Acts 18:13Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Meanwhile, the zeal with which the Gospel was received by the Gentiles stirred still stronger hatred among the Jews. They took advantage of the arrival of the new proconsul, Annaeus Gallio, brother of the famous philosopher Seneca, in order to accuse Paul before him.

Since they had been granted the right to perform all religious actions according to their own statutes, they drew a conclusion from this. Whoever spread among them a teaching contrary to their statutes and caused divisions among them was, as a violator of their rights, guilty of transgressing the laws of the empire.

But at last the Jews rose up against him, seized him, and brought him before the tribunal. They accused him of teaching about God contrary to the Jewish Law. The proconsul, however, refused to give the accusers his attention. He said that he was ready to examine only matters of a political nature and had no desire at all to enter into the Jews' religious disputes.

Taking advantage of Gallio's inexperience and counting on a certain impunity, the Jews stirred up a riot. They seized the Apostle Paul and dragged him to the square, demanding that the proconsul judge him on the accusation that he "teaches men to worship God contrary to the law."

Although Emperor Claudius had expelled the Jews from Rome, their religion was nevertheless a religio licita, that is, permitted by the state. But the religion of "this man," as they insisted, though it might pass under the name of Judaism, was not Judaism at all.

The accusation consisted in this: Paul teaches men to worship God contrary to the law, that is, contrary to the Jewish law, the Law of Moses. Thus they presented him not only as a transgressor against the law, but also as one supposedly corrupting other Jews. They claimed he instilled a form of divine worship not in agreement with the Law of Moses.

"Men": this is a deliberately general designation, intended to increase Paul's guilt as a dangerous propagandist not only among Jews, but also among Gentiles. Yet for the latter, the Law of Moses had no importance. Therefore it was meant to intensify the charge that Paul taught contrary to it.

Paul's year and a half stay in Corinth was filled with many labors and struggles in his preaching of Christ. Yet the author of Acts speaks of this only in general terms. Events such as Paul's being brought before the proconsul Gallio could not go unmarked.

This event is important both for its historical indications of time and for its content. It is especially important for the nature of the charge with which Paul's accusers came before the representative of Roman justice.