I believe they travelled to Jerusalem to pay taxes and celebrate Passover while there. After leaving they finally noticed that Jesus was not with them. Frantic, they returned and found the 12 year old Jesus speaking in the temple.
They had to go there because the Romans were having a census
it was custumary for the Jews to celebrate the Jewish passover so the whole family went to Jerusalem
Bethlehem was where Jesus was born. Mary and Joseph traveled there to take part in a nationwide census. Shortly after Jesus was born, the family traveled back home to Nazareth.
Mary and Joseph journeyed to Bethlehem from Nazareth (in the north - in the region of Galilee) when Mary was pregnant. Jesus was then born in Bethlehem. The family settled there for two years or more and then returned to nazareth where Jesus grew up. The only other record we have of his childhood was when Mary and Joseph took him on a visit to Jerusalem (NOT Bethlehem) when he was 12 years old.
In Matthew's Gospel, Joseph, Mary and Jesus were returning to their family home in Bethlehem after the death of Herod, when God appeared to Joseph in a dream and told them to turn aside and go to Galilee, where they settled in Nazareth.
They took him to Jerusalem. Please read all about it in Luke 2 and vs.41 t0 52. And particularly v.42 - "And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast."
AnswerIn Luke's Gospel, shortly after the birth of Jesus, Joseph and Mary went to the Temple for Mary's purification, then travelled straight back to Nazareth in Galilee.
In a sentence diagram, "Mary" and "Joseph" would be connected by a horizontal line as compound subjects. "Took" is the predicate verb, and "Jesus" is the direct object connected to "took" by a diagonal line. "Bethlehem" would be diagrammed as the object of the preposition "to."
God warned Joseph in a dream to take Mary and Jesus to Egypt to avoid the wrath of Herod.
Joseph was warned in a dream to take the young child and his mother and flee to Egypt untill he hears from God again. (Matthew 2.13) So "the holy family" that fled to Egypt, were Joseph and Mary and Jesus.
Neither Mary or Joseph took any pigeons to the temple.
It took Mary and Joseph a total of three days to locate Jesus in the temple.
Joseph and Mary fled with the baby Jesus to Egypt, as the angel told Joseph to flee as the king Herod wanted to kill all the babies.
Joseph was told in a dream that he should take the mother and child into Egypt where they remained until after the death of King Herrod.