Luke
First-Century Nazareth
Archaeology confirms a small Jewish hamlet stood at Nazareth during the Early Roman period, the same era and place the Gospels give for Jesus's upbringing. A 2009 excavation uncovered a Jewish dwelling with chalk vessels there, and a 3rd-4th century inscription from Caesarea independently names Nazareth as home to a priestly family, anchoring the town's existence outside any Christian text.
4 BC – AD 30
Lysanias, Tetrarch of Abilene
Luke names 'Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene' (Luke 3:1) as ruling under Tiberius. A Greek inscription from Abila (CIG 4521) names a tetrarch of that name and, by its imperial title, dates to the reign of Tiberius; Josephus separately attests the same tetrarchy as a real, named territory still being administered decades later. Together they identify Luke's Lysanias as a genuine office-holder of his own generation, distinct from the earlier king of the same name executed decades before.
AD 14 – AD 29