Luke 2:1

‘Now it came about that in those days, there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be enrolled.’

In 3 BC a ‘worldwide’ (Roman) decree went out, on the twenty fifth anniversary of the reign of Augustus, that all men of position and importance must go to their places of authority and swear their fealty to Caesar. This may well have been that enrolment. Joseph, being in line for the throne of David in Jewish eyes, would therefore be required to join his father at the family lands of the Davidic house in order to swear his fealty. Rome’s spies in Palestine would know all about the coming Son of David who would rise above Israel’s enemies. They would therefore see any son of David as a potential threat that had to be controlled. If this speaks of that event then it is historical evidence that Herod died in 1 BC (see introduction).

It is, however, possible that this was a similar enrolment organised some years prior to that event, of which as yet we have no archaeological evidence. Josephus tells us that during the last days of Herod ‘the whole Jewish people’ swore allegiance to Caesar, confirming that such an enrolment did take place, at least in Palestine, at that time. There are still many gaps in our knowledge of the history of that period.

Or it may have been an ‘enrolment’ for a different purpose. If it was for the purposes of taxation it may simply be stating that Caesar had issued a general requirement for all to be taxed which resulted in the fact that each province carried it out as seemed best when it was suitable. We certainly know that from 6 AD regular taxation censuses were conducted in Judaea and elsewhere every fourteen years, and actual documents for such censuses held in Egypt have been found among papyri and exist from 20 - 270 AD. According to Josephus at the tax census which was organised by the Romans and was held in Judaea in 6 AD, there was a great deal of trouble and an insurrection (see Acts 5:37). This would be because it was carried out without regard to Jewish sensitivities. The one here may have been a similar tax census fourteen years prior to that, but conducted by Herod along Jewish lines in such a way as to prevent such trouble, at which family tribal possessions were required to be registered by the tribal leaders and owners, the emphasis being on the enrolment of the tribes, and the measuring of their possessions. At these censuses names and details were recorded together with a record of what was owned.

Whichever way it was it clearly required the presence of Joseph at his family home. This would be unusual for a census organised by Rome, which would normally be carried out at the place of residence, but if it was by Herod he may deliberately have ordered people to return to their tribal possessions in order to make it appear very much a Jewish enrolment and a patriotic activity. An edict by a governor of Egypt in 104 AD is known in which the demand was made that all return to their family homes.

The mention of Augustus is apposite. It was the consequences of the long peace under his reign, together with the administration that he set up, of which censuses were an important part as he organised the Empire, that would under later emperors enable the Good News to spread so rapidly as it does in Acts. And it is a reminder that it was his hand that finally determined the present destiny of Palestine.