Luke 2:1 - Plain English Version

^1-3 About the time that John was born, the biggest boss over all those countries was called Augustus. He sent a message to everyone in every country. He said, “The government bosses in every town have to write down everyone’s name on a big list, and make them pay tax money.” So everyone had to go back to their home town and put their names on the list there. (At that time a man called Quirinius was the government boss over Syria country.)

More versions

King James Version (Oxford) 1769

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

Amplified Bible - Classic Edition

¹ IN THOSE days it occurred that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole Roman empire should be registered.

American Standard Version (1901)

¹ Now it came to pass in those days, there went out a decree from Cæsar Augustus, that all the world should be enrolled.

Common English Bible

¹ In those days Caesar Augustus declared that everyone throughout the empire should be enrolled in the tax lists.

Catholic Public Domain Version

¹ And it happened in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, so that the whole world would be enrolled.

Luke 2:1 Cross References

Mark 14:9

Listen. People will go everywhere in the world to tell people God’s story, and they will remember this woman and they will tell people about her too, and about the good thing she did today.”

Mark 16:15

After that, Jesus said to his followers, “You have to go out to everywhere in the world and tell everybody the good news about me.

Luke 2:5

Joseph took Mary with him. She was his promised wife, and she was carrying a baby inside her at that time.

Acts 11:28

One of those men was Agabus. He stood up in a meeting, and the Holy Spirit told him a message to tell everybody. He said, “There is going to be a very hard time for all the people everywhere. There will be no food to eat anywhere.” (And that really happened later, when Claudius was the biggest Roman boss.)

Acts 25:11

If I did something bad so that your law says you have to kill me, I will let you kill me. But I didn’t do anything bad like that. So nobody can give me to this mob and let them kill me. No. Instead of that, I want you to send me to Caesar, the biggest Roman boss. Then he can judge me in his big city, Rome.”

Acts 25:21

But Paul said, ‘No, I don’t want to go to Jerusalem. I want Caesar to judge me, that biggest boss in Rome.’ So I told my soldiers to guard Paul here, until I can send him to Caesar.”

Romans 1:8

The first thing I want to do is to say thank you to my God. I can talk to God and say thank you because Jesus Christ made us God’s friends. I thank God for all of you Christian mob there. You really believe in Jesus now, and people everywhere in the world are talking about how you really trust in Jesus.

Philippians 4:22

All of God’s people say hello to you. There are some Christians here that live in the house that belongs to the really big government boss, and they say a special hello to you.