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[–]ActuallyNot 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

The Roman census was set up to count the number of Military Age Eligible Men within the boundaries of the Empire so they'd know who they could call on in time of need of their military service but, being the nitpickers they were, they also included the names, ages, birthplaces of the women and children as well.

Yes Romans did censuses. Probably started by Servius Tullius in the 6th century BC. But they're documented.

The problem with the Christian story, is that there was no single census of the entire empire under Augustus.

There was a census of Judea upon the imposition of direct Roman rule in 6 CE. The Census of Quirinius

However, no Roman census required people to travel from their own homes to those of distant ancestors, and the census of Judea would not have affected Joseph and his family, living in Galilee.

And the details are historically mixed up. Luke uses the Census of Quirinius to get Jesus (of Nazareth) to Bethlehem for his birth to meet the (claimed) prophesy of where the Jewish messiah would be born. But Mathew says that Jesus' birth was during the reign of Herod the Great, who died 9 years before the census of Quirinius.

Scholars tend to be of the opinion that it was Luke that was wrong, but I find it plausible that the whole thing was just made up out of whole-cloth.