish historian, Josephus, describes the census of 6 CE as the first census in the province; a census for the purpose of taxation would have required Joseph to remain in Galilee, where he would be paying taxes, not travel to a distant kingdom; King Herod was autonomous and could collect whatever taxes he wished and in whatever manner he liked, so a Roman census would not have been conducted in the kingdom of Judea.

Answer 7

The Roman Emperor Ceasar Augustsus. Luke 2:1

Answer 8

the tax collector

Answer 9

an angel of the lord.

Answer 10

The Angel