9.
“And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)... And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem (because he was of the house and lineage of David), to be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child” (Luke ii, 1–5).
This cannot be accepted as historical for the following reasons:
1. Caesar Augustus never issued a decree that all the world should be taxed, nor even one that all the Roman world should be taxed.
2. If he had issued such a decree Joseph and Mary would not have been subject to taxation, because they lived in Galilee, an independent province.
3. Had they been subject to taxation they would have been enrolled in their own country and not in some distant kingdom.
4. Cyrenius did not become governor of Syria until nearly ten years after the death of Herod, and Jesus was born, it is claimed, in the days of Herod.