CYRENIUS (Kopinos, or, according to his Latin appellation, P. SULPITIUS QUIRINIUS), go vernor of Syria (Luke ii. r, 2). The mention 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 satisfactory solution. The pas sage is as follows :—airs)i) chrrrypa0)71-pcbrn 4-yevcro inEuopebouros rrye Esplas Kupplov, translated in the A. V. 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 ` enrolment, or `registration' (of which use of the word cirowdOecOac many examples are ad duced by Wetstein), as it is clear 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 enrolment 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 s. That there is no historical notice of any enrol ment at or near the time of our Lord's birth ; and 2. That the enrolment which actually did take place under Cyrenius was not until ten years after that event.
The difficulty begins somewhat before the text now cited ; for it is said that ` in those days there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be taxed' (enrolled). But since no historian mentions any such general enrol ment 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 Judaea only is meant by the phrase rendered ` the whole earth' (but more pro perly ` the whole land '), as in Luke xxi. 26 ; Acts xi. 23 ; and perhaps in xxi. 20. The real diffi culties are thus reduced to the two now stated. With regard to the enrolment, 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 unimpor tant province. Nor was it, perhaps, of such a
nature as would lead even Josephus to take notice of it, if it should appear, as usually supposed, that no trace of it can be found in his writings.
Of the remaining difficulties various solutions have been offered, and some, despairing of any satisfactory solution, have supposed the verse in question to have been a marginal gloss which has crept into the text, while others have even ventured to suggest that St. Luke must have been mistaken. The following explanations are, however, those which are the most generally received : I. Assuming, on the authority of Luke, that an en rolment actually did take place at the time of our Lord's birth, the 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 Satuminus as the procurator of that pro vince, and the two, Satuminus and Volumnius, are repeatedly spoken of together by Josephus, who styles them equally governors of Syria (..-intig. xvi.
9, s ; xvi. so, 8). Josephus does not mention the recall of Volumnius, but there is certainly a possi bility that this had taken place before the birth of Christ, and that Cyrenius, who had already distin guished himself, had been sent in his place. He would then have been under Saturninus, a iryctufm, governor' of Syria, just as Volumnius had been before, and as Pilate was afterwards of Judaea. 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 after wards as procurator or chief governor, and then' held a second and more important census for the purpose of registration and taxation, when Arche laus was deposed, and Judaea annexed to the Roman province of Syria. The only real objection to this solution is the silence of all other history.