Cyrenius

Cyrenius is the Greek form of the Roman name Publius Sulpicius Quirinius, a Roman senator and military commander who served as governor of Syria. He is mentioned in Luke 2:2 in connection with the census that brought Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem: This was the first enrolment made when Quirinius was governor of Syria. A well-documented census under Quirinius is dated to A.D. 6–7, which appears to be after Herod the Great's death, creating a chronological difficulty that has generated considerable scholarly discussion.

Proposed resolutions include the possibility of an earlier census or enrollment during a prior period of Quirinius's administrative influence in Syria, a translation of the Greek that reads the passage as before Quirinius was governor, or other interpretive approaches. Whatever the precise historical reconstruction, Luke's reference to Cyrenius is clearly intended to ground the birth of Jesus in datable Roman imperial history — the same purpose served by the synchronism with Caesar Augustus's decree and the subsequent dating to Tiberius's reign at the beginning of Jesus's ministry (Luke 3:1).