Bible Dictionary
Taxing
“Taxing” in older English usage could mean a census or enrollment for taxation, rather than the actual collection of money. Luke uses the term for Roman registrations associated with the birth of Jesus and another later enrollment.
Definition
In older English, “taxing” could mean an assessment or registration rather than the actual collection of money. It designated the enrollment of people or property for taxation, including a census associated with a poll-tax.
Biblical Usage
Luke connects one registration with an edict of Augustus and the birth of Jesus, when Joseph and Mary went to Bethlehem. Acts mentions another registration in connection with the revolt of Judas of Galilee.
Historical Background
The registration associated with Jesus concerned the Roman world, not Judea alone. The term’s older English sense reflected the assessment or enrollment of people for Roman taxation.
Scripture References
Related Figures
Historical Bible Dictionaries
Easton's Bible Dictionary
(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
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.