The next date that demands our attention is the taxing that brought Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem.
Now, there was a well-known census when Cyrenius was governor of Syria, about nine or ten years after this, and it has been thought that God caused the census to be ordered before the birth of Christ in order to bring Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem; but, that being accomplished, the census was deferred to the above-named period before it was actually carried out.
But this does not seem to meet the difficulty. Because, 1. God, of course, could easily have brought Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem (as He took them to Egypt), without this census, if it was not then to be carried out.
2. It seems to have been to some extent actually carried out at the time. The narrative proceeds, “And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David” (Luke 2:3-53And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. 4And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) 5To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. (Luke 2:3‑5)). And if it was to any extent carried out at the time, how could it be said to have been first carried out several years after?
3. This was most probably not really a taxing, but a census or enrollment, as it is called in the margin of our Bibles; whereas the well-known one afterward was a taxing, and is doubtless referred to in Acts 5:3737After this man rose up Judas of Galilee in the days of the taxing, and drew away much people after him: he also perished; and all, even as many as obeyed him, were dispersed. (Acts 5:37). Josephus says (Ant. xviii. 1, 1), “Cyrenius was charged with the business of taxing the people, and likewise directed to seize on the money and effects that had belonged to Archelaus. At first, the Jews were extremely uneasy at this mode of taxation, but they were at length induced to submit to it... About this time one Judas, a Gaulonite of the city of Gamala, began to distinguish himself. This man combined with a Pharisee named Sadducus, to entice the people to revolt. They urged that taxes were badges of slavery,” and so forth In Acts 5:3737After this man rose up Judas of Galilee in the days of the taxing, and drew away much people after him: he also perished; and all, even as many as obeyed him, were dispersed. (Acts 5:37), we read, “After this man rose up Judas of Galilee, in the days of the taxing, and drew away much people after him.”
These evidently refer to one and the same event, and clearly mark out that it was an actual taxation in this latter case. The word in the Greek for “tax” is the same in Luke as in Acts, and was used for ‘registering’ both persons and property. But a mere enrollment is not likely to have caused a revolt, whereas Josephus explains that the Jews resisted the actual taxing, and that Judas chose this time of disquietude to revolt. While on the other hand a taxing, one would think, would not have caused each person to repair to his own city, as the enrollment in Luke did: though this was perhaps only a Jewish mode of carrying out the Roman edict: they still clung to “house and lineage.” So that the two events appear to be altogether distinct and disconnected.
It seems far better to suppose that Cyrenius was twice governor: once, at the birth of Christ, and the other, at the taxing mentioned in the Acts.
Zumpt believes that this was so, and that he has evidence of it. The key to it is from Tacitus, who narrates that Quirinus (the Cyrenius of Paul and Josephus), soon after his consulship, which he held from January to August, B.C. 12, gained the honor of a triumph for reducing the fortresses of the Homonadenses, a tribe of Cilicia.
Zumpt believes this points to Syria.
He places the date of the first governorship at 4 to 1 B.C. But this is merely conjectural, and it may have been earlier; indeed, if it was soon after B.C. 12 it was most probably before the date he gives.
It should also be remarked that Justin Martyr three times asserts that our Lord was born under Quirinus, and appeals to some register as proof of it.
It seems then most probable that Cyrenius was twice governor of Syria, and carried out two distinct registrations: the one, that which brought Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem; and the other, when Judas raised an insurrection. The date of the first is unknown.