(July 5, 2011 at 8:50 am)Rhythm Wrote: a woman who traveled to bethlehem for a non-existent census
You left out the little fact that Bethlehem was not even a town between 7-4 BCE. Archeology has found a lot of items there dating from 1200 to 550 BCE and it's been an inhabited town since the 6th century CE, but it was abandoned in the centuries surrounding Christ's birth. See http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/geopedia/Bethlehem and http://www.religioustolerance.org/xmaswwjb.htm
Also, that Israel around 1CE was a very patriarchal society. If there were such a census, the MEN would be the ones registering for the census. Having a wife with him would have been redundant, and he probably would not have brought her - let alone bringing wife who was 9 months pregnant. Nor, if Joseph or Joseph and Mary would have traveled to Bethlehem, they would have traveled in a group as to avoid robbers - just as they did on their way home from Jerusalem when they realized Jesus was missing.
So, there was no census. If there were an unrecorded census, she had no reason to go. If she did make the trek, she would have had to look out for their safety, and not traveled alone.
