2:1 And {1} it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the {a} world should be {b} taxed.
(1) Christ, the son of God, taking upon himself the form of a servant, and making himself of no reputation, is poorly born in a stable: and by the means of Augustus, the mightiest prince in the world, (thinking nothing of it) has his cradle prepared in Bethlehem, as the prophets foretold.
(a) As far as the empire of the Romans stretched.
(b) That is, the inhabitants of every city should have their names recorded, and their goods rated at a certain value, that the emperor might understand how rich every country, city, family, and house was.
2:1 The Birth of Jesus
SUMMARY OF LUKE 2:
The Decree of Augustus Caesar. The Journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem. The Babe in the Manger. The Shepherds and the Song of the Angels. The Circumcision of the Child. The Child in the Temple. The Prophecy of Simeon. The Prophecy of Anna. The Child at Nazareth. Jesus with the Doctors. My Father's Business.
Went out a decree from Caesar Augustus. Augustus Caesar, the nephew and heir of Julius Caesar, the first of the Roman emperors, was now the ruler of the civilized world. Though Judea was ruled by Herod as king, he was dependent upon and the servant of Augustus Caesar.
That all the world. The Roman empire which embraced all the world then known to civilization; all southern and western Europe, western Asia and northern Africa.
Should be taxed. A census was to be taken as a preliminary to a poll tax in the provinces.
2:1 That all the world should be enrolled - That all the inhabitants, male and female, of every town in the Roman empire, with their families and estates, should be registered.
2:1-7 The fulness of time was now come, when God would send forth his Son, made of a woman, and made under the law. The circumstances of his birth were very mean. Christ was born at an inn; he came into the world to sojourn here for awhile, as at an inn, and to teach us to do likewise. We are become by sin like an outcast infant, helpless and forlorn; and such a one was Christ. He well knew how unwilling we are to be meanly lodged, clothed, or fed; how we desire to have our children decorated and indulged; how apt the poor are to envy the rich, and how prone the rich to disdain the poor. But when we by faith view the Son of God being made man and lying in a manger, our vanity, ambition, and envy are checked. We cannot, with this object rightly before us, seek great things for ourselves or our children.
