Even the most critical of scholars hold that this particular taxation, which the Bible indicates as occurring in 4 B.C., was conducted purely in the Jewish manner (Encyclopaedia Biblica, cols. 3994-3996). This is, then, a plain indication that the taxation was very near the 1st of Tishri...
(other than the sun) visible in the sky, star, single star, planet."4Foerster notes, "astēralmost always denotes a single "star," whereasastroncan also be used for a "constellation."5The phrase "in the east" (NIV, KJV,anatolē) in verses 2 and 9 may well carry the meaning "at ...