Gallio Inscription at Delphi
“The Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent… And he stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought him before the tribunal, saying, “This man is persuading people to worship God contrary to the law.” But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, “If it were a matter of wrongdoing or vicious crime, O Jews, I would have reason to accept your complaint. But since it is a matter of questions about words and names and your own law, see to it yourselves. I refuse to be a judge of these things.” And he drove them from the tribunal.” Acts 18:8-16
The beautiful site of ancient Delphi Greece is the location of one of the most important archeological finds for Biblical scholars and Christians, and a key tool for the dating of Paul’s time in Corinth and his other missionary travels: the Gallio inscription.
Discovered in fragments beginning in 1905, the inscription is part of a letter from the emperor Claudius to the city of Delphi. It names Gallio as proconsol of Achaia (area of modern Greece that includes the Peloponnese and Corinth) in 51 AD. This position was a two year appointment. Paul appeared before Gallio in Corinth at the Bema in the agora when Jews sought to persecute him for preaching and teaching about the risen Jesus Christ. This is a firm date for a point in Paul’s travels and his time in Corinth, thus helping us to very accurately date much of Paul’s missionary journeys.
There are other extra biblical writings that speak of Gallio with clear information that this is the same person. The inscription is in the museum at the archeological site of Delphi, near the exit. When we visited, finding it was a bit comical. We didn’t know where to find the inscription and had to ask multiple guards and site staff, most of whom had no idea what we were talking about! After some searching, we finally located someone who knew of the inscription. It is in an unassuming spot near the museum exit and we would have completely missed it on our own.
The Lord indeed protected Paul from the persecutions of the Jews while Paul was working and teaching in the city of Corinth! In the process, this encounter with the Roman proconsul was preserved both in scripture and in stone. We were gifted with some information about the political situation of the day that results in increased understanding of the dates of Paul’s travels and gives us archeological evidence to confound skeptics.
The area around Mount Parnassus and Delphi
