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Gallio inscription
Inscription · AD 52 · The early church · also called Delphi Inscription, Claudius's letter to Delphi
See it on the map and timeline
- Date
- AD 52 (Claudius's letter)
- Found
- Sanctuary of Apollo, Delphi, Greece, 1905. Four fragments came to light at Delphi in 1905, and three more about five years later were published in 1913. Two further pieces were identified and published by André Plassart in 1967.
- Now
- Delphi Archaeological Museum, Delphi, Greece
- Passages
- Acts 18:12–17
What it is
Nine fragments of a stone copy of a letter from the emperor Claudius about the city of Delphi. Claudius says the city has lost many of its citizens, as his friend and proconsul Lucius Junius Gallio has recently told him, and orders that well-born people from other cities be invited to settle there. The emperor's titles at the head of the letter, including his 26th acclamation as imperator, date it to AD 52.
How it connects to the Bible
Acts says that Paul's opponents in Corinth brought him before the governor “when Gallio was the deputy of Achaia” (deputy here means proconsul). The letter places Gallio in that office around AD 51–52, so it gives one of the few fixed points for dating Paul's travels. His 18 months in Corinth are usually placed around AD 50–52.
What scholars debate
Working back from the letter to Gallio's year in office depends on when proconsuls took up their posts and how long he served, so scholars' dates for Paul's stay in Corinth differ by a year or so.