While Joseph and Mary were living in Nazareth and Mary was still with child, the Roman Emperor, Caesar Augustus, declared a census of the entire Roman empire.
Pregnancy or not, you don’t keep an Emperor waiting! Augustus decided he needed a population count for military and tax reasons. Though Jews were not required to serve in the military, they most definitely were required to pay taxes.
So Joseph took his pregnant fiancee, Mary, and made the seventy mile journey to Bethlehem. He traveled to because men were required to return to their hometown; Joseph was a descendent of King David and Joseph’s family came from Bethlehem.
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