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WHEN WAS JESUS BORN?: M. M. NINAN<br />
Luke 2:1-2: Now it came about in those days that a decree went<br />
out from Caesar Augustus that a census be taken of all the<br />
inhabited earth. This <strong>was</strong> the first census taken while Quirinius<br />
<strong>was</strong> governor of Syria. And all were proceeding to register for<br />
the census, everyone to his own city. And Joseph also went up<br />
from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of<br />
David which is called Bethlehem, because he <strong>was</strong> of the house<br />
and family of David, in order to register along with Mary, who<br />
<strong>was</strong> engaged to him and <strong>was</strong> with child.<br />
Since the reason for Joseph and Mary to make the trip from<br />
Nazareth to Bethlehem <strong>was</strong> the Roman Census,(Luke 2.3-7) if we<br />
could identify the time when this <strong>was</strong> done in Palestine we could<br />
pin point the birth of <strong>Jesus</strong>.<br />
Luke 2.1-2 identifies a census<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
taken throughout the Roman Empire<br />
during the reign of Caesar Augustus,<br />
by Cyrenius (also Quirinius) when he <strong>was</strong> governor of<br />
Syria.<br />
However there is no historical record of this particular census in<br />
the annuls of Rome. Since the Roman Empire <strong>was</strong> very vast<br />
census <strong>was</strong> spread over several years and this particular census<br />
must have been following any of the earlier orders. This is<br />
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