Bible Lexicons

Λυσανίας, Λυσανίου, ὁ, Lysanias;

1. the son of Ptolemy, who from on was governor of Chalcis at the foot of Mount Lebanon, and was put to death at the instance of Cleopatra: Josephus, Antiquities 14, 7, 4 and 13, 3; 15, 4, 1; b. j., 1, 13, 1, cf. b. j. 1, 9, 2.

2. a tetrarch of Abilene (see Ἀβιληνή), in the days of John the Baptist and Jesus: Luke 3:1. Among the regions assigned by the emperors Caligula and Claudius to Herod Agrippa I. and Herod Agrippa II., Josephus mentions ἡ Λυσανίου τετραρχία (Antiquities 18, 6, 10, cf. 20, 7, 1), βασιλεία ἡ τοῦ Λυσανίου καλουμένῃ (b. j. 2, 11, 5), Ἀβιλα ἡ Λυσανίου (antt. 19, 5, 1); accordingly, some have supposed that in these passages Lysanias the son of Ptolemy must be meant, and that the region which he governed continued to bear his name even after his death. Others (as Credher, Strauss, Gfrörer, Weisse), denying that there ever was a second Lysanias, contend that Luke was led into error by that designation of Abilene (derived from Lysanias and retained for a long time afterward), so that he imagined that Lysanias was tetrarch in the time of Christ. This opinion, however, is directly opposed by the fact that Josephus, in Antiquities 20, 7, 1 and b. j. 2, 12, 8, expressly distinguishes Chalcis from the tetrarchy of Lysanias; nor is it probable that the region which Lysanias the son of Ptolemy governed for only six years took its name from him ever after. Therefore it is more correct to conclude that in the passages of Josephus where the tetrarchy of Lysanias is mentioned a second Lysanias, perhaps the grandson of the former, must be meant; and that he is identical with the one spoken of by Luke. Cf. Winer, RWB, under the word, Abilene; Wieseler in Herzog i., p. 64ff (especially in Beitrüge zur richtig. Würdigung d. Evang. as above with, pp. 196-204); Bleek, Synoptative Erklär. as above with i., p. 154f; Kneucker in Schenkel i., p. 26f; Schürer, Neutest. Zeitgesch. § 19 Anh. I, p. 313 (also in Riehm, under the word; Robinson in Bib. Sacra for 1848, pp. 79ff; Renan, La Dynastie des Lysanias d'Abilene (in the Memoires de l'Acad. des inscrip. et belles-lettres for 1870, Tom. xxvi., p. 2, pp. 49-84); BB. DD., under the word).