Dr Paul Allen

  This is Dick Harfield's answer to the question:  Why did Mary and Joseph have to go to Bethlehem for the census? Luke’s Gospel said that Joseph had to go to Bethlehem for the census of Quirinius “because he was of the house and lineage of David”. There would have been no reason for Mary to go there, as women were not counted in censuses. The reason for Joseph going to Bethlehem is unclear, since the census was applied only to establish to expected taxes from the newly acquired Roman province of Judea; as a resident of Galilee, Joseph would not have been assessed for taxes in what was effectively a foreign country. Uta Ranke-Heinemann says, in Putting Away Childish Things : There would have been no such journey unless Joseph had owned property in Bethlehem. If he had no real estate, as an inhabitant of Galilee under the tetrarch Herod Antipas, he would not have been affected by the order of the Syrian governor Quirinius. Joseph owned no property in Bethlehem. In that case he ...