[Vision2020] Mary and her Donkey

[Ron Smith]

		"Even if Joseph were somehow required to return to ancestral land in Bethlehem, it was not necessary to take Mary with him.  But the whole idea is a fantastic one."

The Roman census is an historical fact. Here are a few links to some descriptions and a photo of actual census records uncovered during the last century. Notice how some of the records describe the necessity of returning to one's place of birth. 

http://www.trove.net/CUBU0012/CUBU0012_000052.html <http://www.trove.net/CUBU0012/CUBU0012_000052.html> 
http://www.kchanson.com/ANCDOCS/greek/census.html <http://www.kchanson.com/ANCDOCS/greek/census.html> 
http://statspol.unas.cz/clanky/scitani/rimska_scitani/documents.htm <http://statspol.unas.cz/clanky/scitani/rimska_scitani/documents.htm> 

This was simply googled, people. Does this data fit into your "box of intelligibility", Mr. Gier?

________________________________

From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com on behalf of Nick Gier
Sent: Fri 12/31/2004 5:28 PM
To: vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: [Vision2020] Mary and her Donkey


Dear Pat,

There they go again: Pat & Co. assuming that any criticism of conservative Christianity must be coming from evil atheists.  For the record I am a theist, not an orthodox one, primarily because heresy is always more fun, enlightening, and usually more true.  If we do theology and don't abide by the rules of logic and the canons of evidence, then gibberish is the result.  If that means we put God in a box, then so much the better for logical boxes.  For one, it would lead to better election results.

God did not have to put Mary on a donkey, Pat, Joseph could have easily done it himself.  But my point was that the trip was not necessary.  The Romans sent officials from village to village to make property tax assessments.  Joseph would have been required to stay in Nazareth or he would have faced severe penalties.  One in the crowd at the Feast of Tabernacles implies that Jesus cannot be the Messiah because he comes from Galilee and not Bethlehem (John 7.41), yet another Messianic expectation that Jesus did not meet. The deeper implication is that the authors of John either did not know of Luke's story or they rejected it as unhistorical.

Even if Joseph were somehow required to return to ancestral land in Bethlehem, it was not necessary to take Mary with him.  But the whole idea is a fantastic one.  In The Rise of Christianity the former Bishop E. W. Barnes remarks:  "The Romans were a practical race, skilled in the art of government.  It is incredible that they should have taken a census according to such a fantastic system. [returning everyone to their ancestral lands] If any such census had been taken, the dislocation to which it would have led would have been world-wide.  Roman historians would not have failed to record it."

Just another Moscow Banshee luxuriating in his little box of intelligibility,

Nick Gier

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