Virtual Nativity - The Census

“In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria.

All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child.”
Luke 2.1-5

Mary and Joseph are registering for the census before Governor Publius Sulpicius Quirinius and his officials. This scene is depicted in this Byzantine mosaic from 1315-21 located in the Kariye Camii or the Church of the Holy Saviour in Chora in Istanbul, Turkey. Originally built as a monastery in the fourth century, it became a mosque in the sixteenth century, a museum in 1948, and finally a mosque again in 2020.