Quote:Not sure I understand. Augustus lived until 19 August, AD 14, so Herod was alive during the Emperor's census.
You're right, you don't understand. It has nothing to do with Augustus.
Matty says that Herod was so concerned about jesus that he directed his soldiers to slaughter all the infants in "Bethlehem" a clear ripoff of the Moses story which would have been familiar to Jews. No one else, even writers like Josephus who gleefully recount every crime ever attributed to Herod ever mention this one. Herod died in 4 BC which set off a chain of events which led to the eventual Roman annexation of Judaea as a prefecture under the governor of Syria.
On Herod's death his kingdom was divided up among his sons, Antipas, Archelaus, and Phillip. Revolts broke out which were serious enough to require the Syrian legions under Publius Quinctillius Varus to intervene. The revolts were crushed and Herod's sons were installed on their thrones. Archelaus, however, had problems in his territory of Judaea and Idumaea and Samaria. By 6 AD the Judaeans were petitioning Augustus to remove Archelaus and become a Roman prefecture. Augustus agreed and Archelaus was pensioned off to Gaul. In 6, Augustus had assigned Quirinius as the new governor of Syria and Josephus makes clear that he brought along a man named Coponius to be the new prefect of Judaea. We have coins issued by Coponius so Josephus is confirmed in that. Part of Quirinius' and Coponius' mission was to undertake a census of the newly acquired prefecture. Unlike xtian horseshit, there was no census of the whole world for taxation. Roman taxation was not based on head count and there had been no direct taxation of Roman citizens in Italy since the middle of the second century BC, anyway.
Augustus himself in the Res Gestae Divi Augustus tells us that he conducted three lustra which is a count of Roman citizens only. Unfortunately, the dates of these do nothing to help the jesus story.
Lastly, but not least, is the absurdity in "Luke" of having entire populations journey to their ancestral homes to be registered. It would be like Canadians having to go back to Britain ( or France!). Moreover, "Luke" seems to have forgotten that Nazareth ( which apparently did not even exist in the first century) would have been in Galilee which was not part of the Judaea prefecture and thus "Mary and Joseph" would have been going to another country for a census which did not concern them in the least.
Learn some history and then you'll be able to see what a pile of shit your gospels are.
