Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (1898)
TAXING, DAYS OF THE, mentioned in Luke 2:2. Properly it was an enrolment, like our census, but, as its object was taxation, there was a registration of property. It was held, under an imperial order, through all the Roman world. We read of another enrolment in Acts 5:37. That Joseph and Mary were enrolled proves that the Roman and the Jewish usages were employed - tribal registration, which was the Jewish usage, supplemented by family, "for the Romans required the enrolment of women, and possibly their actual presence at the place of enrolment.
" And yet upon this circumstance depended the Bethlehemic birth of Jesus ! " There is no direct proof that Augustus ordered a universal census, but it is reasonably inferred, from the known fact that he prepared a list of all the resources of his empire, which was read in the senate after his death. Herod manifestly could not resist such an order, inasmuch as he was but a tributary king. " The interesting question in connection with this enrolment is, "How can we vindicate the veracity of Scripture in saying that it was first made when Cyrenius (P.
" To this question, for a long time, no definite answer could be given. It formed one of the commonplaces of infidelity. d. 6 or 7 he completed a census. But this date is ten years after our Lord's birth. c. d. 6 onward. See Cyrenius.