18:12 An inscription found at Delphi in Central Greece has enabled scholars to date the beginning of Gallio's term as proconsul to July 1, 51 A.D.740Gallio was a remarkable Roman citizen from Spain. His brother, the Stoic philosopher Seneca, who was Nero's tutor, referred to him as having an unusually pleasant disposition.
"No mortal is so pleasant to any person as Gallio is to everyone."741
"Even those who love my brother Gallio to the utmost of their power do not love him enough."742
Another Greek writer referred to his wit.743A proconsul was the governor of a Roman province, and his legal decisions set precedent for the other proconsuls throughout the empire. Consequently Gallio's decision in Paul's case affected the treatment that Christians would receive throughout the Roman world. This was the first time that Paul (or any other apostle as far as we know) stood trial before a Roman provincial governor.
The "judgment-seat"(Gr. bema, v. 12) was the place where Gallio made his official decisions.
It was ". . . a large, raised platform that stood in the agora (marketplace) in front of the residence of the proconsul and served as a forum where he tried cases."744
Paul used the same Greek word to describe the judgment seat of Christ when he wrote to the Corinthians later (2 Cor. 5:10; cf. Matt. 27:19).
18:13 The Corinthian Jews' charge against Paul was the same as the one the Philippian Jews and the Thessalonian Jews had raised (16:21; 17:6-7, 13). They claimed he was proselytizing for a new religion. The Romans permitted the Jews to do this, but they could not proselyte among Roman citizens.
18:14-16 To Gallio the accusations of these Jews seemed to involve matters of religious controversy that entailed no violation of Roman law. He was responsible to judge criminal cases, not theological disputations. Consequently he refused to hear the case and ordered the Jews to settle it themselves.745This verdict effectively made Christianity legitimate in the Roman Empire. Officially hereafter for many years the Romans regarded Christianity as a sect within Judaism even though the Jews were coming to see that it was a separate faith. As a proconsul, Gallio's decision in Paul's case was much more important than the judgments that the local magistrates in Philippi and elsewhere had rendered.
18:17 "They all"evidently refers to the Gentile audience at this trial. Encouraged by Gallio's impatience with the Jews, they vented their own anti-Semitic feelings. They beat up Sosthenes who had either succeeded Crispus as leader of the synagogue (v. 8) or served with him in this capacity (cf. 13:15). This Sosthenes may have become a Christian later and served as Paul's amanuensis when the apostle wrote 1 Corinthians (1 Cor. 1:1), or he may have been a different Sosthenes. Gallio did not interfere, probably concluding that this demonstration might discourage the Jews from bothering him with their religious differences in the future.
Gallio's decision resulted in the official toleration of Christianity that continued in the empire until 64 A.D. when Nero blamed the Christians for burning Rome. It may have encouraged Paul to appeal to Caesar when he felt the Jews in Palestine were influencing the Palestinian Roman officials against him too much (25:11).
