Wayne Brindle, "The Census and Quirinius: Luke 2:2," JETS 27 (1984): 43-52.

Brindle argues that it is irrelevant whether Quirinius was the governor of Syria at the time of the birth of Christ (B. C. 4-5) since Luke 2.2 claims that the census during which Jesus was born was before the well-known census taken by Quirinius (A.D. 6-7) during a "first census" which was "in the days of Herod the king."