Trachonitis, and Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene, Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests, the word of
God came unto John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness‖. (Luke 3:1-2)
Antiquities 18.2.2 35: ―Tiberius sent Gratus to be procurator of Judea... This man deprived Ananus of the
high priesthood, and appointed Ismael... ...Joseph called Caiaphus was made his successor. When
Gratus had done those things, he went back to Rome, having tarried in Judea eleven years, and Pontius
Pilate came as his successor‖.
War 2.6.3 94 (Ant. 17.11.4 318); ―Caesar...gave one-half of Herod's kingdom to Archelaus with the title of
Ethnarch, and promised to make him king also afterward, if he rendered himself worthy of that dignity. But he
divided the other half into two tetrarchies, and gave them to two other sons of Herod, the one of them to
Philip, and the other to that Antipas who contested the kingdom with Archelaus. Placed under Antipas were
Perea and Galilee, with a revenue of two hundred talents. Batanea, Trachonitis, and Auranitis, and certain
parts of Zeno's house about Jamnia, providing a revenue of 100 talents, were made subject to Philip‖.
Antiquities 20.7.1 137: ―Claudius bestowed upon Agrippa...Abila, which had been the tetrarchy of
Lysanius‖.
This information given establishes the year of the appearance of Yochanan the Immerser, and hence of the
subsequent public career of Y‘shua (Mark 1:1). The 15th year of Tiberius was A.D. 28/29, as he reigned for
22 years and some 5 or 6 months, from A.D. 14-37. Pontius Pilate was procurator from A.D. 26-36, and
Caiaphas was high priest over almost the same period, A.D. 26-35. Herod Antipas ruled Galilee from 4 B.C.
to A.D. 40, and Philip his assortment of lands from 4 B.C. to A.D. 34.
As to ―Lysanius‖, Luke is at disagreement with Josephus. Marc Antony killed Lysanius during the reign of
Herod the Great. The small territory of Lysanius was leased by Zenodorus (or "Zeno", War 1.20.4 398), and
was later given by Caesar to Philip as quoted above in one of the passages. After Philip's death, this little
region that had belonged to Lysanius along with other pieces of Philip's territory was given to Agrippa by the
Emperor Claudius circa A.D. 40 (also cited above).
This little territory never had a name; it was just referred to familiarly, something like "that piece of land that
used to belong to Lysanius‖. This is the only way Josephus refers to the property throughout his works.
There is no evidence of a ruler named Lysanius at the time Luke speaks about. In any case, the land is two
small for anyone to bother identifying its ruler as a means of specifying a moment in history.
Two explanations present themselves. The more interesting of these is that Luke worked from a written
source he did not quite understand; he could have read about the time ―when Herod was tetrarch of Galilee,
and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea, and Trachonitis, and Abilene the tetrarchy of
Lysanius‖. He could have misinterpreted the last clause as identifying another ruler of the time, rather than
continuing the list of Philip's lands; particularly, if the grammar had become a little garbled in transmission—
perhaps during translation from the original Aramaic/Hebrew texts. This would indicate that Luke did not
know enough about Judea to recognise that the ―tetrarchy of Lysanius" was the way the local inhabitants
referred to a little piece of land.
The second, more ordinary explanation, is that Luke originally wrote the version we just surmised; but his
text has become slightly corrupted during transmission to us.
3:2-6 General overviews
―(2) And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. (3) For this is he that was spoken of by
the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make
his paths straight. (4) And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about
his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey. (5) Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea,
and all the region round about Jordan, (6) And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins‖.
Also from Mark chapter 1:
(1) ―The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God;
(2) As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare
thy way before thee.
(3) The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
(4) John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of
sins.
(5) And there went out unto him all the land of Judaea, and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized of
him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins‖. (Mark 1:1-5)