SEV Biblia, Chapter 2:2
Este empadronamiento primero fue hecho siendo Cirenio gobernador de Siria.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Luke 2:2
Verse 2. This taxing was first made when Cyrenius, &c.] The next difficulty in this text is found in this verse, which may be translated, Now this first enrolment was made when Quirinus was governor of Syria. It is easily proved, and has been proved often, that Caius Sulpicius Quirinus, the person mentioned in the text, was not governor of Syria, till ten or twelve years after the birth of our Lord.
St. Matthew says that our Lord was born in the reign of Herod, ver. 1, at which time Quintilius Varus was president of Syria, (Joseph. Ant. book xvii. c. 5, sect. 2,) who was preceded in that office by Sentius Saturninus.
Cyrenius, or Quirinus, was not sent into Syria till Archelaus was removed from the government of Judea; and Archelaus had reigned there between nine and ten years after the death of Herod; so that it is impossible that the census mentioned by the evangelist could have been made in the presidency of Quirinus.
Several learned men have produced solutions of this difficulty; and, indeed, there are various ways of solving it, which may be seen at length in Lardner, vol. i. p. 248- 329. One or other of the two following appears to me to be the true meaning of the text.
1. When Augustus published this decree, it is supposed that Quirinus, who was a very active man, and a person in whom the emperor confided, was sent into Syria and Judea with extraordinary powers, to make the census here mentioned; though, at that time, he was not governor of Syria, for Quintilius Varus was then president; and that when he came, ten or twelve years after, into the presidency of Syria, there was another census made, to both of which St. Luke alludes, when he says, This was the first assessment of Cyrenius, governor of Syria; for so Dr. Lardner translates the words. The passage, thus translated, does not say that this assessment was made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria, which would not have been the truth, but that this was the first assessment which Cyrenius, who was (i.e. afterwards) governor of Syria, made; for after he became governor, he made a second. Lardner defends this opinion in a very satisfactory and masterly manner. See vol. i. p. 317. &c.
2. The second way of solving this difficulty is by translating the words thus: This enrolment was made BEFORE Cyrenius was governor of Syria; or, before that of Cyrenius. This sense the word prwtov appears to have, John i. x20: oti protov mou hn, for he was BEFORE me. John xv. 18: The world hated me BEFORE (proton) it hated you. See also 2 Sam. xix. 43.
Instead of prwth, some critics read pro thv, This enrolment was made BEFORE THAT of Cyrenius. Michaelis; and some other eminent and learned men, have been of this opinion: but their conjecture is not supported by any MS. yet discovered; nor, indeed, is there any occasion for it. As the words in the evangelist are very ambiguous, the second solution appears to me to be the best.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 2. And this taxing was first made , etc.] Or this was the first enrolment, or taxing in the Jewish nation; for there was another afterwards, when Judas the Galilean arose, and drew many after him, ( Acts 5:38). When Cyrenius was governor of Syria ; or of Cyrenius governor of Syria; that is, it was the first that he was, concerned in; who not now, but afterwards was governor of Syria; and because he had been so before Luke wrote this history, and this being a title of honour, and what might distinguish him from others of that name, it is given him; for as Tertullian says f99 , Sentius Saturninus was now governor of Syria, when Cyrenius was sent into Judea, to make this register, or taxing; and which is manifestly distinguished from that, which was made during his being governor of Syria, when Archelaus was banished from Judea, ten or eleven years after Herod's death; which Josephus gives an account of, and Luke refers to, in ( Acts 5:37). Moreover, the words will bear to be rendered thus, and this tax, or enrolment, was made before Cyrenius was governor of Syria; prwth , being used for protera , as in ( John 1:15,30). This Cyrenius is the same whom the Romans call Quirinius, and Quirinus; a governor of Syria had great power in Judea, to which it was annexed, when Cyrenius was governor there. It is reported of R. Gamaliel, that he went to take a licence, ayrwsb wmghm , from a governor of Syria f101 ; i.e. to intercalate the year: and Syria was in many things like to the land of Judea, particularly as to tithes, and the keeping of the seventh year f102 .
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 1-7 - The fulness of time was now come, when God would send forth his Son made of a woman, and made under the law. The circumstances of his birt were very mean. Christ was born at an inn; he came into the world to sojourn here for awhile, as at an inn, and to teach us to do likewise We are become by sin like an outcast infant, helpless and forlorn; an such a one was Christ. He well knew how unwilling we are to be meanl lodged, clothed, or fed; how we desire to have our children decorate and indulged; how apt the poor are to envy the rich, and how prone the rich to disdain the poor. But when we by faith view the Son of God being made man and lying in a manger, our vanity, ambition, and env are checked. We cannot, with this object rightly before us, seek grea things for ourselves or our children.
Greek Textus Receptus
αυτη 3778 D-NSF η 3588 T-NSF απογραφη 582 N-NSF πρωτη 4413 A-NSF εγενετο 1096 5633 V-2ADI-3S ηγεμονευοντος 2230 5723 V-PAP-GSM της 3588 T-GSF συριας 4947 N-GSF κυρηνιου 2958 N-GSM
Vincent's NT Word Studies
2. And this taxing was first made (auth h apografh prwth egeneto). Rather, this occurred as the first enrolment; or, as Rev., this was the first enrolment made; with reference to a second enrolment which took place about eleven years later, and is referred to in Acts v. 37.
Robertson's NT Word Studies
2:2 {The first enrolment} (apografe prwte). A definite allusion by Luke to a series of censuses instituted by Augustus, the second of which is mentioned by him in #Ac 5:37. this second one is described by Josephus and it was supposed by some that Luke confused the two. But Ramsay has shown that a periodical fourteen-year census in Egypt is given in dated papyri back to A.D. 20. The one in #Ac 5:37 would qen be A.D. 6. this is in the time of Augustus. The first would qen be B.C. 8 in Egypt. If it was delayed a couple of years in Palestine by Herod the Great for obvious reasons, that would make the birth of Christ about B.C. 6 which agrees with the other known data {When Quirinius} (kureniou). Genitive absolute. Here again Luke has been attacked on the ground that Quirinius was only governor of Syria once and that was A.D. 6 as shown by Josephus (_Ant_. XVIII. I.I). But Ramsay has proven by inscriptions that Quirinius was twice in Syria and that Luke is correct here also. See summary of the facts in my _Luke the Historian in the Light of Research_, pp. 118-29.
