Sometimes the infancy narratives in the Bible are seen as just some stories written to bolster the claim of Jesus’ divinity, particularly the story in Luke Chapter 2. One of the details that is said to be strange is that Joseph would have to travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem, because he belonged to the house and line of David. With David having such a large family there would be thousands of Jews at the time of Jesus that could trace their ancestry to King David. Would they all descend on Bethlehem? And why would the Romans want people to travel to the town of a distant ancestor? That doesn’t make sense! And indeed it doesn’t make sense to a modern American or Kiwi. But that is because our whole mindset is so different and our sense of belonging is very individualistic.

In contrast, for a Swiss person it would make eminent sense. Every Swiss person has a home town (it may be a city, town or village). This home town is in the passport, rather than the place of birth. The home town is inherited through the father. Until recently, the home town was responsible for any social services. So, if you were unemployed, you had to get social security from your home town. If you needed rest home care, you would go to the rest home of your home town (or the one they had contracted). People might never have lived in their home town, might never have set foot in it and done all their paperwork by post, and yet in their old age they were suddenly required to move there. They might not even speak the language that is spoken in their home town. After all Switzerland has four languages and having grown up in another area of Switzerland they might only be familiar with the language of their place of birth, not with the language of their home town. Swiss nationals that live overseas —sometimes for many generations—are still connected to Switzerland through their home town.

All that has changed in the last 50 years. Social security is now administered centrally and through the municipality people actually live in. However, Swiss people still know their home town.

To them Joseph having to travel to his home town would make perfect sense. After all, it is not all descendants of David that could claim Bethlehem as their home town, but rather only those who through their father’s line were part of the clan of Jesse and had a right to call Bethlehem their home, even though they may have lived somewhere else. Such a concept would have made eminent sense in the Judea of the first century. Some older scholars still discuss why the census was taken with the Jewish custom of family belonging, rather than the Roman system of residence. It must be remembered that Judea and Galilee were administered through the client king, Herod.

The Gospel of Luke therefore seems to recount actual practice, a practice that may seem strange to us today, but that clearly reflects the social world of ancient Judea. It is modern sceptics with their limited view of the world that cannot understand a world different from their own.