Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Acts 18:12-17, Gallio's judgment seat
Jewish leaders bring Paul before Gallio, proconsul of Achaia, accusing him of teaching a worship contrary to the law. Gallio refuses to judge a dispute about words, names and their own law and drives them from the judgment seat.
Acts 18:12-17, in every translation this tool compares.
When Gallio governs Achaia, Jewish leaders in Corinth bring Paul to the governor's court, charging him with promoting worship that breaks the law. Gallio cuts the case off before Paul speaks, saying he will rule on crimes but not on arguments about words, names and Jewish law. He has them cleared from the court. The crowd then beats Sosthenes, the synagogue ruler, right there, and Gallio ignores it, leaving the believers free to keep meeting in the city.
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Gallio, brother of the Stoic Seneca, is named as proconsul in a letter of Claudius found at Delphi, which places him in office about AD 51-52 and makes this hearing one of the firm points for dating Paul's travels (Price and House; Keener and his notes; Wright and Bird). Keener, his notes and Carson, Moo and Morris put his arrival on July 1, 51, the CSB Study Bible early in the year, and the Zondervan Bible dictionary allows 51-52 or 52-53. The ESV Study Bible, Wright and Price and House say the judgment seat was excavated in the marketplace, though Keener and the cultural backgrounds notes place it differently. Edicts left internal Jewish affairs to Jewish courts, so Gallio treats Paul's faith as a form of Judaism (Keener and his notes), giving Christians the Jews' standing (Wright; the ESV Study Bible). Since Julius Caesar, Jews had been excused from worshiping Rome's gods, and "they agreed to pray for the emperor but not to pray to him" (Wright). Who beat Sosthenes is debated, Gentiles hostile to Jews or the Jewish community itself (Keener and his notes); he may be the Sosthenes of 1 Corinthians 1:1 (the dictionary).
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Acts 18:12, 18:14, 18:15 and 18:17
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Acts 18:12, 18:13, 18:15 and 18:17
- ESV Study Bible, study notes on Acts 18:12 and 18:14
- CSB Study Bible, note on Acts 18:12
- N. T. Wright and Michael F. Bird, The New Testament in Its World, ch. 15, The Story of Paul's Life and Ministry
- N. T. Wright, Acts for Everyone, Part Two, comment on Acts 18:12-17
- J. Randall Price and H. Wayne House, Zondervan Handbook of Biblical Archaeology, Acts 18:12 The Gallio Inscription, and ch. 15 chart of discoveries (Corinth)
- D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament, ch. 7, Paul, section The Chronology of Paul's Missionary Career
- J. D. Douglas and Merrill C. Tenney, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary, entries Gallio and Sosthenes
