Abilene

Abilene was a tetrarchy in the region of Syria-Palestine, named once in the UPDV as part of the political geography surrounding the beginning of John the Baptist's ministry.

The Tetrarchy of Lysanias

The opening of Luke 3 sets the date of John's ministry by listing the contemporary rulers across the region: "Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene" (Lu 3:1). Abilene lay to the northeast of the other territories named, and its inclusion in this synchronism anchors the narrative within the wider Roman provincial structure of the time.