Trivia Question: St Nick's real home town is where?
look under the Snowman below for the answer

Phrases of the Christmas Narrative

Census It was Octavian who issued the imperial decree that all must registered (or enrolled), note Octavian’s ego showing when he decreed “all the world should be taxed”, [Luke 2:1].
Strabo writes in 19AD that the Empire included all the coasts of the Mediterrian Sea and that some parts were ruled by Kings and some in form of provinces. Cyrenius was governor (Hegemonia or delegate of the Emperior) of Syria with Judea as part of this territory. According to Mommsen of Borghesi and of de Rossi, Cyrenius “Quirinus” governed Syria twice, first during Varus’ governorship 7-2BC with Varus handling civil matters and Quirinus handling military matters, the second as sole governor 6-9AD. Judea was ruled by Herod the Great [see Herod].
Egyptian records tells of two types of Roman census, one yearly and basically an asset evaluation, the other every 14yrs and was a enrollment of household and used for allotting for military conscription and public services among other things. There were two censuses made during this time, the first one at the time of Christ's birth and another 6 years later [Luke 2:2 & Acts 5:37 mentions both], (the great census was in 6-7AD, Josephus). The first Syrian enrollment was 8-7BC, while Herod was warring with the Arabians, Herod’s would’ve been 6-7BC. The Imperial decree when carried out in Palestine, which was a dependent state under Herod’s rule, would have been different from other provinces. Herod would have wisely conducted the census using tribal lineage as according to Hebraic tradition to seem less Romanized in this very volatile area. The most optimum time that Herod could have set the date of the census with interrupting the every day lives of his subjects as little as possible would have been August to October. Justin Martyr, a native of Syria wrote around 150AD that recorded information gathered from the periodic enrollments of the province was preserved and might be consulted by any who doubted the account of Luke.

>>>add about Jewish marriage contract & wedding, later<<<

Generations ‘the book of’ – (Or the genealogy, history or account), notes a family history. Two genealogies are recorded, one in Matthew and the other in Luke. It’s not known where either got their information, but Matthew seems to tell the story from Joseph’s point of view and Luke’s narrative seems to have come from Mary’s point of view. The two are very similar and mentions many of the same people but aren’t the same none the less, and both of which omits some names listed in 1 Chron. 1-3, which makes it seem that neither genealogy is a complete listing but rather condensed lists.
The two most acceptable explanations of these differences;
First, (which is the most accepted and plausible) Matthew's genealogy is that of Joseph’s, showing that Jesus was legal heir to David's throne though Joseph (his legal father) and Luke's genealogy is that of Mary's, showing that Jesus was legal heir though her [Luke 1:27]. >>>add about David's sons later<<
Secondly, is that both genealogies are that of Joseph, but since they came from separate sources some names may have been inadvertently omitted by one but listed by the other, so some "son of's" may have been "grandson of's". Matthew lists 26 generations after David while Luke lists 41 generations.

click pic above for starmaps of 7bc