QUIRINIUS (Κυρίνας, Κυρήνας), Publius Sulpicius. - Imperial legate in Syria in the time of Augustus, known also for Lk. 2:2: «this census (ordered by Augustus) [which was the] first, took place while Q. was governing Syria», from a modest family of Lanuvium, d. in Rome in 21 A.D.
His military qualities (Tacitus, Ann., III, 48), chiefly, opened the way for him to the consulate in 742 of Rome (= 12 B.C.). Strabo (XII, 6, 3) recalls him when speaking of King Amyntas of Galatia, killed by the Homonadenses, later subdued by Q., who obtained for this the triumphal ornaments (Tacitus, loc. cit.). Flavius Josephus (Antiq. Iud.,
XIII, 13, 5; XVIII, 1, 1; [2, 1; Bell. Ind., II, 8, 1) specifies that Q. was legate in Syria after the deposition of Archelaus, from 6 to 12 A.D.; and that he held a census 37 years after the battle of Actium, that is, in 759 of Rome (= 6 A.D.).
Q. is connected with the Gospel chronology by reason of the census mentioned by St. Luke (2:2), as the date of the birth of Jesus. But this synchronistic indication says little, because of the uncertainty surrounding the circumstances of the census; to such a degree that it is rather from the approximate data concerning the birth of Christ that one starts in order to establish the date of the census. In fact the legateship during which Q. held the census of Palestine (cf. Acts 5:37) is too late (6 A.D.), since Jesus was indisputably born some years before the death of Herod the Great (750 of Rome).
This does not mean that the historical value of the notice transmitted by Lk. 2:2 can be denied. A census of the whole Empire, including the confederate or allied Kingdoms, is in fact very probable: to compile the Breviarium or Rationarium Imperii, Augustus certainly needed, besides the censuses of Roman citizens carried out in the years 726, 746 and 767, other operations of the same kind; and censuses carried out in Gaul, Spain and Egypt are positively attested. Nor does the fact that Jewish customs were followed (Lk. 2:3) in a census imposed by the Romans create any serious difficulty; nor that such a census was conducted in the Kingdom of Herod the Great, since there are other examples of censuses carried out in the territory of allied kings; all the more so since Herod, in the last years of his reign, no longer enjoyed the confidence of Augustus. The only question at issue here is whether there can be attributed to Q., in his capacity as legate of Syria, a census which, in order not to conflict with the certain data of the chronology of the life of Jesus, must have taken place before 749 B.C.
It seems one must suppose that Q. had, at that time, authority over Syria only by reason of the war against the Homonadenses, which gave him the right to levy soldiers from that province. This would have been the aim of the census actually carried out by Sentius Saturninus, as Tertullian explicitly affirms (Adv. Marc., IV, 19), but on the commission of Q. The fact of a twofold authority in the province (civil government and military government) is not unique; and it is very probable in the present case, given that the campaign against the Homonadenses would have absorbed the legate's activity for a long time, preventing him from concerning himself with the province. In this way one also avoids supposing for Q. a fact more unique than rare: the assignment of a province twice to the same governor by the same prince.
In conclusion: the edict of Augustus for a census of the whole world would be nothing other than the will manifested by him on various occasions, to register all the subjects, all the forces and all the goods of the Empire and of the «allied» kingdoms, or, also, the order on the part of a representative of the imperial power. Q. would be named by Lk. 2:2 by reason of the special power with which he was invested, whereby the legate propraetor of Syria, probably Sentius Saturninus, did nothing other than carry out his will.
Bibliography8 works
Teodorico da Castel San Pietro