Why did Joseph take Mary to Bethlehem?

Answer 1

Joeseph took Mary to Bethlem due to the fact that Caesar Agustus had ordered a census and told the people that they must return to their birth country in order to be counted and so that he could take money from them. Joseph had to travel back to Bethlem for the census, since Jesus was about to be born they had him there so when old enough he would travel to Bethlem.-Lil Harley Quinn

Answer 2

Answer

According to Luke's Gospel, Joseph went from Nazareth to Bethlehem during the reign of King Herod. Joseph could not have gone there to be taxed, as Herod had no right under Roman law to tax residents of Galilee. Herod did not even have the right to count residents of Galilee for taxation, nor any interest in doing so.

Raymond E. Brown (An Introduction to the New Testament) says about the supposed census, "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."

Answer 3

A:The story of Mary and Joseph going to Bethlehem for the census occurs only in Luke's gospel, as the author of Matthew's Gospel was entirely unaware of it. Luke 2:1 says that Caesar Augustus decreed that there be a census of the entire empire. Luke 2:4 says that Joseph went to Bethlehem because he was a descendant of David and was therefore required to go there to be counted. On this, Steve Mason (Josephus and the New Testament) says that the census of 6 CE must have been the first census undertaken by Rome in the region - yet Luke says that Herod was still alive. 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 since the author of Lukehandles the facts arbitrarily, the facts themselves refute him, because no Roman emperor ever issued such a senseless command.

As for Mary's presence at a tax assessment, Ranke-Heinemann says this was not in the least required, since only heads of families were obliged to register. Since they would have passed through Jerusalem, Ranke-Heinemann finds no explanation for Joseph not to leave Mary at the home of her cousin Elisabeth, instead taking her at such a late stage of pregnancy to Bethlehem, where they knew no one and could not even find accommodation.

Answer 4

Scholars have long pondered this question and have been unable arrive at an answer. They say that there was no Roman census during the time of King Herod, but even if there had been, it could not have applied to the autonomous territory of Judea. The purpose of a Roman census was to determine taxes, and Herod was free to raise taxes in whatever way he wished.

And if there had been a census just as described in Luke's Gospel, it would not have made sense to require entire populations to migrate to distant cities and towns just to be counted, as that would have negated the purpose of the census. If the purpose of a Roman census was to determine taxes, then the Romans needed to know where people actually lived, so that they could levy their taxes on the people where they did live, not where they claimed their distant ancestors might once have lived.

Answer 5

Opinion

Joseph returned as was required of him.

Answer 6

Joseph and Mary travelled there to their ancestral home in order to be recorded in the Roman census.

Answer 7

because mary was going to have a baby