Why does Luke say the census was during Quirinius’ governorship since Quirinius was not governor until A.D. 6?

PROBLEM: Luke states that the census decreed by Augustus was the first one taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. However, Quirinius did not become governor of Syria until after the death of Herod in about A.D.

6. Is this an error in Luke’s historical record?

SOLUTION: Luke has not made an error. There are reasonable solutions to this difficulty.

It is possible that Luke 2:2 reads, “This census took place before Quirinius was governing Syria.” In this case, the Greek word translated “first” (pr?tos) is translated as a comparative, “before.” Because of the awkward construction of the sentence, this is not an unlikely reading.

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