OT: Biblical Census

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

I thought this deserved wider circulation than the "secret" newsgroup
where I saw it ... both the serious question about why-POB, and the

scrawled in the dust...

Opening my Advent Calendar this year has prompted me to query
something
I've never thought about before. Why was it necessary for everyone to
travel to their place of birth in order to be counted? Why could not
Mary & Joseph be counted in Nazareth?

I thought they went there to be taxed.
If you want something to ponder upon, why was their son known as Jesus of
Nazareth, if he was born in Bethlehem?

The census was very inaccurate, being manual. They even made a mistake
with Jesus' name, inscribing him as 'Harold B, thy name'. He did
partly adopt that later to save confusion on official documents,
choosing to sign himself 'Jesus H Christ'.
(There are many such confusions - the disciples were originally
referred to as 'our men' which somehow got twisted, and the whole
'fissures of men' debacle doesn't bear thinking about.)
HTH

[Ruth Wilson]

Post by J. P. Gilliver (John)
I thought this deserved wider circulation than the "secret" newsgroup
where I saw it ... both the serious question about why-POB, and the

On Mon, 7 Dec 2020 22:24:08 +0000, Jenny M Benson
scrawled in the dust...

Opening my Advent Calendar this year has prompted me to query something
I've never thought about before.  Why was it necessary for everyone to
travel to their place of birth in order to be counted?  Why could not
Mary & Joseph be counted in Nazareth?

 I thought they went there to be taxed.
If you want something to ponder upon, why was their son known as Jesus of
Nazareth, if he was born in Bethlehem?

The census was very inaccurate, being manual.  They even made a
mistake with Jesus' name, inscribing him as 'Harold B, thy name'.  He
did partly adopt that later to save confusion on official documents,
choosing to sign himself 'Jesus H Christ'.
(There are many such confusions - the disciples were originally
referred to as 'our men' which somehow got twisted, and the whole
'fissures of men' debacle doesn't bear thinking about.)
HTH

I like the jokes! Seriously, I think that the 'census' was made up by
the gospel writer (Mark? off the top of my head) to explain why Jesus of
Nazareth should have been born in Bethlehem (and thus fulfilled
prophecies). There are also queries about Nazareth and whether
"Nazarene" had been misinterpreted from a similar word in another prophecy.

Ruth