Charles Ellicott Commentary Luke 2:1

"Now it came to pass in those days, there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be enrolled." — Luke 2:1 (ASV)

There went out a decree. The passage that follows has given rise to almost endless discussion. The main facts may be summed up as follows:

1. The word “taxed” is used in its older English sense of simple “registration,” and in that sense is a true equivalent for the Greek word. The corresponding verb appears in Hebrews 12:23. It does not involve, as it might seem to modern ears, the payment of taxes. The “world” (literally, the inhabited world, οἰκουμένη, œcumenè,—the word from which we form the word “ecumenical” as applied to councils) is taken, as throughout the New Testament, for the Roman empire. What Augustus is said to have decreed was a general census.
2. It may be admitted that no Roman or Jewish historian speaks distinctly of such a general census being made at this time. On the other hand, the collection of statistical returns of this nature was an ever-recurring feature of the policy of Augustus. We read of such returns at intervals of about ten years during the whole period of his government. In 27 B.C., when he offered to resign, he laid before the Senate a rationarium, or survey of the whole empire. After his death, a similar document, more epitomized—a breviarium—was produced as having been compiled by him. There are traces of one around this time made by the Emperor, not in his character as Censor, but by an imperial edict such as St. Luke here describes.
3. Just before the death of Herod, Josephus (Wars, i. 27, § 2; 29:2) reports that there was an agitation among the Jews. This agitation led Herod to require them to take an oath of fidelity, not only to himself but also to the Emperor, and 6,000 Pharisees refused to take it. He does not say what caused this agitation, but the census St. Luke records, which held out the prospect of future taxation in the modern sense, sufficiently explains it.
4. It need hardly be said that Herod's entire policy was one of subservience to the Emperor. Although he retained nominal independence, he was unlikely to resist the Emperor's wish for statistics on the population, or even the property, of the province over which he ruled.
5. It may be noted that none of the early opponents of Christianity—such as Celsus and Porphyry—called the accuracy of the statement in question. Lastly, we may add that St. Luke, as an inquirer writing for men of education, would not have been likely to expose himself to the risk of detection by asserting that there had been such a census in the face of contrary facts.