Or Publius Sulpitius QUIRINUS, according to his Latin appellation, governor of Syria, Lu 2:2. According to history, Quirinus was not properly governor of Syria till some years after this date; and the only census of that time mentioned by secular historians took place when Christ was eight or ten years old. The passage in Luke may be translated, "This enrolment took place first under Cyrenius governor of Syria." Compare Ac 5:37.

the Grecized form of Quirinus. His full name was Publius Sulpicius Quirinus. Recent historical investigation has proved that Quirinus was governor of Cilicia, which was annexed to Syria at the time of our Lord's birth. Cilicia, which he ruled, being a province of Syria, he is called the governor, which he was de jure, of Syria. Some ten years afterwards he was appointed governor of Syria for the second time. During his tenure of office, at the time of our Lord's birth (Lu 2:2), a "taxing" (R.V., "enrolment;" i.e., a registration) of the people was "first made;" i.e., was made for the first time under his government. (See Taxing.)

(See CENSUS .) Publius Sulpicius Quirinus (not Quirinius). Consul 12 B.C., made governor of Syria after Archelaus' banishment, A.D. 6 (Josephus, Ant. 17:13, section 5). He was directed to make a census or "enrollment" of property (Lu 2:2, apografee) in Syria and Judaea. Varus was governor up to the end of 4 B.C. Volusius Saturninus was governor (we know from an Antioch coin) A.D. 4 or 5. In the interval between Varus' governorship ending 4 B.C. and Volus. Saturninus' government A.D. 4 falls the census (Lu 2:2). Quirinus, as having been consul 12 B.C., must have had a proconsular province subsequently.

A. W. Zumpt shows by an exhaustive reasoning that Cilicia was the only province that could have been his, and that Syria was at this time attached to Cilicia. Quirinus was rector or adviser to Caius Caesar when holding Armenia (Tacitus, Ann. 3:48). This cannot have been during Quirinus' governorship of Syria in 6 B.C., for Caius Caesar died A.D. 4, and the nearness of Syria to Armenia was probably a reason for choosing Qurinus, Syria's governor, to be the young prince's adviser. He must then have had a first governorship, 4 B.C. to 1 B.C., when he was succeeded by M. Lollius. Probably in Lu 2:2 the "first" implies that "the first enrollment" or registration of persons and families was in Quirinus' first government; intimating indirectly that there was a second enrollment which carried into effect the taxation ultimately contemplated by the previous enrollment.

The second enrollment we know from Josephus (Ant. 18:1) was to ascertain the resources. Cyrenius is called therefore an "appraiser" of these. Tacitus (Annals 3:48) records that the emperor Tiberius asked for Qairinus the honor of a public funeral from the senate. He represents him as unpopular because of his meanness and undue power in old age. It was during his first governorship of Cilicia and Syria that he conquered the Homonadenses of Cilicia, and obtained the insignia of a triumph. A breviarium of the empire was ordered by Augustus (Tacitus, Annals 1:11), giving a return of its population and resources. The enrollment in Lu 2:1-2 perhaps was connected with this, "all the world" meaning the whole Roman empire.

Cyre'nius

The same that is called by the Romans 'Quirinus.' He was governor of Syria in A.D. 6, and then carried out a taxing, which is probably alluded to in Ac 5:37. This for a long time created a difficulty as to the 'taxing' by Cyrenius being made when the Lord was born, B.C. 4; but Prof. A. W. Zumpt of Berlin has stated with apparently good authority that Cyrenius was twice governor of Syria: the first time from B.C. 4 to B.C. 1, which agrees well with Lu 2:2. The 'taxing' at that time may have been merely a census of the population and their property; and on his second governorship the census may have been for taxation, which, being always hateful to the Jews, probably led to the insurrection in Acts 5.

Cyre'nius

(warrior), the Greek form of the Roman name of Quirinus. The full name is Publius Sulpicius Quirinus. He was consul B.C. 12, and was made governor of Syria after the banishment of Archelaus in A.D. 6. He probably was twice governor of Syria; his first governorship extended from B.C. 4 (the year of Christ's birth) to B.C. 1. It was during this time that he was sent to make the enrollment which caused Joseph and Mary to visit Bethlehem.

Lu 2:2

The second enrollment is mentioned in

Ac 5:37

CYRENIUS, governor of Syria, Lu 2:1-2. Great difficulties have been raised on the history of the taxing under Cyrenius, for the different solutions of which we must refer to the commentators.

It may be observed on the passage in Lu 2:1-2, That the word ?????????, rendered all the world, sometimes signifies the whole of a country, region, or district, as perhaps