Mary and Joseph were traveling from Nazareth to Bethlehem because a Roman census required Joseph to go to his family’s ancestral town to be registered.

Quick Scoop

The Gospel of Luke explains that Caesar Augustus ordered a census, so “all the world should be registered,” and people had to go to their own towns for this registration. Joseph was from the line of King David, whose ancestral city was Bethlehem, so he went there and Mary went with him, even though she was expecting Jesus.

Their journey was roughly 80–100 miles, likely on foot with Mary possibly riding a donkey, making it a long and difficult trip through the hill country of Judea. Christian tradition sees this journey not just as an administrative trip for taxes and records, but also as the way Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah being born in Bethlehem were fulfilled.