Tim Maas Supporter Retired Quality Assurance Specialist with the U.S. Army

They are the same name/person. His full Roman (Latin) name was Publius Sulpicius Quirinius, which would have been applicable because the Romans controlled the province of Syria (where he was governor) at the time that Caesar Augustus issued the decree referred to in Luke 2:1. English translations that render his name as Quirinius reflect the influence of the Roman/Latin alphabet and spelling on modern English. 

Luke was a Greek, who also wrote his gospel in Greek. The English transliteration of the Greek version of Quirinius' name was Cyrenius due to differences between the Greek and Latin alphabets. (The closest literal rendering of the Greek version of his name in English would be Kyreniou, which the translators of the King James Version rendered as Cyrenius.) (Nevertheless, most English translations of the verse (23 of 29 listed on http://www.biblehub.com) give his name as Quirinius, although a few -- such as the Jubilee Bible 2000, the American King James Version, and Young's Literal Translation -- do use Cyrenius.)

December 18 2019 • 1 response • Vote Up • Share • Report