Luke 2

2:1-7 The fulness of time was now come, when God would send forth his Son, made of a woman, and made under the law. The circumstances of his birth were very mean. Christ was born at an inn; he came into the world to sojourn here for awhile, as at an inn, and to teach us to do likewise. We are become by sin like an outcast infant, helpless and forlorn; and such a one was Christ. He well knew how unwilling we are to be meanly lodged, clothed, or fed; how we desire to have our children decorated and indulged; how apt the poor are to envy the rich, and how prone the rich to disdain the poor. But when we by faith view the Son of God being made man and lying in a manger, our vanity, ambition, and envy are checked. We cannot, with this object rightly before us, seek great things for ourselves or our children.

"\nAnd this taxing was first made,.... Or "this was the first enrolment, or taxing" in the Jewish nation; for there was another afterwards, when Judas the Galilean arose, and drew many after him, Ac 5:38.\n\nWhen Cyrenius was governor of Syria; or "of Cyrenius" "governor of Syria"; that is, it was the first that he was, concerned in; who not now, but afterwards was governor of Syria; and because he had been so before Luke wrote this history, and this being a title of honour, and what might distinguish him from others of that name, it is given him; for as Tertullian says {c}, Sentius Saturninus was now governor of Syria, when Cyrenius was sent into Judea, to make this register, or taxing; and which is manifestly distinguished from that, which was made during his being governor of Syria, when Archelaus was banished from Judea, ten or eleven years after Herod's death; which Josephus {d} gives an account of, and Luke refers to, in Ac 5:37. Moreover, the words will bear to be rendered thus, "and this tax, or enrolment, was made before Cyrenius was governor of Syria"; \u03c0\u03c1\u03c9\u03c4\u03b7, being used for\n\u03c0\u03c1\u03bf\u03c4\u03b5\u03c1\u03b1, as in Joh 1:15. This Cyrenius is the same whom the Romans call Quirinius, and Quirinus; a governor of Syria had great power in Judea, to which it was annexed, when Cyrenius was governor there. It is reported of R. Gamaliel, that he went to take a licence,\n\u05de\u05d4\u05d2\u05de\u05d5\u05df \u05d1\u05e1\u05d5\u05e8\u05d9\u05d0, "from a governor of Syria" {e}; i.e. to intercalate the year: and Syria was in many things like to the land of Judea, particularly as to tithes, and the keeping of the seventh year {f}.\n\n{c} Contr. Marcion, l. 4. c. 19. {d} Antiqu. l. 18. c. 1. {e} Misn. Ediot. c. 7. sect. 7. {f} T. Bab. Gittin. fol. 8. 1.\n\n\n "

"\nAnd all went to be taxed,.... Throughout Judea, Galilee, and Syria; men, women, and children;\n\nevery one into his own city; where he was born, and had any estate, and to which he belonged.\n\n\n "

2. first … when Cyrenius, &c.—a very perplexing verse, inasmuch as Cyrenius, or Quirinus, appears not to have been governor of Syria for about ten years after the birth of Christ, and the "taxing" under his administration was what led to the insurrection mentioned in Ac 5:37. That there was a taxing, however, of the whole Roman Empire under Augustus, is now admitted by all; and candid critics, even of skeptical tendency, are ready to allow that there is not likely to be any real inaccuracy in the statement of our Evangelist. Many superior scholars would render the words thus, "This registration was previous to Cyrenius being governor of Syria"—as the word "first" is rendered in Joh 1:15; 15:18. In this case, of course, the difficulty vanishes. But it is perhaps better to suppose, with others, that the registration may have been ordered with a view to the taxation, about the time of our Lord's birth, though the taxing itself—an obnoxious measure in Palestine—was not carried out till the time of Quirinus.

"\nAnd Joseph also went up from Galilee,.... Where he now lived, and worked at the trade of a carpenter; having for some reasons, and by one providence or another, removed hither from his native place:\n\nout of the city of Nazareth; which was in Galilee, where he and Mary lived; and where he had espoused her, and she had conceived of the Holy Ghost:\n\ninto Judea; which lay higher than Galilee, and therefore he is said to go up to it:\n\nunto the city of David; not what was built by him, but where he was born and lived; see 1Sa 17:12.\n\nwhich is called Bethlehem: the place where, according to Mic 5:2 the Messiah was to be born, and was born; and which signifies "the house of bread": a very fit place for Christ, the bread which came down from heaven, and gives life to the world, to appear first in. This place was, as a Jewish chronologer says {g}, a "parsa" and half, or six miles from Jerusalem; though another of their writers, an historian and traveller {h}, says, it was two "parsas", or eight miles; but Justin Martyr {i} says, it was but thirty five furlongs distant from it, which is not five miles; hither Joseph came from Galilee,\n\nbecause he was of the house and lineage of David; he was of his family, and lineally descended from him, though he was so poor and mean; and this is the reason of his coming to Bethlehem, David's city.\n\n{g} Ganz. Tzemach David, par. 2. fol. 14. 2. {h} R. Benjamin Itin. p. 47. {i} Apolog. 2. p. 75.\n\n\n "

"\nTo be taxed with Mary his espoused wife,.... Whom also he had married, though he had not known her in a carnal way; she came along with him to be taxed and enrolled also, because she was of the same family of David, and belonged to the same city:\n\nbeing great with child; very near her time, and yet, though in such circumstances, was obliged by this edict, to come to Bethlehem; and the providence in it was, that she might give birth there, and so the prophecy in Mic 5:2 have its accomplishment: this was an instance, and an example, of obedience to civil magistrates.