The Appearance of the Angel to Joseph and the Census of Quirinus

Continuing with Fouard's Life of Christ:

Chapter IV: The Nativity

I. The Appearance of the Angel to Joseph. — The Census of Quirinus.

Matt. i. 18-25; Luke ii. 1-15.

Joseph's anxiety. J-J Tissot

After nearly three months passed in her cousin's home, Mary returned to Nazareth.  That she was soon to be a mother was, of course, at once made known, and Joseph was made acquainted with the bitterest of all human sorrows.  He could not hesitate as to the duty of repudiating this is the affianced maiden, whom honour would not permit him to retain; yet, as "he was just," and knew the severity of the Law towards the sinning woman, he resolved to spare Mary.  The betrothments, considered among Jews as sacred as the marriage tie, like it could be broken by divorce; but although the Act of Separation was public in its nature, yet, in certain cases, usage allowed of its being drawn up in secret.  Joseph chose this plan, in accordance with his duty and his grief.

Joseph's vision. J-J Tissot

But while he was sadly pondering this step the Angel of the Lord appear to him and a dream and said to him, "Joseph, son of David, be not afraid to take unto you Mary, your espoused; for That which is born in her is of the Holy Spirit.  She shall bring for a Son, and you shall give to Him the name of Jesus,1 which means a Saviour; He it is Who shall save His people from their sins." "This," adds Saint Matthew,2 "was done to accomplish what the lord had said by the mouth of the Prophet:3 "Behold a Virgin shall conceive in her womb, and shall bring forth a Son, and He shall be called Emmanuel, that is, God with us."[1]

[1] ΄Εμμαουὴλ. Nowhere is it ever recorded that Jesus was called by this name; a mystical title, given in a spiritual sense.

When Joseph had arisen from his sleep, he had no other thought beyond the desire to fulfill the command of the Angel.  Nuptial ceremonies at once ushered the young spouse into his house, but "he knew her not," pursues the sacred texts, "until the day wherein she brought forth a Son and he gave to Him the name of Jesus."[1] Not that after His birth Joseph ceased to respect the virginal temple in which Jesus was incarnate.  Christian tradition has always shrunk with horror from the thought that Mary, who stained taintless blood had mingled with the blood of God, could ever have forfeited the purity of God's Tabernacle, the habitation of His overshadowing cloud, and the Ark of the Lord.  Saint Matthew's only thought here was to emphasise the miraculous nature of her maiden Motherhood, and to declare the fulfilment of Isaiah’s prediction that "a Virgin shall conceive and bring forth a Son."

[1] Ιησοῦς : is the same as Jehoshua in the law and the prophecies; signifying “the Salvation of the Lord.”

Nazareth, which was to be the abode of Jesus for many long years, did not witness His birth.  The prophecies had reserved that glory for Bethlehem; and the whole world, at the destined hour of His birth, was disturbed, that these predictions might be accomplished.  "In those days," says the sacred text, "an enrolment of the empire brought Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem, the edict which prescribed it emanating from Augustus." This prince, at that time, held the whole world in his sovereign grasp.  The adopted son of Caesar, he had inherited his projects, and of these the most considerable and wide reaching in its consequences consisted in a registration of the Roman world.  This general taking of statistics was to include a valuation of all the resources of the provinces, and a reapportionment of the tax-list.  Interrupted for a while, the work of Caesar was pushed forward again by Augustus, who, besides a description of the various lands, added a recapitulation of their subjects.  Twenty Commissioners, whose probity had recommended them to the favour of the prince, were despatched into the countries which bore the yoke of obedience to him, and there they devoted 25 years to this work.  The result was inscribed by the hand of Augustus himself, in a book called by Suetonius, "Statistics of the Empire." "It was," says Tacitus, " a pictorial reflection of the Imperial acquisitions: herein one might see how many of the citizens and of the allies were under arms, the number of fleets, kingdoms, provinces, the revenues from tribute and toll gatherers, an estimate of necessary expenditures as well as of perquisites."



In what year did the Decretal for this universal census become operative?  It is difficult to decide.  The three censuses attributed to Augustus upon the bas-relief at Ancyrus seem to refer simply to the regular numbering of the people of Rome, made by the Censors once every five years.  Apparently Augustus promulgated this edict when, feeling himself to be at last absolute master of the Empire, he forthwith devoted all his energies to its consolidation.

Even the allied kingdoms must needs makes this act of submission, and Saint Luke informs us that its performance was brought about in Judea at the time in which Jesus was born.  "This first enrolling," he adds, "was made by Quirinius, Governor of Syria;" in other words it was made authoritative by a Saturninus, as Tertullian tells us; was continued under his successor Varus; and hence it could not have been consummated until the time when Quirinius first took in hand the government of Syria.

Ten years later this same distinguished ex consul, having been dispatched to Judea to reduce it to the condition of the Roman Province, found himself obliged to rectify his earlier efforts, and to make a new census in order definitely to regulate the tribute.  From this factor comes the care with which Saint Luke would distinguish between the two enrolments.  If the first has left fewer traces among Jewish annals, and caused no such bloody revolts as did the second, it is because it was merely a description of the peoples and their goods, involving neither any levy of taxes nor military service; but most of all it is due to the fact that Herod was still alive, and, by shrewd political address, was able to manipulate the workings of this enforced enrolment.  In fact we can see how this Roman Census, taken under the eyes of the Imperial Commissioners was, notwithstanding, administered according to Jewish forms.

Now the Israelites were in the habit of taking an account of their population, not in their place of residence or birth, but by assembling themselves according to the Family and the Tribe, whence each one had sprung.[1]   A muster of Judea, therefore, was nothing less than a revision of the Genealogical Tables.  These precious Archives were carefully kept and highly treasured by the particular city which was by way of being regarded as the first fatherland of each Family.  David was born at Bethlehem; it was to this town therefore that Joseph must be take himself, "for he was of the Tribe and Family" of the Great King.

[1] See Num. i. 2, where God commands Moses to number the people, according to Tribe and Family

Two of the Evangelists had held in their hands the Genealogical Tables of Bethlehem; naturally each searched therein after what would most clearly support his individual point of view.  Saint Matthew, occupied in the collection of evidence which would reveal in Jesus, the King and the Messiah promised to Israel, for his part only demanded of these archives an endorsement of Joseph's royal ancestry.  Saint Luke, writing for the Gentiles, interests himself solely in the natural filiation, and he shows us in what order of generation the second Adam traces His lineage up to the first man, and thus to God Himself.

One might very well marvel that the sacred historians, who have given us these genealogies of Joseph, should have passed over in silence that of Mary, if it were not so well known that, according to the teaching of Tradition, the Virgin was a near relative, probably the niece, of Joseph,6 and that, in consequence, her paternity corresponded with that of her husband.  The family trees of the parents of Jesus being the same, nothing could be more natural for the evangelists than to set down these pedigrees just as they found them in the records at Bethlehem; for the Jews were prone to overlook the descent of their womenfolk, by giving only that of the men.

[1]  Fouard seems to favour the following: 1) Joseph (of Panther) had two brothers, Cleophas (Alpheus) and Joachim; 2) Mary was the daughter of |Joachim, and therefore Joseph’s niece. He rejects the idea of Joseph being an old man (44 at betrothal) and refers to traditions that he was young and beardless at the time.

Totus tuus ego sum 

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam