Did Luke Make a 60-Year Mistake? The Ancient Mystery of Lysanias Author: Rodgers Mangwela There are some names in the Bible that seem to pass almost unnoticed. They appear briefly, perhaps in a single verse, and then the story moves on. But occasionally, one of those names opens a door into a much larger historical mystery. Lysanias is one of them. When Luke describes the beginning of John the Baptist's ministry, he does something remarkably precise. Rather than simply saying that John began preaching during the days of the Roman Empire, Luke places him within a particular political landscape. He names the emperor, the governor of Judea and several regional rulers. Among them is a man called Lysanias, whom Luke identifies as the tetrarch of Abilene. For many readers, that might seem like an ordinary historical detail. But for historians, it created a problem. Another Lysanias appears in the writings of the Jewish historian Josephus, and that man lived mu...
The Guardians of the Bible Make no mistake , from a human standpoint the survival of the Bible was not a foregone conclusion. The communities that produced it suffered such difficult trials and bitter oppression that it's survival to our day is truly remarkable. In the years before Christ, the Jews who produced the Hebrew scriptures were a relatively small nation. They dwelt precariously amid powerful political States that were jostling with one another for supremacy. Israel had to fight for it's life against a succession of nations, such as the Edomites. During a period when the Hebrews were divided into two kingdoms, the cruel Assyrian Empire virtually wiped out the northern kingdom, while the Babylonians destroyed the southern kingdom, taking the people into exile from which only a remnant returned 70 years later.