Abilene (Ancient Greek:Ἀβιληνή) or simplyAbila (Ancient Greek:Ἄβιλα) was a plain, a district inCoele-Syria, of which the chief town wasAbila Lysaniou (Ἄβιλα Λυσανίου). The limits of this region are nowhere exactly defined, but it seems to have included the eastern slopes of theAnti-Lebanon range, and to have extended south and southeast ofDamascus as far as the borders ofGalilaea,Batanaea, andTrachonitis.[1][2] According toFlavius Josephus, Abilene was a separateIturean kingdom until 37 AD.
Abilene, when first mentioned in history, was governed by a certainPtolemaeus, son ofMennaeus, who was succeeded, about 40 BC, by a son namedLysanias. Lysanias was put to death in 33 BC, at the instigation ofCleopatra, and the principality passed, by a sort of purchase apparently, into the hands of oneZenodorus, from whom it was transferred (31 BC) toHerod the Great. At the death of the latter (4 BC) one portion of it was annexed to the tetrarchy of his sonPhilip, and the remainder bestowed upon thatLysanias who is named byLuke (Luke 3).[2]
Immediately after the death ofTiberius (37 AD),Caligula made over toHerod Agrippa, at that time a prisoner inRome, the tetrarchy of Philip and the tetrarchy of Lysanias, whileClaudius, upon his accession (41), not only confirmed the liberality of his predecessor towards Herod Agrippa, but added all that portion ofJudaea andSamaria which had belonged to the kingdom of his grandfather Herod the Great, together (says Josephus) with Abila, which had appertained to Lysanias, and the adjoining region ofLibanus. Lastly, in 53, Claudius granted toHerod Agrippa II the tetrarchy of Philip with Batanaea and Trachonitis and Abila (Joseph.Ant. xiv. 4. § 4, 7. § 4, xviii. 7. § 10, xix. 5. § 1, xx. 6. § 1,B. J. i. 13. § 1, xx. 4.)[2]
Josephus, at first sight, seems to contradict himself, in so far that in one passage (Ant. xviii. 7. § 10) he represents Caligula as bestowing upon Herod Agrippa the tetrarchy of Lysanias, while in another (Ant. xix. 5. § 1) he states that Abila Lysaniou was added by Claudius to the former dominions of Agrippa, but, in reality, these expressions must be explained as referring to the division of Abilene which took place on the death of Herod the Great. Abila is mentioned among the places captured by Placidus, one ofVespasian's generals, in 69 or 70 (Joseph.B. J. iv. 7. § 5), and from that time forward, it was permanently annexed to the province ofSyria.[2]
Inchapter 3 of theGospel of Luke, the timeframe whenJohn the Baptist began to preach hisbaptism of repentance in the wilderness is indicated by noting which rulers were ruling in certain areas:
