Greek word · G3078
Λυσανίας
lysanias
Lysanias
A personal name ('releasing sorrow') used in the Iturean ruling house of the Lebanon region.
Appears once in the Greek New Testament. ·
What it means
From G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
In depth
- Range of meaning
A personal name ('releasing sorrow') used in the Iturean ruling house of the Lebanon region.
- Against the English
No translation difference. The issue is historical.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Josephus knows a Lysanias son of Ptolemy, king of the Itureans based at Chalcis, executed by Mark Antony around 36 BC (Ant. 15.92; War 1.440). He also speaks of 'Abila of Lysanias' and 'the tetrarchy of Lysanias' given to Agrippa I and II by Claudius (Ant. 19.275; 20.138; War 2.215). A Greek inscription from Abila (CIG 4521 = OGIS 606) is a dedication 'for the salvation of the Lords Augusti' (Tiberius and his mother Livia, so AD 14–29) by 'Nymphaios, freedman of Lysanias the tetrarch'.
Where it appears
Luke · 1
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Luke 3:1 Λυσανίου Lysanias
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, while Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene,
Here: A tetrarch of Abilene in Tiberius's time. He is known from an inscription and distinct from an earlier King Lysanias executed in 36 BC (see studies).
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.