People Confirmed
Lysanias, Tetrarch of Abilene
30-second summary
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.
Scripture
Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and Philip his brother tetrarch of Iturea, and the country of Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilina;
anno autem quintodecimo imperii Tiberii Caesaris procurante Pontio Pilato Iudaeam tetrarcha autem Galilaeae Herode Philippo autem fratre eius tetrarcha Itureae et Trachonitidis regionis et Lysania Abilinae tetrarcha
The Claim
Luke 3:1 names 'Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene' as ruling in the fifteenth year of Tiberius (c. AD 28/29), when John the Baptist began his ministry.
- Corroboration
- A Greek dedicatory inscription from Abila (CIG 4521) names 'Lysanias the tetrarch.' Its title 'the lords Augusti' (Savignac, 1912) dates the stone to the joint reign of Tiberius and Livia, AD 14-29 -- the era Luke names. Josephus independently calls the region 'Abila of Lysanias' and describes 'the tetrarchy of Lysanias' as territory reassigned under Caligula and Claudius in AD 37 and 41, confirming the same tetrarchy as a real, ongoing office a generation after the earlier King Lysanias had already been executed by Antony.
- Discovered
- Greek dedicatory inscription (catalogued as CIG 4521 in Boeckh's Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum) reported from the ruins of ancient Abila, roughly 18 miles (30 km) northwest of Damascus, recording a temple, road, and plantations built by Nymphaeus, freedman of 'Lysanias the tetrarch.'
- Current location
- Known to scholarship through Boeckh's 19th-century transcription in the Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum; the findspot is ancient Abila (modern Suq Wadi Barada, Syria).
Why this level?
A Greek dedicatory inscription from Abila (CIG 4521) names a tetrarch called Lysanias and, through its title for the reigning emperors ('the lords Augusti,' read by Savignac in 1912 as Tiberius and his mother Livia), dates to a window spanning AD 14-29 -- the era of Tiberius named in Luke 3:1, decades after the only other well-known Lysanias, whom Antony had executed around 34 BC. Josephus independently confirms 'Abila of Lysanias' and 'the tetrarchy of Lysanias' as a real, named administrative territory still being reassigned by Caligula and Claudius in AD 37 and 41. Together, a physical inscription naming this later tetrarch and a separate historian attesting the persistence of his tetrarchy establish that Luke names a real office-holder of his own era, not the earlier king executed two generations before. The grade is set at 2 rather than 3 because connecting the inscription's title to a precise AD 14-29 window is an interpretive step the entry itself takes, and Josephus's references postdate Luke's scene by about a decade rather than confirming it directly.
Dig deeper
The claim in Luke
Luke anchors the start of John the Baptist's ministry with a cluster of political titles: Tiberius as emperor, Pilate as governor of Judea, Herod Antipas and Philip as tetrarchs -- and "Lysanias tetrarch of Abilina" (Luke 3:1), ruler of a small territory in the Anti-Lebanon region northwest of Damascus.
A tetrarch named Lysanias, confirmed by stone
A Greek dedicatory inscription found among the ruins of ancient Abila and catalogued as CIG 4521 in Boeckh's Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum records that Nymphaeus, a freedman "of Lysanias the tetrarch," built a road, a temple, and plantations "for the salvation of the lords Augusti and their whole house." In 1912, R. Savignac showed in Revue Biblique that this plural title, "the lords Augusti," names a joint imperial house available only between Tiberius's accession in AD 14 and the death of his mother Livia in AD 29 -- the same span in which Luke places the fifteenth year of Tiberius (c. AD 28/29). The stone names its tetrarch as Lysanias and places him squarely in the era Luke describes.
Confirmed as an ongoing office by Josephus
Josephus supplies an independent line of evidence. He repeatedly calls the region "Abila of Lysanias" and records "the tetrarchy of Lysanias" as territory Caligula granted to Agrippa I in AD 37 and Claudius confirmed in AD 41 (Antiquities 19.275). A named tetrarchy of Lysanias was still a functioning administrative unit a full generation after the earlier King Lysanias had been put to death by Antony around 34 BC -- proof that the name belonged to a real, later office, not merely to a memory decades out of date.
What the two sources together establish
A contemporary inscription and an independent historian converge on the same fact: Luke's Lysanias, tetrarch of Abilene under Tiberius, was a real ruler of his own generation, holding an office that Rome itself continued to recognize and reassign for decades. Luke's brief aside names a genuine first-century office-holder with precision.
Keep digging
Citations
- Scripture
Luke 3:1 (Douay-Rheims Bible)
Supports: Provides the exact Douay-Rheims English text naming 'Lysanias tetrarch of Abilina,' verified against the live page.
- Scripture
Luke 3:1 (Vulgata Clementina)
Supports: Provides the exact Latin Vulgate text 'et Lysania Abilinae tetrarcha' underlying the Douay-Rheims rendering, verified against the live page.
- Academic
BibleHub Luke 3:1, modern translations and Greek
Luke 3:1, parallel translations and interlinear Greek
Supports: Confirms the modern English naming 'Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene' (NIV, ESV) and gives the underlying Greek Lysaniou.
- Academic
Savignac, "Texte complet de l'inscription d'Abila relative a Lysanias"
R. Savignac, "Texte complet de l'inscription d'Abila relative a Lysanias," Revue Biblique 9, no. 4 (October 1912): 533-540
Supports: The peer-reviewed source establishing that CIG 4521's 'lords Augusti' title dates the inscription to the joint reign of Tiberius and Livia (AD 14-29).
- Academic
"Lysanias," Wikipedia
Supports: Background on the two figures named Lysanias: the king executed by Antony (c. mid-30s BC) and the later tetrarch of Abilene attested by the Abila inscription and Josephus.
- Archeological
Whole Stones: text of the Abila inscription
"The Complete Text of the Abila Inscription Concerning Lysanias"
Supports: Provides a Greek text and English translation of CIG 4521 naming 'Lysanias the tetrarch.'
- Historical Source
Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 19.275
Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 19.5.1 (19.275)
Supports: Records Caligula and then Claudius granting 'Abila of Lysanias' to Agrippa I, confirming the tetrarchy of Lysanias as a real, ongoing territorial office into the AD 30s-40s.