Luke 2:2

‘This was the first enrolment made when Quirinius was a responsible official of Syria.’

The presence of Rome is further underlined by pointing to an authority nearer to home. The enrolment was carried out by Quirinius, the emperor’s authorised official in Syria. An enrolment in 3 BC would tie in with the fact that Quirinius, who was governor of Syria at the time of the census in 6 AD, is also evidenced as having had some kind of civil authority there around 3 BC. He also performed military functions in Syria between 10 and 7 BC, which would tie in with a census around that time. Indeed he appears to have been involved in Syria’s affairs over a good long period with authority from Caesar. So from that point of view any date is possible. It also explains why this is called his ‘first’ enrolment, with the one in 6 AD being his second. The fact that there is a first, followed later by a second emphasises Rome’s continual control. Note how Luke by parallelism connects his ‘first’ enrolment with Joseph and Mary’s ‘firstborn’ son. One is a first act by a dominant authority demonstrating the subjection of Palestine, the other is the first act of God in the deliverance of His true people. As Rome begins more to exert its control, so does God act in order to deal with it.

The word used of Quirinius’ office means ‘responsible authorised official’ not strictly ‘governor’. He could therefore have been responsible for this census while another was in power as ‘governor’.