A mosaic icon of Mary and Joseph signing Herod’s registration at Bethlehem in about 6 BC. It is one of many mosaics of the life of Mary and Christ in the Church of Chora in Constantinople (Istanbul).
Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace,
good will toward men.
(Luke 2:14)
SHORTLY before the death of Herod the Great, the Roman Emperor Augustus invited all the loyal inhabitants of the Empire to sign an ‘assurance of goodwill’ toward him and his government. This poll later inspired his fulsome Senate to declare him the ‘Father of Rome’.
In Israel, six thousand Pharisees refused to sign,* and were punished by a fine, which was kindly paid for them by Herod’s sister-in-law, mindful perhaps of the King’s declining health, and of her family’s prospects after he was gone.
Luke records that Joseph and Mary were both in Bethlehem, the birthplace of the iconic King David, signing some kind of register at just this time.* As a direct descendant of David, Joseph’s loyalties would be under scrutiny.
How appropriate, then, that as men around the world assured the Father of Rome of their ‘goodwill’ toward him, angels were assuring some shepherds of our Father in Heaven’s ‘goodwill’ toward men.
The events are described by the near-contemporary historian, Josephus. See Antiquities XVII.2.
See Luke 2:2. The Authorised Version makes some uncharacteristic errors here, translating ‘απογραφή’ as ‘tax’ when it should be the more neutral ‘registration’, and asserting that ‘this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria’. This is a problem because Quirinius (Cyrenius), who conducted an infamous census that provoked a revolt and imprinted itself on the collective memory of the Jewish people, did not become Governor until AD 6, ten years after Herod died. The translation should read ‘This registration took place prior to [πρώτη ἐγένετο, cf. John 1:15] Cyrenius’s governorship of Syria’.
Précis
Just before Herod died in 4 BC, the Roman Emperor, Augustus, called on loyal inhabitants of his Empire to register their goodwill towards him. Six thousand Pharisees refused, but Luke tells us that about this time Joseph went to Bethlehem with Mary to put his name to a register, and that their son Jesus was born. (55 / 60 words)
