Luke is very specific. "In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered." … This isn't neutral scene-setting. Luke is making a political statement. … Caesar Augustus paraded something called the Pax Romana—the "peace of Rome." It was a propaganda campaign for so-called peace that was achieved and maintained through horrific political repression. … Around the time of Jesus' birth, nearly two thousand people in the Galilean city of Sepphoris—just three miles from Nazareth—were crucified for rebelling against Roman forces. Two thousand people on crosses, three miles from where Mary grew up. … So when Luke tells us there was a census for taxation purposes, we understand: this was a system that further impoverished the working poor and robbed subsistence farmers of their resources and land.