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If Mary and Joseph left Nazareth because of the census undertaken in the time of Quirinius, they must have left in the year 6 CE, more than ten years after the death of King Herod, because that is when Quirinius was governor of Syria and that is also the year of the first Roman census in the Levant.

On the other hand, Matthew's Gospel says that Nazareth was not the home town of Mary and Joseph until long after the birth of Jesus, since this gospel describes Bethlehem as their home town and says that they only turned aside and travelled to Nazareth after returning from Egypt. The best explanation for this is given by Raymond E. Brown (An Introduction to the New Testament), who says that, although Luke likes to set his Christian drama in the context of well-known events from antiquity, sometimes he does so inaccurately. If Luke was carelessly inaccurate about his historical facts, we can not say when or whether Mary and Joseph began a journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem.

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Would Mary and Joseph's parents have gone to Bethlehem also?

At the time of Luke's journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem, Mary and Joseph were only bethrothed, and Mary was still a virgin. We can assume that they were both in their teens, with Mary probably in her early teens. Their parents would likely still have been alive and less than forty years old. If there really was a census during the reign of King Herod, something most scholars dipute strongly, then Joseph's parents would have been expected to go Bethlehem as well. Tradition tends to support the notion that Mary was also descended from King David, although the Bible is silent on this, in which case we could also expect her parents to travel to Bethlehem as well. However, for some reason, Luke's Gospel makes no mention of the extended family travelling together to Bethlehem.


How long was Mary and Josephs' journey?

Mary and Joseph's journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem, where Jesus was born, was approximately 70-90 miles. They likely traveled by foot or on a donkey, which would have taken them several days to complete.


What did Mary and Joseph have to do to obey the order for a census?

Luke's Gospel says that Mary and Joseph had to travel from Nazareth in Galilee to Bethlehem in Judea, and be counted there for the census. However, scholars say that not only was the census at the wrong time for the nativity story in Luke's Gospel, there would never have been a requirement for Mary and Joseph to travel from Galilee where they would be taxed, to Judea where any census record would have no value in ensuring the collection of taxes. They say that the journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem simply did not happen.


What did Mary and Joseph use as a crib?

Mary and Joseph had touse the straw on floor of the stable as a crib.


What problems did Joseph and Mary the mother of Jesus face?

A:In Matthew's Gospel, Mary and Joseph faced danger from King Herod, who sought to have Jesus killed. They took the baby Jesus from their home in Bethlehem to Egypt. After Herod died, they began the return journey to Bethlehem, but were warned in a dream that Archelaus, Herod's son and successor as king of Judea, was still a danger to Jesus. They therefore turned aside and travelled to start a new home in the city of Nazareth in Galilee, out of reach of Archelaus. In Luke's Gospel, Mary and Joseph faced the inconvenience of travelling from their home in Nazareth for a census in Bethlehem, where Jesus was born. As they faced no danger from Herod, they journeyed from Bethlehem to Jerusalem a few days after the birth of Jesus, to present him at the Temple. They then returned peacefully to their home in Nazareth.