How Taxes Gave Us Christmas as We Know It

[XLFD]

America owes its existence in large part due to the onerous tax burden that England imposed on the colonists back before the Revolutionary War.  Such outrages spawned protests like the Boston Tea Party and eventually led to a successful war for independence.  

Less widely acknowledged is that taxes played a huge part in creating a revolutionary religion a little over two millennia ago. 

It is tradition in some families to read about the birth of Jesus Christ as recounted in the book of Luke, chapter two, in order to remember the original meaning of Christmas.  In many modern renditions, 'registration' and 'census' is mentioned in that chapter without any mention of taxes, perhaps in acknowledgement that people do not like the word 'taxes' mixed in with their nativity story.  But many of the older versions hold true, and this is what is related in the Bible's King James version of the first three verses of Luke 2:

1 And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.

² (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)

³ And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.

Caesar Augustus was the King George III of his day; not content with allowing anyone in the expanding Roman Empire to get by without paying taxes to him, above and beyond those that were already being paid to provincial governments.  This decree set a trip in motion by a man named Joseph, who had to travel back to his native home to effectively register for his new taxes, and he took his pregnant wife with him. 

To some believers, this special trip of a young couple traveling 50 miles to register for taxes may seem less likely than a virgin giving birth, but taxes continue to be the main part of the chapter detailing the birth of Jesus for two more verses, before we are told in little more than a footnote, that the savior is born:

⁴ And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)

⁵ To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.

⁶ And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.

⁷ And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

And while the other 45 verses talk about what was set in motion and why this wasn't just your ordinary manger birth, we have to wonder if Christmas and Christianity would have been the same had Joseph and Mary stayed at their own home for a quiet childbirth in Nazareth and not been duty-bound to take a trip in order to get on the tax rolls of Caesar Augustus, making quite a stir with the wise men and shepherds in that area.  

Does this mean that we should be more understanding with tyrants that want to lay down higher taxes on everybody?  Of course not, we should just realize that two of the year's biggest holidays surely came about from the people's reaction to oppressive tyrants wanting more of their money.  

[Willy]

Jesus hires x-IRS agent St. Matthew
https://youtu.be/39fHwaR2P40

[XLFD]

The issue of taxes came up often, and followed him like Matthew, in the shortened life of Jesus, according to the gospels.  Even at the very end when they tried to get him to criticize the taxes imposed by Rome and answered:  "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's", leaving them in wonder.  

I wonder how they handled his death taxes once they figured out he wasn't quite dead yet?