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LYSANIAS
Tetrarch of Abilene (the area west of Damascus) in AD 27–28. The Gospel of Luke mentions Lysanias as among those who ruled at the beginning of John the Baptist’s ministry (Lk 3:1). This is the only reference to him in the NT.
Josephus mentions a Lysanias who succeeded his father, Ptolemaeus, as the king of Chalcis. However, he was killed by Mark Antony in 36 BC. Since there is no other known reference to a Lysanias in the writings of antiquity, and since this second Lysanias could not have lived during John the Baptist’s lifetime, some biblical scholars assume Luke was inaccurate in his chronology. In defense of Luke, other scholars indicate that Josephus mentions “Abila of Lysanius,” an area given to Agrippa II by Claudius in AD 53; however, that reference may be to the Lysanias who ruled Chalcis 90 years earlier.
The most conclusive evidence in support of Luke is found in an inscription that records the dedication of a temple at Abila, “for the salvation of the Lord Imperial and their whole household by Nymphaeus, a freedman of Lysanias the tetrarch.” The title “Lord Imperial” was bestowed jointly only on Emperor Tiberius and his mother, Livia, Augustus’s widow. That would fix Lysanias’s date between AD 14 (when Tiberius became emperor) and AD 29 (when Livia died). On that basis Luke’s chronology may be assumed accurate.