The Historical Jesus

[Pat Mustard]

How do you know that Mary and Joseph wouldn't have to travel to Bethlehem to participate in the census?

Because that's not how censuses worked in Roman times, no more than they do today. The whole point of carrying out a census for the Romans was to find out how many people lived in an area and who they were, so they could more efficiently collect taxes and apportion levy duties for the legions.

Plus, Mary and Joseph were living in a client state of Rome at the time, where censuses didn't happen, rather than in Rome proper. Even with the nonsense justification of the bible, they were not obligated to take part in a census.