Every December, critics of the Bible will share thousands of posts declaring the impossibility of the biblical story of Christmas. They will claim that no Roman census would require everyone to return to their ancestral homeland. They will say that any such census should be well known from other sources, and none exist in the right time period (just prior to 4 BC.) They will add that Quirinius was not governor at that time, but that there was a census when he was governor...more than 10 years later. And they are mostly right!
I have never been satisfied with the standard Christian responses. They go something like this: There was a census in AD 7 and 14 years later. Perhaps there was a census 14 years earlier, in 8 BC, that we don't know anything about. Perhaps it didn't occur all in one year, but in stages throughout the empire, meaning that it did not occur in Israel until a few years later, the year Christ was born. Perhaps Israelites were required to return to their homeland when people of other lands weren't. Perhaps! It sounds like Christians are grasping for straws.
This is frustrating because I believe there is a much better answer. There are two reasons why even Christian scholars usually overlook it. First, centuries of tradition about the Christmas story cloud our interpretation of what the biblical text actually says happened. Second, most people incorrectly date the birth of Christ to 4 BC or earlier. It is true that no record of a census occurred in that time, but that is the wrong time to look.
The census occurred in 2 BC when the Roman Senate conferred on Caesar Augustus the title "Pater patriae," meaning, "Father of the fatherland." It was not a tax (Luke never says it was). Nor was it a census to count people (Luke never says that either). It did involve a requirement that heads of households register a loyalty oath to the emperor, acknowledging and agreeing with the title. Augustus approved of the measure and made the decree that the registration requirement go out. This is well-known and well-documented registration. See, for instance,
But what about Jesus being born on or before 4 BC? Although it is cited often, there is little evidence for it. The date is based on several references in Josephus about Herod's death, which the gospels say occurred sometime after Jesus was born. Josephus mentions that a lunar eclipse occurred shortly before Herod died. There was a partial eclipse in 4 BC, but there was also a total lunar eclipse in 1 BC that fits Josephus' description much better. Josephus also records dates for other events that scholars use, some of which are based on late and unreliable manuscripts of Josephus's work. For a detailed explanation of why the Nativity should be dated to 2 BC, see: https://www.asa3.org/ASA/PSCF/2012/PSCF12-12Nollet.pdf.You can find many other helpful resources here: http://www.bethlehemstar.com/academic-resources/.
What about the requirement that everyone return to their ancestral homeland? As far as we know, this did not happen, but Luke does not say it did either. He merely says that "everyone went to their own town." I would take that to mean they went to the place of legal residence. Joseph probably lived in Bethlehem. Matthew implies that Joseph owned a home in Bethlehem (Matthew 2:11, 2:22). Today, we assume that Joseph could not have lived in Bethlehem because of the wildly speculative part of traditional Nativity stories that have Mary and Joseph riding into Bethlehem as she was beginning labor. The story continues that all the hotels were full that night.
Of course, an examination of the customs of the time and the Greek words Luke uses reveals that this is simply not the case. Mary and Joseph were staying in a home in Bethlehem, possibly weeks before Jesus was born. They continued living there after Jesus was born. The best explanation as to why they stayed is that it was Joseph's home. Joseph may have been staying in Nazareth temporarily to find work in the town of Sepphoris, where many "carpenters" or construction workers were being hired at the time. Naturally, a legal registration would have to take place in the town of your legal residence. So Joseph returned home with Mary to fulfill the census obligations.
As for Quirinius, there is some mystery here, but we really don't know who was governor of Syria at the time. The articles referenced above have plenty of more information about this.
There are many implausible elements of the way the Nativity story is traditionally told, but nothing difficult at all about what the biblical text actually says.
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