It never ceases to amaze me just what lengths people will go to to harmonise contradictory accounts in the Bible! Judea and
Samaria were ruled by the Herods until 6BC, when Quirinius instituted a
census in order to establish the taxation base. This is mentioned by Luke, of course, and at greater length by Josephus:
Antiquities of the Jews 18:1-3
Now Quirinius, a
Roman senator, and one who
had gone through other magistracies, and
had passed through them till he
had been
consul, and one who, on other accounts, was of great dignity, came at this time into
Syria, with a few others, being sent by
Caesar to be a judge of that nation, and to take an account of their substance.
Coponius also, a
man of the
equestrian order, was sent together with him, to have the supreme power over the Jews. Moreover, Quirinius came himself into Judea, which was now added to the province of
Syria, to take an account of their substance, and to dispose of Archelaus'
money; but the Jews, although at the beginning they took the report of a taxation heinously, yet did they stop any further opposition to it, by the persuasion of Joazar, who was the son of Boethus, and the high priest; so they, being persuaded by Joazar's words, gave an account of their estates, without any dispute about it.
This is perfectly plain, but the claim I've heard, based on a mistranslation of a partial
inscription which doesn't include the name of the governor it's dedicated to, is dragged into service in order to support a claim that Quirinius was Syrian legate twice, and did
his census when Herod I was ruling Judea. This is an embellishment I hadn't heard. Personally I believe in following the evidence, and if two accounts disagree, then we need to look closely at the texts and try an make out what the authors were getting at, not try to make them mean things they don't say!
What Matthew and Luke were
writing was theology; 'history' in our sense, hadn't been invented, and each one tailored
his acount to the needs of
his audience. Matthew,
writing for Jews, tells a story of Jesus being born in a
Jewish environment, and being persecuted by Herod in much the same way as
Israel was by Pharaoh; both massacred babies. The family have to run away to
Egypt. God calls them back again, and Matthew, who wants to convince
his audience that Jesus is the fulfilment of prophecy, quotes a verse from Hosea which refers to
Israel as God's 'son', just to make the parallel really obvious. Luke writes for Romanised
Greeks, and retells the story, with Jesus born into the
Roman world, just after
Roman rule was established in Judea.