Act 18:12-17 | PNT | STEP | When Gallio was the deputy of Achaia . "Proconsul" in the Revised Version, as it should be. The province of Achaia had been transferred by Claudius to the government of the senate, and the governors of senatorial provinces were proconsuls, which is the meaning of the Greek term "anthupatos", rendered "deputy". Gallio was the brother of Seneca, the philosopher and tutor of Nero. He is often mentioned in the literature of that day as a cultivated, polished man of the world. Seneca speaks of his brother's residence in Achaia. The Jews made insurrection . Rose up against Paul, no doubt enraged at the success of his work. His sleepless enemies always found some occasion to stir up strife. Brought him to the judgment seat . The court of Gallio.

Acts 18:12-17

When Gallio was the deputy of Achaia. "Proconsul" in the Revised Version, as it should be. The province of Achaia had been transferred by Claudius to the government of the senate, and the governors of senatorial provinces were proconsuls, which is the meaning of the Greek term "anthupatos", rendered "deputy". Gallio was the brother of Seneca, the philosopher and tutor of Nero. He is often mentioned in the literature of that day as a cultivated, polished man of the world. Seneca speaks of his brother's residence in Achaia.

The Jews made insurrection. Rose up against Paul, no doubt enraged at the success of his work. His sleepless enemies always found some occasion to stir up strife.

Brought him to the judgment seat. The court of Gallio. This [fellow] persuadeth . . . contrary to the law. Their charge was that Paul sought to persuade men to worship contrary to the Roman law; that is, he preached a new and unlawful religion. Besides the state religion, Rome recognized various others, among them Judaism. These Jews attempted to show that Paul's gospel was not Judaism. Gallio said unto the Jews. Without suffering Paul to reply, he at once rebuked the Jews, who were evidently not in his favor. His rebuke shows that he ignorantly regarded Christianity as a kind of Judaism, and thought that the enmity of the Jews was due to the rivalry of sects. To him it was a question of "words and names, and of the Jewish law". He drove them from the judgment seat. Ordered his lictors to clear the court of the Jews. The Greeks took Sosthenes. He had evidently succeeded Crispus as chief ruler of the synagogue (Ac 18:8), and was probably foremost among the accusers. The populace laid violent hands on him.

Gallio cared for none of those things. The great Romans were usually utterly indifferent to religion at this period. Nor did Gallio care to see some violence inflicted on the leading Jews.