Acts 18:1-17
Paul Before Proconsul Gallio
1 After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. 2 There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them, 3 and because he was a tentmaker as they were, he stayed and worked with them. 4 Every Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks.
5 When Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah. 6 But when they opposed Paul and became abusive, he shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent of it. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”
7 Then Paul left the synagogue and went next door to the house of Titius Justus, a worshiper of God.8 Crispus, the synagogue leader, and his entire household believed in the Lord; and many of the Corinthians who heard Paul believed and were baptized.
9 One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent.10 For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.” 11 So Paul stayed in Corinth for a year and a half, teaching them the word of God.
12 While Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews of Corinth made a united attack on Paul and brought him to the place of judgment. 13 “This man,” they charged, “is persuading the people to worship God in ways contrary to the law.”
14 Just as Paul was about to speak, Gallio said to them, “If you Jews were making a complaint about some misdemeanor or serious crime, it would be reasonable for me to listen to you. 15 But since it involves questions about words and names and your own law—settle the matter yourselves. I will not be a judge of such things.” 16 So he drove them off. 17 Then the crowd there turned on Sosthenes the synagogue leader and beat him in front of the proconsul; and Gallio showed no concern whatever.
There is an inscription called Delphi's Inscription...It is also called the Gallio Inscription...It is the inscription found in central Greece that tells us that the Proconsul of Greece was Gallio in 52 a.d....It has been discovered that Gallio was the Proconsul between 51-52 a.d....The Proconsul position was for one year...Most think that St. Paul was in Corinth in the year 51...This makes sense as we read about Paul was in Corinth, Greece, which is approximately halfway between Athens and Sparta...This also corresponds very, very closely to the date wrote St. Paul wrote his first letter to the Corinthians...Many estimate Paul wrote the letter to Corinthians between the years 50-55 a.d....
The Proconsul Gallio did very little if anything to help Paul...Gallio seemed not to concern himself, because the dispute was over Jewish law and not Greek law...Gallio did not care to find out about the Truth...He seems not to know about scriptures...So Gallio ignores the Divine Mysteries and says that the complaint is not even a misdemeanor or serious crime...Gallio ignored the Truth and ignored seeking the Truth...Gallio seems to act if he is above our LORD and His Teachings, or else he was just ignorant of all the Jewish history and Jewish laws and did not want to get involved...
But the fact that St. Luke writes about this and gives us an historical time when this took place, we can place much credence in Luke's books and the letters of St. Paul...Theologians and historians can better set a chronological order of Paul and his letters, and the work that he did in his ministry for Jesus and the good news...Acts chapter eighteen can now be dated because of the Gallio Inscription...We get a better feel on the time period of the Gospel According to Luke and the Book of Acts, because we know that Luke wrote his gospel to Theophilus before he wrote his second book, the Book of Acts to Theophilus...With the dates of Paul's letters and Luke's two books they can become closer (to us) and we can better to relate to them...We know that Paul worked and ministered in at least in the early 50's a.d., and most likely in at least the late 40's a.d, and maybe the 30's and 60's a.d....