Quirinus held a census in Judsea after the banish- ment of Archelaus (Joseph. Ant, xviii, 1, 1), which took place B.C. 6. This is what is meant by the iaaang (dvoypa^') in Acts v, 87. Hence it is evident that be cannot have held a census in Judsaa in the year of Christ's birth, as is said in Luke ii, 2, in the capacity of head of the province of Syria (the census, however, ^ing a general one throughout the empire, according
the emperor's command, v, 1). At that tame Q.
Sentins Satumfains (Tert adv. Metre, iv, 19>, ofvif Ji was bom after B.C. 6, P. QuintiUna Varuft, mnct k* been governor of Syria (Ideler, C%romoL ii, 394 s^; The interpreters have attempted varioos meihsAi reconciling the words of Luke, ** This •^'^^^^^g was is made when Cyrenius was governor of SyiiM,** lA ii, 2, witii the chronology of Josephus. (See Til Cur. i, 576 sq. ; Zom, Hittor. Ffaei Jmd, pw 91 14., Thiess, Krii, Comment, ii, 885 sq. ; Knindl, Ommk ii, 801 sq., whose references, however, are aat |» else; K. Kahmmacher, De Augusto ttr gt-mw tgm, Helmst. 1758, U, 4 ; Buschke, Ueb. d, rur Zat ier fr hwn, J. Ckr, gehidt. Cent, Bresl. 1840 ; YTheeela, Cbm. S^nopte, p. Ill sq.). Apart from theae, wbo <m tk knot by pronouncing the passage an intecpolatkB \m Beza in his first three eds., Pfafr,Veneina, Kiiifi^Ci> hausen, and others), we notice the ibUowing:
1. Some suppose that Tpwit^Jirtt, stands for rptM former (comp. John i, 15, rrpitroc /««/, b^'Jore me).sK that the genitive tfyifiovtvovroc Kvptf^itw is gofffnd by the comparative ; rendering, CAir eemgms toot pm he/ore Quirimui wa» governor of Syria, (So J. G.Ea- wart, Admir, Ethnic, Theol. Myai^r, jnvpaL Jfoesd 1626, p. 188 ; Petavins, Byn&us, Clericus, J. Pen» nins, Ik August, Orbi$ Temzr, Descrip,^ in his Lupk de Prator. p. 908 sq. ; 2^1tner, Hemnsnn, Dt Cas Anl^r, 1782, and in his Dissert, J^fUoge^ i, 763 1%: Korisius, Cenotaph, Pisan. ii, 16; Storr, Opusc. Aai iii,126 sq. ; S&ekhdd, Verm, Au/sdtse^ p. 63 ; Mkte^ Ueber d. Gefmrts-und Sterbejahr Christie i, 59 sq. : Bo- luck, Glaubwftrd. p. 182 sq., and others). But tia would be strange Greek, even if irporipa stood m At passage (comp. Fritzsche on Rom. ii, 421 sq., vfaoi also the passage of the Sept. Jer. xzix, 2, cocspsn^ by Tholuck, is settled); and the possibility oi-wnaa^ vptiini for it is not established by the lefetcoot ti John, and certainly such a use wtiiild be eepedalh avoided where, as here, every reader must natcnSr understand the passage as the Auth. Vers, renden i More recently, Hnschke, ut, sup, p. 89; Wiesekr,ir stq), 117 sq., and an anonymous writer in Bheinvilf« Rqterior. xxxvi, 105, have discovered that Lake fo- posely places the superlative before the genithi ti express this meaning: this cesums cu the first (I a of all Roman censuses) before QtftrMms becawse goserm; and that there is here an abbreviated expres»oa,M a usual with the comparative degree, which they voaU fill out thus: trpd r^c tlvoypa^^ y^votUvnz trrtp- vtvovTOQ K. T, X. Surely no one acquainted with LBke% style could suppose him to have writtsn such jstgou, and expressed Uiis complicated idea with words vhici on their face mean something very difiRerent. Thb » the result of considering a language only in the V^ of one's study, not in that of living intercourse.
2. Several have tried conjectural emendation (ceafi Bowyer, Critical Conjed, ontheN,T.i, 117 aq,). Bo- mann gives as anoUier's suggestion Kpovior, csnt> spending to the Latin Satuminns. Whiston, Prim,X T, (Lond. 1745), reads avny tf atroyp. irp. ZorfonW, dtvripa Si iyivtTO ^yt/i. rijc Swp. Kwp., L e. TkitJkJt census took place vhenSaturnmus was governor of sjpn. and a second under Qdrinms, But the last daose hsi no pertinence here. L. Cappellua and HoetiiH, De- monstr, Evang, p. 781, put KvcvriXiov, Quintiiius, or I OuapoUf Q, Varus, instead of Quirinus. Q. Vans S8f> ceeded Satdminus B.C. 6 (see Josephna, Ant, xrn, ^ 2; Tacitirts£.v,9). MichaeUs, £Mi2n^. Ins JV. 7*. i, a would read wpb rrj^ after irpi^n; (L e. before that umip Qtnrmsi, etc.), which might easily have dropped set (comp. R. Roullier, Dissert, Sacr, Amst. 1750, No. I). H.Venema, Sekcttt e Sehclis Valck, i, 70, thought dvf Tf dwoyp, trpmTi. 17 /3 (i. e. SnrrBpa} iyivtro ifji^ etc., L e. This was the first census; but the second tstk place when Quirinus^ etc. But again tibe second cUav is out of place. Yalesius (ad Euseb. E,E,i^S) voaU at once write Satuminus for Quirinus. All Fadi changes of the text, especially in the fiice of the na>
CYEENIUS
631
CTRENIUS
mity of nuumscripto and venionB (see Griesbach in 2jy, is uncritical and forced.
8. Rejecting all these methods of reconciliation, some (re suppose a mistake or misrecollection on Lake's irt (Ammon, BibL Theolog, ii, 271 ; Camtn. de Cetuu vir, Brlangen, ISIO; Leben Jesu, i, 201 sq. ; Thiess, rit. Comm, ii, 885 ; Strauss, LOen Jemt^ p. 262 sq. ; ''eisse, Ewmgel, Ge$chichte, i, 204 sq.), it being, at te time of writing;, many years since the occurrence. > l^iner, who still holds the census as a &ct, and links Qoirinus may have conducted it (Neander, Le- tn ^esUy p. 25 ; Meyer on Luke, ii, 2), the only error sins ^ naming him governor of Syria (comp. AUe$ ui MeueM, 1727, p. 120). Certainly it is not to be sup. >se^ that Luke liere refers to the above-mentioned ansus of Qnirinus (Acts v, 87), and misdates it thus, >r the mention of it in Acts shows that he was well cqoainted with it ; and even in ii, 2, the word Jbrtt eems to imply the other. — Winer, ii, 292.