Pt1-15-GALLIO THE UNCONCERNED

GALLIO THE UNCONCERNED

Acts 18:12-17 WHEN Paul entered the Greek city of Corinth, with its populace of "Jews, ex-soldiers, philosophers, merchants, sailors, freedmen, slaves, tradespeople, hucksters, and agents of every form of vice", he found plenty of scope for his missionary zeal. Rejected by his own countrymen, he turned to the Gentiles, who gave him a better hearing. As he preached in the house of Justus, next door to the synagogue, his efforts were attended with considerable success, and even Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, became a convert to the new faith. But when a new representative of Rome became Proconsul, the Jews seized the opportunity to lay hands on the apostle, probably thinking that the new official would not be sufficiently versed in Jewish matters to discern the real motive of their act, and charged him before Gallio’s judgment-seat with teaching men to worship God contrary to the law. Paul was about to speak in his own defence when Gallio anticipated him, and declined to act as judge in a matter of Jewish law. Perceiving the attitude of the Proconsul the onlookers took the law into their own hands and beat Sosthenes, successor of Crispus as chief ruler of the synagogue. "And Gallio cared for none of these things." This brief narrative in Acts is supplemented by information derived from extra-Biblical sources. Gallio’s original name was M. Annæus Novatus, and he was the son of M. Annæus Seneca, a rhetorician, of Cordova, Spain. His brother was the famous philosopher Seneca, author of the well-known Letters, and his nephew was Lucan, the poet who wrote the heroic poem Pharsalia. He was brought to Rome at an early age, and adopted by. L. Junius Gallio, an orator, and probably received from him his training for public office. His rise to prominence is doubtless partly due to the fact that his brother Seneca, as tutor to Nero, had considerable influence. He became Proconsul of Achaia--that is, of Greece--but became the victim of a fever, which led him to take a sea voyage. Pliny mentions that he subsequently returned to Rome, and became Consul. Seneca became involved in a conspiracy, which led to his receiving sentence of death from Nero. Gallio was implicated, but begged for his life and for the time being was spared. Testimonies from his contemporaries show that Gallio was popular, and that he was regarded as genial and lovable. Seneca, who dedicated two of his works to Gallio, wrote of his brother, "No mortal man is so sweet to any single person as he is to all mankind", and described him as possessing "civility and extraordinary agreeableness". He also said, "Even those who love my brother Gallio to the very utmost of their power yet do not love him enough". Papinius Statius, a contemporary, who wrote a poem in five books under the title Silvæ, referred to "sweet Gallio" ("Dulcis Gallio"). Dion Cassius, who wrote a history of Rome, attested Gallio’s reputation for humour by referring to a "very witty joke" still current about a century and a half after Gallio’s day. Farrar, writing out of full knowledge of the evidence, summed up Gallio’s character thus: "He was the very flower of pagan courtesy and pagan culture--a Roman with all a Roman’s dignity and seriousness, and yet with all the grace and versatility of a polished Greek." From the incident in Acts many have drawn the conclusion that Gallio was indifferent to the claims of religion and callous to human suffering. But when the facts are made clear, such an estimate is at least made doubtful. As a "religio licita"--a religion licensed by the State--Judaism had a right to protection from Roman law, but Gallio, who, as Sir W. M. Ramsay suggests, had probably made careful inquiries, was able to discern the truth that the charge against Paul was not concerning a civil wrong or a matter of public morality. He saw in it merely a strife about words and names in Jewish law, with which he had nothing to do. He, therefore, caused his lictors to "clear the court". Then the bystanders, in all probability Greeks, (1) who lost no love over the Jews

1. The Authorised Version follows a textual gloss, which, however, is thought by many scholars to be correct. maltreated Sosthenes. Gallio did not interfere, probably thinking that the victim deserved the chastisement he received. Gallio’s conduct, then, was typically Roman. He did not wish to meddle with matters which did not concern him, and would not interfere even with the outbreak of violence because it did not directly affect Roman administration.

There are several reasons why we should be interested in this narrative in Acts.

1. Here we have a record which can be tested by external evidence. Does that evidence support the narrative? Decidedly, yes.

(a) Gallio is said to have been "Proconsul of Achaia". Now Achaia had been a Senatorial province, governed by a Proconsul, from 27 B.C. to A.D. 15. Then under Tiberius it became an Imperial province. Subsequently, in A.D. 44, it became a Senatorial province again, and was administered by Roman officials after holding the Prætorship, and generally before the Consulship. With such changes in government, it would have been easy for a writer to slip in giving the title of the governor. But Luke is accurate.

(b) Some twenty years ago a stone was found in Delphi with an inscription in which Gallio is mentioned as Proconsul, and on the evidence of this inscription it is argued by Dr. Deissmann, agreeing with Ramsay, that Gallio entered on his Proconsulship in the summer of A.D. 51. Not only does this discovery support the narrative in Acts, but it gives these scholars "a fixed point" for determining the chronology of Paul’s life.

(c) A little earlier than the above discovery, excavators working in the ruins of an old street in Corinth, found a door lintel, on which was written in Greek the inscription, "Synagogue of the Hebrews". Deissmann says concerning this: "It is a possibility seriously to be reckoned with that we have here the inscription to the door of the Corinthian synagogue mentioned in Acts 18:4, in which Paul preached."

2. This incident seems to have had a profound influence on Paul’s work. Protecting Paul from the hostility of the Jews, Gallio seems to have ".secured for Paul an unmolested residence in Corinth, such as had been promised by the vision which had encouraged him amid his earlier difficulties ". Ramsay, in his St. Paul the Traveller and the Roman Citizen, expressed the view that this was an epoch in Paul’s life, and that it had no small part in determining his work, since he could use "the freedom of speech which the Imperial policy as declared by Gallio seemed to permit". He also wrote: The action of Gallio, as we understand it, seems to pave the way for Paul’s appeal a few years later from the petty outlying court of the Procurator of Judæa, who was always much under the influence of the ruling party in Jerusalem, to the supreme tribunal of the Empire."

3. If Gallio’s conduct does not give us a text for indifference to religion, it at least causes reflection over what to us must seem nothing short of tragic. Gallio’s chief claim to the notice of our generation is that he came face to face with the great Apostle. Yet he, ignorant of what he was missing, prevented his speech and so heard nothing of the Christ whom Paul preached. Whether he would have been interested in Paul’s message or would have preserved his Roman unconcern it is idle to speculate. Probably Gallio and Paul never met again. But this we know, that Paul lived his noble life for Christ and at last died for his faith by the decree of Nero; and this is stated by some, though doubted by others, that Gallio fell into disgrace with Nero, and was compelled to take his own life by the Emperor’s decree.