Luke 2:1-3

Contemporary English Version

The Birth of Jesus

(Matthew 1.18-25)

2 About that time Emperor Augustus gave orders for the names of all the people to be listed in record books.^[a] ²These first records were made when Quirinius was governor of Syria.^[b]

³Everyone had to go to their own hometown to be listed.

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Footnotes

2.1 names … listed in record books: This was done so that everyone could be made to pay taxes to the Emperor.
2.2 Quirinius was governor of Syria: It is known that Quirinius made a record of the people in a.d. 6 or 7. But the exact date of the record taking that Luke mentions is not known.