First Census and Quirinius
Astronomical records show that there were conjunctions of Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars in the years 7-6 BC. In 7 BC, the world saw a triple conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in an event occurring only once every 125 years. Then early in 6 BC, Jupiter and Saturn grouped close to the planet Mars, a configuration repeated only once every 805 years. Later in the spring of 6 BC Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn also formed an unusually close grouping. Ancient astrologers believed that the area of the sky named Pisces where these conjunctions occurred contained signs pertinent to the Hebrew nation, so it is possible that the "Magi", blending a knowledge of Old Testament prophecies about a Messiah with heavenly observations (Numbers 24.17), were led to seek the predicted king in the Land of Israel.
Luke 2:1-2 is the particular biblical text in question here: “In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.)”
Luke was a very reliable historian, proven trustworthy over and over again. (And in Acts 5 Luke shows that he was well aware of the census under Quirinius in 6 A.D., which makes it very doubtful that he would have been confused about the census he describes in Luke 2.)
Similar census events were occurring even at this time in other Roman provinces (e.g., Egypt 10/9 BC).
We do have one problem in the nativity account, and that is Luke 2:2, ‘when Quirinius was governor of Syria.’ …[The objection is that] Quirinius took a census in 6 A.D. rather than at the time of Christ [about 5-7 B.C.], and critics say Luke made a bad error here. However, we’re not sure that he did. It could be a translation problem. The first reading ideally would be that “this was the first census when Quirinius was governor of Syria,” in which case we’re ten years off. However, the word protos in Greek can also be translated as follows: This was before that census taken by Quirinius that everyone knew about. That’s one translation. The one I prefer is “This census was first completed when Quirinius was governor of Syria.” A census did take ten years in ancient times. The Romans took 40 years to get a census done in Gaul. For a province 1500 miles away from Rome in Palestine to take a decade is pretty quick. And since that census would finally come in under Quirinius’ administration, it would be called correctly by Luke his census. Later on in the Book of Acts (5:37), also by Luke, he mentions the uprising that took place when Quirinius took the census. So he knows what he’s talking about. And so I think it’s a translation problem instead. [Bible Answer Man broadcast, 12 November 1999. For yet another perspective see Paul Barnett, Jesus and the Rise of Early Christianity: A History of New Testament Times (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999), 97-99.]
I prefer this solution instead just because it is hard to get my head around a census taking 10 years to complete.
