キリストの誕生

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register.

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

Luke 2: 1-7

The census that was ordered by Caesar Augustus was the first of its kind. It was done because the Roman government wanted to make sure that everyone in the Empire was paying their taxes correctly. The census was carried out all over Empire (most of Europe): but in Palestine, it was carried out in a Jewish way rather than a Roman way. This meant that families had to register in the their historical tribal town rather than where they lived. This also meant that Joseph and the very pregnant Mary would have had to travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem, as this was town that Joseph’s family (the royal family of David) originally came from — a journey of about 70 miles (112 kilometers).

It might have been quite good for the family to go to Bethlehem as no one there knew them, so people would not have talked about the fact that they were not married. The journey would have taken about three days and it is quite probable that they arrived in Bethlehem during the evening, because if they had arrived earlier in the day, it is more likely that they would have found room in an inn or boarding house. The only place they could find was in a stable. This was probably a cave where the animals of the inn where kept or it might even have been a covered market stall that sold animals.

It was the custom in those times to wrap a new born baby very tightly in long bandages called swaddling clothes. The arms and legs were also wrapped, so they could not move. This was done because they thought it helped the baby to grow straight limbs.

The birth of Jesus probably didn’t happen in the year 0AD but slightly earlier, but about 5, 6 or 7BC. The dates that we use now were set by Monks and religious leaders in the Middle Ages.