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Topic

Taxing

2 passages cited, from 2 classic reference works.

These works date from 1884–1897 and are in the public domain. They reflect the Protestant scholarship of their time: their history, archaeology and dates can be out of date, and where they interpret, other traditions read the text differently. The verses are shown in the King James Version, the wording these works were written against.

The verses

The passages the works cite, those cited by more of them first.

Luke 2:1Smith
And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Cæsar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.
Luke 2:2Easton
(And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)

In the reference works

Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897) · 1 references

(Luke 2:2; R.V., “enrolment”), “when Cyrenius was governor of Syria,” is simply a census of the people, or an enrolment of them with a view to their taxation. The decree for the enrolment was the occasion of Joseph and Mary’s going up to Bethlehem. It has been argued by some that Cyrenius (q.v.) was governor of Cilicia and Syria both at the time of our Lord’s birth and some years afterwards. This decree for the taxing referred to the whole Roman world, and not to Judea alone. (See CENSUS.)

Smith's Bible Dictionary (1884) · 1 references

The English word now conveys to us more distinctly the notion of a tax or tribute actually levied; but it appears to have been used in the sixteenth century for the simple assessment of a subsidy upon the property of a given county, or the registration of the people for the purpose of a poll-tax. Two distinct registrations, or taxings, are mentioned in the New Testament, both of them by St. Luke. The first is said to have been the result of an edict of the emperor Augustus, that "all the world (i.e. the Roman empire) should be taxed," (Luke 2:1) and is connected by the evangelist with the name of Cyrenius Quirinus. [CYRENIUS] The second and more important, (Acts 6:37) is distinctly associated, in point of time, with the revolt of Judas of Galilee.

Texts: Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897); Smith's Bible Dictionary (1884), from the CrossWire SWORD modules (public domain). Verse references were parsed from the works' own markup and checked against the KJV verse list.

Taxing

The verses

In the reference works

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