Lysanias

Lysanias (meaning that drives away sorrow) was the tetrarch of Abilene, a small territory on the eastern slope of Anti-Lebanon north of Damascus, at the time when John the Baptist began his ministry (Luke 3:1). Luke's precise synchronization of John's beginning with Roman and Jewish rulers—naming the Emperor Tiberius, Pilate, Herod Antipas, Philip, and Lysanias—establishes a specific historical date for the start of John's and Jesus's public ministry (approximately A.D. 28–29).

The identification of Lysanias has been a subject of historical scrutiny, since Josephus mentions a Lysanias who was king of Chalcis and was executed in 36 B.C.—too early to be Luke's Lysanias. An inscription discovered at Abila (in the Abilene region) referring to a tetrarch Lysanias in the time of Tiberius confirms that a later figure of the same name held that office, vindicating Luke's accuracy. The inclusion of this otherwise obscure local ruler in Luke's historical synchronism reflects his characteristic care in placing the gospel events within the concrete political realities of their time.