The Quirinius issue clarified : Luke 2: 1 - 2

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 2:1-2

1. Adam Clarke's commentary of the whole bible ( 2 solutions)

This taxing was first made when Cyrenius, etc. - 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, Luke 2:1, 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. etc.

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 πρωτος appears to have, John 1:30 : ὁτι πρωτος μου ην, for he was Before me. John 15:18: The world hated me Before (πρωτον) it hated you. See also 2 Samuel 19:43. Instead of πρωτη, some critics read προ της, 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.

2. People's New Testament (2 solutions)

2:2 This taxing was first made, etc. This statement has caused some difficulty. Luke seems to affirm that the enrollment took place the year Jesus was born, but while Cyrenius was governor of Syria. Now Cyrenius was governor of Syria from A.D. 6 to A.D. 11 There are two ways of settling the apparent difficulty: 

(1) Augustus Caesar, incensed at Herod, ordered an enrollment for taxation of the Jews the year of the birth of Jesus. It was carried out in all probability by Cyrenius. The intercession of Herod's minister, Nicolas, averted the displeasure of Augustus and the taxation did not take place until Cyrenius was governor of Syria, after Archelaus, son of Herod, was deposed. These facts we learn from Josephus, and they remove the apparent discrepancy.

 But (2) A. W. Zumpt, of Berlin, followed by Alford and Schaff, make it highly probable that Cyrenius was governor of Syria twice, the first time from B.C. 4 to B.C. 1 I have not space for the argument which seems conclusive. But in B.C. 4 Jesus was born. Ancient writers, Christians as well as pagan opposers, state that Jesus was born while Cyrenius was governor of Syria.

3. The New Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties AND Netbible.org

The greek work used to describe the post of Quirinius was  ἡγεμονεύοντος .  hayg-em-on-yoo'-o  which in english has the following meanings

1) to be leader, to lead the way 2) to rule, command 2a) of a province, to be governor of a province 2b) said of a proconsul, of a procurator

"The actual word used to describe a governor in the Roman empire is legatus. Even Pontius Pilate is called procurator but not legate . So Quirinius was not exactly the governor . He was a official under whom the census was conducted. "

"But we do know that Quirinius was involved in a systematic reduction of rebellious mountaineers in the highlands of Pisisdia and so he was a highly placed military figure in the middle east in the closing years of Herod the Great . In order to secure efficiency and  dispatch, it may well have been that Augustus put Quirinius in charge of the census -enrollment in the region of syria just at the transition period  between the close of saturninus's administration and the beginning of Varus's term of servicein 7 B.C" 

This clears up the apparent contradiction.

4. The Big book of Bible Difficulties 

First , Quintilius Varus was governor of syria between 7 B.C and 4 B.C . Varus was not a trust worthy leader, a fact which was disastrously demonstrated in A.D 9 when he lost three legions in Germany . To the contrary Quirinius was notable military leader who has successfully squelched a rebellion of the Homonadensians in Asia Minor . So Augustus entrusted Quirinius to handle the census on the delicate and volatile region of Palestine

Secondly a latin inscription discovered in 1764 has been interpreted to mean that Quirinius was the governor of syria twice , once between 12 B.C to 2 B.C and then again between 6 A.D to 11 A.D.