Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Acts 18:12

ἀνθ., cf. Acts 13:7, another proof of St. Luke's accuracy, Achaia from B.C. 27 (when it had been separated from Macedonia, to which it had been united since B.C. 146, and made into a separate province) had been governed by a proconsul. In A.D. 15 Tiberius had reunited it with Macedonia and Mysia, and it was therefore under an imperial legatus as an imperial province, Tac., Ann., i., 76. But a further change occurred when Claudius, A.D. 44, made it again a senatorial province under a proconsul, Suet., Claudius, 25. On subsequent changes in its government see Ramsay, “Achaia,” Hastings' B.D. Corinth was the chief city of the province Achaia, and so probably chosen for the residence of the governors. Γαλλίωνος : we have no direct statement save that of St. Luke that Gallio governed Achaia. Gallio's brother Seneca tells us that Gallio caught fever in Achaia, Ep. Mor., 104, and took a voyage for change of air (Ramsay, St. Paul, p. 258) (see also the same reference in Zahn, Einleitung, ii., p. 634, and as against Clemen, Ramsay, St. Paul, p. 260), a remark which Ramsay justly regards as a corroboration of St. Luke; on the date see Ramsay St. Paul, p. 258, and Expositor March, 1897, p. 206; “Corinth,” Hastings' B.D. 1, p. 481; Turner, “Chronology of the New Testament,” ibid. Gallio could not have entered on the proconsulship of Achaia before 44 A.D., and probably not before 49 or 50: Ramsay thinks during the summer of A.D. 52 Renan and Lightfoot, A.D. 53), whilst recently Schürer (so Wendt, 1899) places the proconsulship of Gallio between 51 55 A.D., Zw. Th., 1898, p. 41 f. as against O. Holtzmann, Neutest. Zeitgeschichte, who places it before 49 A.D.). The description of Gallio in Acts is quite consistent with what we know of his personal character, and with his attitude as a Roman official. Statius, Silv., ii., 7, 32, speaks of him as “dulcis Gallio,” and his brother Seneca writes of him: “Nemo mortalium uni tam dulcis est quam hic omnious,” Quæst. Nat., iv., Præf., and see other references and testimonies, Renan, Saint Paul, p. 221, and “Gallio,” B.D. 2 It is quite possible that the Jews took advantage or his easy-going nature and affability, or, if he had recently arrived in the province, of his inexperience. Gallio's Hellenic culture may have lea to his selection for the post (Renan, u. s., p. 222). The notion that as a Stoic he was friendly disposed towards the Christians, and on that account rejected the accusations of the Jews, is quite without foundation, see Zöckler, in loco. The name of Junius Gallio was an assumed one; its bearer, whose real name was Marcus Annæus Novatus, had been adopted by the rhetorician, L. Junius Gallio, a friend of his father. κατεπέστησαν, cf. Acts 16:22, verb, only found here. Rendall, in loco, renders “made a set assault upon Paul,” expressing the culmination of the Jewish hostility in a set assault (not against, as in A. and R.V.). ὁμοθ., as in Acts 15:25. τὸ βῆμα : of the proconsul, probably erected in some public place, a movable seat o judgment.

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Acts 18:12

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