History
Scholars at one time were skeptical of Luke being accurate in referring to Lysanius being the tetrarch of Abilene around A. D. 27 when John the Baptist began his ministry. They could only find one Lysanius in Roman records and he was the ruler of Chalcia fifty years before the one Luke mentions.

However, the credibility of Luke’s gospel record continues to be reinforced by archeological discoveries. An inscription was found on a temple from the time of Tiberius (the Roman emperor from 14 - 37 AD), which named Lysanias as the Tetrach of Abila near Damascus, just as Luke has written.

The temple inscription reads:
" For the salvation of the August lords and of all their household, Nymphaeus, freedman of Eagle Lysanias tetrarch established this street and other things."

The reference to August lords is a joint title given only to the emperor Tiberius (son of Augustus) and his mother Livia (widow of Augustus). This reference establishes the date of the inscription to between A.D. 14 and 29. The year 14 was the year of Tiberius' accession and the year 29 was the year of Livia's death.

Therefore the 15th year of Tiberius is the year 29 A.D., and it lies within the reign of the August lords. This evidence supports Luke's reference that Lysanias was a tetrarch around the time of John the baptist (29 A.D.).

Josephus Also Mentions This in Wars of the Jews

"He added to it the kingdom of Lysanias, and that province of Abilene" Josephus Wars of the Jews Book 2:12:8

Many people confuse a different Lysanias that Josephus refers to in earlier books and passages as being the same one referred to by Luke.

.Luke 3:1 Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judaea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of Ituraea and of the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene