CHAPTER 2

THE DECREE OF AUGUSTUS TO enroll all the Roman empire, 1, 2. Joseph and Mary go to their own city to be enrolled, 3-5. Christ is born, 6, 7. His birth is announced to the shepherds, 8-14. They go to Bethlehem, and find Joseph, Mary, and Christ, 15-20. Christ is circumcised, 21. His parents go to present him in the temple, 22-24. Simeon receives him: his song, 25-35. Anna the prophetess, 36-38. The holy family return to Nazareth, 39, 40. They go to Jerusalem at the feast of the passover, and leave Jesus behind in Jerusalem,41-44. They return seeking him, and find him in the midst of the doctors, 45-47. His mother chides him, 48. His defense of his conduct, 49, 50. They all return to Nazareth, 51, 52.

Notes on Chapter 2

Verse 1.Caesar Augustus— This was Caius Caesar Octavianus Augustus, who was proclaimed emperor of Rome in the 29th year before our Lord, and died A.D. 14.

That all the world should be taxed.—pasan thn oikoumenhn, the whole of that empire. It is agreed, on all hands, that this cannot mean the whole world, as in the common translation; for this very sufficient reason, that the Romans had not the dominion of the whole earth, and therefore could have no right to raise levies or taxes in those places to which their dominion did not extend.oikoumenhsignifies properly the inhabited part of the earth, fromoikew, to dwell, or inhabit. Polybius makes use of the very words in this text to point out the extent of the Roman government, lib. vi. c. 48; and Plutarch uses the word in exactly the same sense, Pomp. p. 635. See the passages in Wetstein. Therefore the whole that could be meant here, can be no more than that a general CENSUSof the inhabitants and their effects had been made in the reign of August