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.

And all went to be taxed,.... Throughout Judea, Galilee, and Syria; men, women, and children,

every one into his own city; where he was born, and had any estate, and to which he belonged.

Went (ἐπορεύοντο)

The A. V. and Rev. alike miss the graphic force of the imperfect tense, were going. The preparation and bustle and travel were in progress.

To his own city

The town to which the village or place of their birth belonged, and where the house and lineage of each were registered.

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

2:3 Every one into his own city. It was the Jewish custom to enroll by tribes and families. Joseph was of the family of David, and would have to be enrolled where the family had its landed inheritance.

taxed: or, inrolled

3. went . to his own city-the city of his extraction, according to the Jewish custom, not of his abode, which was the usual Roman method.

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.