[In his book, Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives, the pope addresses claims that Luke’s account of the census that took Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem is wrong historically.]
Some have raised the . . . objection that there was no need, in a census of this kind, for each person to travel to his hometown (cf. LK 2:3). But we also know from various sources that those affected had to present themselves where they owned property. Accordingly, we may assume that Joseph, of the House of David, had property in Bethlehem, so that he had to go there for tax registration.
Regarding the details, the discussion could continue indefinitely. It is difficult to gain an insight into the daily life of a society so complex and so distant from our own as that of the Roman Empire. Yet the essential content of Luke’s narrative remains historically credible all the same: Luke set out, as he says in the prologue to his Gospel, “to write an orderly account” (1:3). This he evidently did, making use of the means at his disposal. In any case, he was situated much closer to the sources and events than we could ever claim to be, despite all our historical scholarship.
