Luke 2

Luke 2 is the second chapter of the Gospel of Luke in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It contains an account of Jesus's birth and two incidents from his childhood.

Jesus's Birth and the Angels and Shepherds

According to Luke, Caesar Augustus ordered a census be conducted of the "..entire Roman World", during Quirinius's governorship of Syria and that this is the reason that Joseph and Mary, who lived in Nazareth, were in Bethlehem, King David's place of birth, when Jesus was born.

There is no record of a census that would meet this description. The emperor Augustus reported in his Deeds of the Divine Augustus making censuses of Roman citizens in 28 BC, 8 BC and AD 14. ["I made a census of the people. I performed the lustrum after an interval of forty-one years. In this lustration 4,063,000 Roman citizens were entered on the census roll. A second time, in the consulship of Gaius Censorinus and Gaius Asinius, I again performed the lustrum alone, with the consular imperium. In this lustrum 4,233,000 Roman citizens were entered on the census roll. A third time, with the consular imperium, and with my son Tiberius Caesar as my colleague, I performed the lustrum in the consulship of Sextus Pompeius and Sextus Apuleius. In this lustrum 4,937,000 Roman citizens were entered on the census roll",in: [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Augustus/Res_Gestae/2*.html The Res Gestae of Augustus as published in the Loeb Classical Library, 1924, chapter 8] ] , but clearly this would exclude Joseph, who was not a Roman citizen. There was a provincial census conducted by Quirinius in Iudaea Province and Syria in AD 6 or 7. Luke, however, in Luke [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=49&chapter=1&version=31 1:5] implies that John and Jesus were conceived during the reign of Herod the Great, who died in 4 BC, a decade earlier. If Jesus was conceived during the reign of Herod, then Luke must be wrong about Jesus being born during the census. According to Luke, however, the census was the reason Joseph and Mary went to Bethlehem, where according to both Luke and Matthew [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=47&chapter=2&version=31 2:1] Jesus was born. Matthew records nothing about a census, and appears to imply that the family lived in Bethlehem [Raymond E. Brown, "A Coming Christ in Advent", Liturgical Press (1988), p8 ] ; both agree Jesus was born there but raised in Nazareth.

Luke then tells of shepherds working nearby who are visited by an angel who tells them that in Bethlehem, the "...town of David...Christ the Lord." had been born. More angels appear and Luke has them saying "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests." The angels go back to heaven and the shepherds go to town to see for themselves and find Joseph and Mary and the infant Jesus. They then "...spread the word..." about the angels and Jesus, then return back to their flocks. Luke records nothing of the Magi, the Massacre of the Innocents, nor the escape of Jesus's family to Egypt found in Matthew 2

Circumcision

Joseph and Mary take Jesus to the Temple to be circumcised and name him Jesus, as Gabriel had told Mary to do in Luke [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=49&chapter=1&version=31 1:31] . They are then visited by two people, Simeon and Anna. Simeon had been waiting for the Christ, and believes Jesus is him. He tells Mary "This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too."

Later Anna, an old widowed woman who spent all her time in the temple praying, comes and praises Jesus as well.

Boy Jesus at the Temple

Luke then records the only story of Jesus's childhood in the Bible. When Jesus is twelve his family travels to Jerusalem for the Passover festival. Then they leave with a large group of their relatives and friends and after a day they realize Jesus is not with them. They go back to Jerusalem and after three days of looking find him in the temple talking with the temple teachers. His parents scold him for running off, but Jesus replies that they should have known where he was. "Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?". His family doesn't understand what he is talking about. They all then go to Nazareth.

Notes

References

*Brown, Raymond E. "An Introduction to the New Testament" 1997 Doubleday ISBN 0-385-24767-2
* [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=49&chapter=2&version=31 Luke 2 NIV] Accessed 3 November 2005