[Vision2020] Mary and her Donkey

[Donovan Arnold]

One thing is for sure. If Mary, being eight and 1/2 months pregnant, was 
forced to go all the way to Bethlehem, there is no doubt that she would have 
been riding Joseph's ass the whole the way.



>From: "Ron Smith" <ron_smith at md7.com>
>To: <vision2020 at moscow.com>
>Subject: RE: [Vision2020] Mary and her Donkey
>Date: Sat, 1 Jan 2005 01:57:45 -0800
>
>		"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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