Luke 2:3

Translations

King James Version (KJV)

And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.

American King James Version (AKJV)

And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.

American Standard Version (ASV)

And all went to enrol themselves, every one to his own city.

Basic English Translation (BBE)

And all men went to be numbered, everyone to his town.

Webster's Revision

And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.

World English Bible

All went to enroll themselves, everyone to his own city.

English Revised Version (ERV)

And all went to enroll themselves, every one to his own city.

Clarke's Luke 2:3 Bible Commentary

And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city - The Roman census was an institution of Servius Tullius, sixth king of Rome. From the account which Dionysius of Halicarnassus gives of it; we may at once see its nature.

"He ordered all the citizens of Rome to register their estates according to their value in money, taking an oath, in a form he prescribed, to deliver a faithful account according to the best of their knowledge, specifying the names of their parents, their own age, the names of their wives and children, adding also what quarter of the city, or what town in the country, they lived in." Ant. Rom. l. iv. c. 15. p. 212. Edit. Huds.

A Roman census appears to have consisted of these two parts:

1. The account which the people were obliged to give in of their names, quality, employments, wives, children, servants, and estates; and

2. The value set upon the estates by the censors, and the proportion in which they adjudged them to contribute to the defense and support of the state, either in men or money, or both: and this seems to have been the design of the census or enrolment in the text.

This census was probably similar to that made in England in the reign of William the Conqueror, which is contained in what is termed Domesday Book, now in the Chapter House, Westminster, and dated 1086.