CYRENTIIS (sy'-re'n't-us), (Gr. livphvtos, or, according to his Latin appellation, P. SULPITIUS QUIRINIUS), governor of Syria (Luke ii:1, 2).
(1) Difficulties Regarding Census. The men tion of his name in connection with the census which was in progress at the time of our Lord's birth, presents very serious difficulties, of which, from the want of adequate data. historical and critical inquiry has not yet attained a satisfac tory solution. The passage is as follows: cart, dirowaoil Tpdrrn ing.Lopokirros oplas Kupplou, translated in the Authorized Version thus: ' Now this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.' Instead of 'taxing' it is now agreed that the rendering should be 'enrollment.' or 'registration' (of which use of the word circrypciOccrOat many examples are ad duced by \Vetstein). as it appears from Josephus that no taxing did take place till many years after this period. The whole passage, as it now stands, may be properly read. 'This enrollment was the first while Cyrenius was governor of Syria.
This appears very plain, and would suggest no difficulty, were it not for the knowledge which we obtain from other quarters, which is to the effect, (t) that there is no historical notice of any en rollment at or near the time of our Lord's birth; and (2) that the enrollment which actually did take place under Cyrenius was not until ten years after that event. Since no historian mentions any such general enrollment of the whole empire, and since, if it had taken place, it is not likely to have been mentioned in connection with the governor of Syria, it is now usually admitted that Judea only is meant by the phrase rendered 'the whole earth' (but more properly 'the whole land'), as in Luke xxi :26; Acts xi: 2S; and per haps in xxi:zo. The real difficulties are thus re duced to the two now stated. With regard to the enrollment, it may be said that it was probably not deemed of sufficient importance by the Roman historians to deserve mention, being confined to a remote and comparatively unimportant province.
Many attempts have been made to remove these difficulties. Assuming, on the authority of Luke, that an enrollment, actually did take place at the time of our Lord's birth, one hypothesis proceeds to make out a probability that Cyrenius was then joint-governor of Syria along with Saturninus. It is known that a few years previous to this date, Volumnius had been joined with Saturninus as the procurator of that province; and the two Sat urninus and Volumnius, are repeatedly spoken of together by Josephus, who styles them equally governors of Syria (Antiq. xvi ; xvi :9, 8) Josephus does not mention the recall of Volum nius; hut there is certainly a possibility that this had taken place before the birth of Christ, and that Cyrenius, who had already distinguished him self, had been sent in his place. He would then have been under Saturninus, a 'gov ernor.' of Syria. just as Volumnius had been be fore, and as Pilate was afterwards, of Judea. That he should here be mentioned as such by Luke, rather than Saturninus. is very naturally accounted for by the fact, that he returned, ten years afterwards, as procurator or chief gov ernor.
(2) Another Explanation. Another explana tion would read the passage thus:—'This enroll ment was made before Cyrenius was governor of Syria.' The advocates of this view suppose that Luke inserted this verse as a sort of parenthesis, to prevent his readers from confounding this en rollment with the subsequent census made by Cyrenius.
Another mode of getting over the difficulty is sanctioned by the names of Calvin, Valesius, Wetstein, Ilales, and others. They translate the words as follows, 'In those days there went forth a decree from Augustus, that the whole land should be enrolled ; but the enrollment itself was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.' The supposition here is. that the census was com menced under Saturninus, but was not completed till two years after, under Quirinus.