The Apostolic Age · AD 4–70 · External witness
Quirinius (Cyrenius)
c. 51 BC – AD 21 · Legate of Syria · Named by Luke for the census · Antioch, Syria
External witness
Who Quirinius (Cyrenius) was
Publius Sulpicius Quirinius, consul in 12 BC, legate of Syria, and the man Luke names to date the census of the Nativity: **“this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.”**
**This one verse carries the most-argued chronological difficulty in the Gospels, and the archive sets out the problem and the proposed answers rather than resolving it by assertion.**
The difficulty. Matthew and Luke both place the birth in the reign of Herod the Great, who died in the spring of 4 BC. Josephus places Quirinius’s legateship of Syria and his census of Judaea in **AD 6**, after the deposition of Archelaus — about ten years later. Emil Schürer, no enemy of Luke, wrote that the juxtaposition “has caused the greatest difficulties even to the defenders of Luke.”
**Luke evidently knows the AD 6 census.** In Acts 5:37 he has Gamaliel refer to “the days of the taxing” and the rising of Judas of Galilee — which is that census and that revolt. So he is not ignorant of it; the question is whether he is distinguishing an earlier enrolment from it or has conflated the two.
The proposed resolutions, none adopted here. **First**, that the sentence has been mistranslated: πρῶτος need not mean “first” in the sense of first-of-a-series, and on N. T. Wright’s reading Luke 2:2 can be rendered “this enrolment was **before** the one when Quirinius was governor” — in which case Luke is expressly separating the two. **Second**, that Quirinius held authority in Syria on two occasions, or held some earlier commission there alongside the legate; A. N. Sherwin-White observed that Quirinius “was the first of the Jewish bugbears of the empire period” and so was exactly the man whose census a writer would need to distinguish an earlier one from. **Third**, that Luke is simply in error on the governor, or has used the census as a device to bring Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem.
**One argument often made for the second resolution does not hold**, and the archive says so: the *Lapis Tiburtinus*, the Tivoli inscription recording a man twice honoured in Syria, **cannot be securely assigned to Quirinius**, and Varus is independently attested as legate at the time of Herod’s death. An argument that rests on that stone rests on sand.
The archive holds Luke’s statement as the text gives it, records that it is difficult, and names the ways the difficulty has been met.
Also listed in non-christian witnesses.
Common questions
When did Quirinius live?
Quirinius (Cyrenius) is dated c. 51 BC – AD 21 in the archive, which places Quirinius in the Apostolic Age (AD 4–70). The dating is traditional and approximate; the archive marks it as uncertain rather than fixing a year the sources do not give.
Which early sources mention Quirinius?
Quirinius (Cyrenius) is named in 3 primary-source passages catalogued here, drawn from Luke and Flavius Josephus. Every passage is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.
Where was Quirinius from?
The archive associates Quirinius (Cyrenius) with Antioch, Syria. The sources record more than one location, so the places are listed in the order the record moves through them.
Who were Quirinius’ contemporaries?
The archive links Quirinius (Cyrenius) to 4 other figures, including Caesar Augustus, Herod the Great, Flavius Josephus and Herod Archelaus. Each connection is drawn from a source that places them together, not from inference.
Scripture record
Primary-source mentions (3)
Every passage below is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.
Acts 5:37
c. AD 33After this man rose up Judas of Galilee in the days of the taxing, and drew away much people after him: he also perished; and all, even as many as obeyed him, were dispersed.Luke · read ↗
Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews XVIII
c. AD 94[Josephus places Quirinius’s arrival in Syria, and his assessment of Judaea, after the deposition of Archelaus — in AD 6, some ten years after Herod’s death — and connects it with the rising of Judas the Galilean, the same revolt Luke’s Gamaliel names at Acts 5:37. This is the account that creates the difficulty with Luke 2:2, and it is set out on the profile with the proposed resolutions.]Flavius Josephus · Antiquities XVIII.i–ii · source text
Josephus, *Antiquities of the Jews* — held in this library. English: William Whiston (1737), public domain.
Names proposed by later tradition
Quirinius held authority in Syria twice
The commonest harmonisation: that Quirinius governed or held commission in Syria on an earlier occasion, so that Luke’s census and Josephus’s are two events. Note that the Lapis Tiburtinus, often cited for it, cannot be securely assigned to Quirinius, and Varus is independently attested as legate when Herod died.
Luke 2:2 means “before” the census of Quirinius
That πρῶτος here is comparative rather than ordinal, so Luke is distinguishing his enrolment from the famous later one — N. T. Wright’s proposal. Consistent with Luke’s evident knowledge of the AD 6 census at Acts 5:37.
Connected in the archive
People
Place
Places served
The 2 places the sources put Quirinius, in the order the record moves through them. This is what the sources attest, not a reconstructed route.