But it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census should be made of all the habitable world.
Luke dates the birth of Jesus by a Roman tax order. The verse names the most powerful man alive and moves a whole empire, yet says nothing about God — so why does the Saviour's story start here?
The man named here was a real ruler whose life can be traced in ordinary history. He came to sole power after years of civil war, and his reach touched the land of Israel through Herod:
The first Roman emperor... upon the death of Lepidus he shared the empire with Antony, but both were too ambitious to share the kingdom. The battle of Actium, B.C. 31, went in Caesar's favour, and he reigned alone. Four years later he was confirmed as 'emperor' and 'Augustus' in B.C. 27... He confirmed Herod as king, and added Samaria and Gadara to his territory... The Lord Jesus was born during his reign.
The phrase is not a mistake, and it is not a claim that the census reached every nation on earth. It was the way Rome talked about itself:
It is clear that a decree of Augustus or any other emperor could not take effect outside the empire. But it was the phrase of the day, as we see in Acts 24:5. To a Roman, the city of Rome ruled the whole earth. The world and the empire were the same; everything outside counted for nothing. But the apostles had a true and larger view, as we may see in Acts 17:31, Hebrews 2:5, Revelation 3:10, and elsewhere.
Commentators differ over how wide the underlying Greek word can stretch elsewhere in Scripture, but they agree it means the inhabited earth, and that here it is used with imperial pride.
Reading this verse, one writer notes the sheer strangeness of the scene: a pagan emperor issuing orders in the very country where God's throne should have stood.
Instead of God dealing with Israel in grace, we see first the pagan emperor of the world — the head of Daniel's last empire. He is using his power in Emmanuel's land, and over the people of God, as though God did not know them... What a strange state of things sin has brought in!
The order proved how far Israel had sunk. It also did exactly what God intended, moving one couple to the one village the prophets had named:
The power of the world is set in motion by an act that proves its supremacy over the people of God. As His people, they should have been free from every rule except the immediate government of their God, which was their glory. The act proves the complete degradation and servitude of the people. Because of their sins, they are slaves to the nations in their bodies and in their possessions (see Nehemiah 9:36-37). But this act only carries out the marvellous purpose of God. It causes the Saviour-king to be born in the village where, by the testimony of God, that event was to take place.
Verse one records a decree from a man. Behind it stands another will entirely, and the two could not look more different:
But if there was a decree from Caesar, there was a most gracious purpose in God. Caesar might indulge his pride and count the world his own, in the exaggerated style of human ambition and self-satisfaction. But God was now showing what He was — and oh, what a contrast! By this very act, and by God's providence, the Son of God enters the world at the promised place, Bethlehem.
The contrast goes further. At the height of his power, Augustus had no idea what his own order was doing:
While he enjoyed this supremacy, the Roman Emperor had no idea that his Master was born in a village in Judea. His Master came in the lowest ranks of life, among the most despised tribe in the Emperor's realm. That one event changed the whole course of the world's history.
If a tax order carried out God's word once, the same hand is at work now:
There seemed no likelihood that the child would be born at Bethlehem. But the Emperor commanded that everyone should go to his own town for the census. God arranged it this way in His providence, to fulfil His word. So it is today. There is not a movement in the world that God is not ruling directly or overruling indirectly.
This verse also touches how a Christian treats government:
We cannot ignore the days that a government decrees... We have to be aware of the commands of the government. We must give Caesar's days what is due to them. We must be subject to the governing authorities. This lies at the very start of Christianity.
- Decree. One order from Caesar Augustus set a whole empire moving, and Luke dates the birth of Jesus by it.
- Dominion. "All the world" was Rome's own way of speaking: to a Roman, the empire and the world were the same.
- Degradation. The census proved Israel's servitude: slaves in body and property to the nations, in their own land.
- Design. The same order brought the Saviour-king to birth in Bethlehem, so a proud man's decree served God's promise.
- Dependence. If a tax order served God's word then, no movement today falls outside His ruling or overruling.
The census itself first took place when Cyrenius had the government of Syria.
A governor's name and a "first registration" tie the birth of Jesus to a dated moment in Roman records. That one line explains how a couple from Nazareth ended up in Bethlehem, and it has been argued over ever since.
The empire that ordered the count believed it was asserting its own ownership of the world. One writer sets the emperor's pride against what God was doing.
That was the thinking of the world — of the imperial power of that day, the great Roman empire. But if there was a decree from Caesar, there was a most gracious purpose in God. Caesar could feed his pride and call the world his own, in the overblown style of human ambition and self-satisfaction. But God was now showing what He was. What a contrast! By this very act, God's hand brings the Son of God into the world at the promised place, Bethlehem.
What makes it striking is the scale. An empire-wide order sent people back to their home towns, and it all came down to two unknown people.
It is wonderful that the whole machinery of the Roman Empire started moving to bring this about. An unknown couple, as the world saw them, reached their home city, Bethlehem, just in time for the birth of the One who would be the Saviour of the world. Yet so it was.
Some writers read the verse this way: the registration was ordered then, but carried out later under Quirinius. On that reading, the decree accomplished God's aim and no more.
The decree was not carried out at the time we are looking at here. But it went far enough to call the parents of our Lord from Nazareth in Galilee to Bethlehem. That did not complete man's census; it fulfilled God's prophecy. God took care that it should be just fulfilled enough to carry out His purposes.
What happened to the census afterwards matters too.
Despite all this, the power of the world is working, without knowing it, to fulfil a prophecy about One it does not know. Once that is done, the plan falls away as if it had never been: "the census itself first took place when Cyrenius (or Quirinius) was governor of Syria" — some years afterward.
The ESV reads "the first registration"; Darby's version reads "the census itself first took place." Darby reads the sentence as a note about timing, not as the first count in a series.
Read the phrase this way — "The census itself first took place when Cyrenius was governor of Syria." It cannot mean "this first census." The wording would have been different for that. It should be read: "This census first took effect when Cyrenius was governor." I lean to that sense, since the census was not put into effect when Mary and Joseph went up. They went to be registered, but it does not appear that they ever were.
Critics have long used this verse to attack the reliability of Scripture. No general census of this date shows up in surviving Roman records.
Verse 1 already gives hunting ground to writers who deny that Scripture is accurate and without error. Secular records tell us nothing about any general census at this time… The question comes down to whether Quirinius carried out any administrative duties at the earlier date or not.
The answer offered is simple. The same man held office in Syria twice, so there could be two separate registrations.
He was governor of Syria in A.D. 6, and he then carried out a census — most likely the one Acts 5:37 mentions. That long created a difficulty about Luke's statement that Cyrenius held a census when the Lord was born, in B.C. 4. But Prof. A. W. Zumpt of Berlin states, on what seems good authority, that Cyrenius was governor of Syria twice: the first time from B.C. 4 to B.C. 1, which fits Luke 2:2 well.
The count listed people, not property. The Jews were also allowed to run it their own way, by city and family line.
The "taxing" mentioned in Luke 2:1-5 was probably not a valuing of property but a registration of persons… The Roman emperor ordered it, but it seems the Jews were allowed to carry out the census their own way, by city and family line.
- Decree — Caesar's order claimed the world as his own. God used it to place His Son in Bethlehem.
- Detail — the registration was by name and family line, not property, which is why Joseph went to David's town.
- Dispute — critics target this verse, since no general census of that date survives in Roman records.
- Defence — the answer offered: Quirinius held office in Syria twice, and the earlier term fits Luke's date.
- Design — commentators differ on whether Luke dates the decree or its later carrying out. They agree on the outcome: the plan went just far enough to fulfil prophecy, then lapsed.