Why did Mary travel to Bethlehem so heavily pregnant?

Answer 1

The Bible does not say. It has no sense......


Neither Luke nor Matthew in their birth stories in the gospels give us any details of the route that Mary and Joseph took, for a simple reason. The details were unnecessary and unimportant in the telling of the story. What was important was that Jesus was from Nazareth and was born in Bethlehem as a result of the emperor's taxation which fulfilled a prophesy in the Old Testament about the coming of the Messiah. However, if you look on a map of the area it seems likely that they began at Nazareth, near the Sea of Galilee (now called lake Tiberius) and travelled down the Jordan valley towards Jericho. Jericho was on a main trade route to Jerusalem, but this road (no more than a track by modern standards) was notorious for bandits and thieves, and so it is unlikely they would have taken this direct route. It is probable then that they carried on along the shores of the Dead Sea, turning east before Admah towards Bethlehem.

Answer 2

Another answr from our community:

Mary traveled to Bethlehem late in her pregnancy because it was required by Caesar Augustus, emperor of the Roman Empire, that all travel back to the land of their fathers for a census of the empire. Palestine at this time was under the rule of the Roman Empire. Mary's family was not from Bethlehem, but she was betrothed to Joseph who was from the lineage of King David and was native to Bethlehem. Therefore, she had no choice but to travel with Joseph to Bethlehem for the census.

Answer 3

Since Palestine was under the rule of Rome's client king, Herod the Great at the time traditionally attributed to the birth of Jesus, Rome would have had no possible interest in a census there. However, there was a census ten years after the death of Herod, when Rome deposed Herod's son and successor, Archelaus, and appointed Quirinius governor of Syria, with responsibility for undertaking a census of Judea. On this, Raymond E. Brown (An Introduction to the New Testament) says the best explanation is that, although Luke likes to set his Christian drama in the context of well-known events from antiquity, sometimes he does so inaccurately.

Uta Ranke-Heinemann (Putting Away Childish Things) says that even if Joseph had been required to be counted in Bethlehem, there is no conceivable reason the Romans would have required his wife to accompany him there. She also wonders why Mary had to sleep in a stable in Bethlehem when she could have stayed with her cousin, Elisabeth, whom they would no doubt have visited in Jerusalem, just a short way from Bethlehem. There seems no logical reason Joseph would have taken his heavily pregnant wife to Bethlehem, where they knew no one and could not even find accommodation.

Answer 4

Of course, horses were extremely valuable and normally only ever used by the military. Based on exegesis of Luke's Gospel, we can arrive at an informed view that they could not even have travelled by donkey, in spite of Mary's pregnancy, and therefore would have been required to walk.

Luke 2:24 says that they offered two doves as a sacrifice at the Jerusalem temple, instead of the usual sheep. This was a concession available to the very poorest in society, evidence that Joseph could not afford to own or hire a donkey and in keeping with his status as a village carpenter. Apart from this, anyone willing to lend a donkey would have risked the loss of a valuable asset if the young family were waylaid on this long and hazardous journey or if Joseph simply failed to return.

Answer 5

The Roman emperor had ordered a census of the entire known world be taken. Joseph and his wife Mary lived in the village of Nazareth but the law required that Joseph had to return to the town of his ancestors (Bethlehem) to complete the census. The distance between the two towns is about 90 miles. Mary and Joseph would have had to walk the entire distance and it would have taken about 10 days to do so. Whether Mary rode a donkey during the trip is unknown. She is frequently pictured riding a burro with Joseph leading them on foot. However, there is no factual information to back this up.

Answer 6

This cannot be known exactly. They either walked or used a common mode of transport of the day such as a donkey or horse.

Answer 7

Mary went to Bethlehem on horseback, and not by foot.

Answer 8

on a donkey.