Abilene = "grassy meadow"

1. a region of Syria between Lebanon and Hermon towards Phoenicia, 18 miles (29 km) from Damascus and 37 miles (60 km) from Heliopolis

a brother, whether born of the same two parents or only of the same father or mother

having the same national ancestor, belonging to the same people, or countryman

any fellow or man

a fellow believer, united to another by the bond of affection

an associate in employment or office

brethren in Christ

1. his brothers by blood

2. all men

3. apostles

4. Christians, as those who are exalted to the same heavenly place

himself, herself, themselves, itself

he, she, it

the same

Galilee = "Circuit"

1. the name of a region of northern Palestine, bounded on the north by Syria, on the west by Sidon, Tyre, Ptolemais and their territories and the promontory of Carmel, on the south by Samaria and on the east by the Jordan. It was divided into Upper Galilee and Lower Galilee.

but, moreover, and, etc.

in, by, with etc.

year

to be leader, to lead the way

to rule, command

1. of a province, to be governor of a province

2. said of a proconsul, of a procurator

chief command, rule, sovereignty

1. of the reign of a Roman emperor

Herod = "heroic"

1. the name of a royal family that flourished among the Jews in the times of Christ and the Apostles. Herod the Great was the son of Antipater of Idumaea. Appointed king of Judaea B.C. 40 by the Roman Senate at the suggestion of Antony and with the consent of Octavian, he at length overcame the great opposition which the country made to him and took possession of the kingdom B.C. 37; and after the battle of Actium, he was confirmed by Octavian, whose favour he ever enjoyed. He was brave and skilled in war, learned and sagacious; but also extremely suspicious and cruel. Hence he destroyed the entire royal family of Hasmonaeans, put to death many of the Jews that opposed his government, and proceeded to kill even his dearly beloved wife Mariamne of the Hasmonaean line and his two sons she had borne him. By these acts of bloodshed, and especially by his love and imitation of Roman customs and institutions and by the burdensome taxes imposed upon his subjects, he so alienated the Jews that he was unable to regain their favour by his splendid restoration of the temple and other acts of munificence. He died in the 70th year of his age, the 37th year of his reign, the 4th before the Dionysian era. In his closing years John the Baptist and Christ were born; Matthew narrates that he commanded all the male children under two years old in Bethlehem to be slain.

2. Herod surnamed "Antipas", was the son of Herod the Great and Malthace, a Samaritan woman. After the death of his father he was appointed by the Romans tetrarch of Galilee and Peraea. His first wife was the daughter of Aretas, king of Arabia; but he subsequently repudiated her and took to himself Herodias, the wife of his brother Herod Philip; and in consequence Aretas, his father-in-law, made war against him and conquered him. He cast John the Baptist into prison because John had rebuked him for this unlawful connection; and afterwards, at the instigation of Herodias, he ordered him to be beheaded. Induced by her, too, he went to Rome to obtain from the emperor the title of king. But in consequence of the accusations brought against him by Herod Agrippa I, Caligula banished him (A.D. 39) to Lugdunum in Gaul, where he seems to have died. He was light minded, sensual and vicious.

3. Herod Agrippa I was the son of Aristobulus and Berenice, and grandson of Herod the Great. After various changes in fortune, he gained the favour of Caligula and Claudius to such a degree that he gradually obtained the government of all of Palestine, with the title of king. He died at Caesarea, A.D. 44, at the age of 54, in the seventh [or the 4th, reckoning from the extension of his dominions by Claudius] year of his reign, just after having ordered James the apostle, son of Zebedee, to be slain, and Peter to be cast into prison: Acts 12:21

4. (Herod) Agrippa II, son of Herod Agrippa I. When his father died he was a youth of seventeen. In A.D. 48 he received from Claudius Caesar the government of Chalcis, with the right of appointing the Jewish high priests, together with the care and oversight of the temple at Jerusalem. Four years later Claudius took from him Chalcis and gave him instead a larger domain, of Batanaea, Trachonitis, and Gaulanitis, with the title of king. To those reigns Nero, in A.D. 53, added Tiberias and Taricheae and Peraean Julias, with fourteen neighbouring villages. He is mentioned in Acts 25 and 26. In the Jewish war, although he strove in vain to restrain the fury of the seditious and bellicose populace, he did not desert to the Roman side. After the fall of Jerusalem, he was vested with praetorian rank and kept the kingdom entire until his death, which took place in the third year of the emperor Trajan, [the 73rd year of his life, and the 52nd of his reign] He was the last representative of the Herodian dynasty.

Judaea = "he shall be praised"

1. in a narrower sense, to the southern portion of Palestine lying on this side of the Jordan and the Dead Sea, to distinguish it from Samaria, Galilee, Peraea, and Idumaea

2. in a broader sense, referring to all Palestine

Ituraea = "past the limits" or "he will arrange"

1. a mountainous region, lying northeast of Palestine and west of Damascus. At the time when John the Baptist made his public appearance it was subject to Philip the tetrarch, son of Herod the Great, among the regions assigned to this prince after his father's death. It was brought under Jewish control by king Aristobulus around 100 B.C. Its inhabitants had been noted for robbery and skilful use of the bow.

and, also, even, indeed, but

Caesar = "severed"

1. the surname of Julius Caesar, which adopted by Octavius Augustus and his successors afterwards became a title, and was appropriated by the Roman emperors as part of their title

Lysanias = "that drives away sorrow"

1. a tetrarch of Abilene (i.e. the district around Abila) in the thirteenth year of Tiberias (A.D. 29), at the time when Herod Antipas was tetrarch of Galilee and when Herod Philip was tetrarch of Ituraea and Trachonitis

this, that, these, etc. Only significant renderings other than "the" counted

the fifteenth

Pilate = "armed with a spear"

1. the sixth Roman procurator of Judah and Samaria who ordered Christ to be crucified

Pontius [Pilate] = "of the sea"

1. the sixth Roman procurator of Judah who crucified Christ

to be a governor of a tetrarchy, be tetrarch of a region

Tiberius = "from the Tiber (as god-river)"

1. the second Roman emperor

Trachonitis = "a rugged region"

1. a rough region, inhabited by robbers, situated between Antilibanus on the west and on the east by the mountains of Batanaea and on the north by the territory of Damascus

Philip = "lover of horses"

1. an apostle of Christ

2. an evangelist and one of the seven deacons of the Jerusalem church

3. tetrarch of Trachonitis, was brother to Herod Antipas, by the father's, but not by the mother's side. Philip was born of Cleopatra, of Jerusalem, and Herod of Malthace, a Samaritan: he died in the twentieth year of Tiberias, five years after his mention in Lk. 3:1. He built Caesarea Philippi. His step brother Herod Antipas, married his wife unlawfully. (Gill)

4. see 2542, Caesarea Philippi

the space lying between two places or limits

a region or country i.e. a tract of land

1. the (rural) region surrounding a city or village, the country

2. the region with towns and villages which surround a metropolis

land which is ploughed or cultivated, ground