Page 126 - Biblical Backgrounds student textbook

things.” So he drove them off. Then the crowd there turned on Sosthenes the synagogue

leader and beat him in front of the proconsul; and Gallio showed no concern whatever. (NIV)”

The stones above are archeological evidence of Gallio as proconsul. If the texts are correctly, he was
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only Proconsul for approximately 2-3 months. The texts on the stones include the statement “my
friend and proconsul L. Iunius Gallio.”

169 The Corinthian court Paul was brought to was called the Bema seat. This was the less
formal law court in which the public could bring cases before public officials. There was
a more formal one as well. The Bema seat was a judgment seat where discipline and
rewards would be given out. Paul was brought before it and tells us that Jesus will
evaluate believers before His Bema seat as well. This judgement is not a formal trial in
which we may be sent to Hell for failure (1 Corinthians 3:10-15). Rather it is an
evaluation of our faithfulness where we will be disciplined or rewarded. Had Gallio
listened, Paul would have given an account and then Gallio would have made a ruling.
We are told we will give an account and Jesus will make a ruling. Our goal is to hear
“Well done my good and faithful servant, enter into your reward.”

Religion:

The concept of religion in the Hellenistic world differed in multiple respects from what we have today.
NT Wright explains four differences. First, the Hellenists were primarily concerned with the God’s to
receive blessings in this life rather than the next. This is different from Christianity but is similar in
motivations to why many seek God’s favor now (or the witch doctor in Africa). They want God to bless
them now and keep them from harm. Second, the focus of Hellenist “religion” was on ritual practice
rather than carefully delineated doctrine. Wright explains that the goal of prayers, sacrifices, and other
rituals was to endear the worshipper to the deity in order to gain favor. Third, Wright reminds us that
the concept of secularism, the separation of political and religion, that the West holds today is a new
view. In the Hellenist world the state and the religion were often one. The imperial cult for instance was
a method of political powers to ascertain who was a loyal subject and who was not. Fourth, we do
notice many deities were present in the Hellenistic world Paul visits. This does not mean that these cults
were tolerant of one another. As we have seen in other sections the Jews wanted to kill Paul for
subversion and the Ephesians wanted to kill him for undermining the worship of Artemis. The modern
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concept of tolerance was not a religious virtue as some try to understand it today.

Some would love to say that Rome had its deities, Greece had its deities, and so on. The problem with
that is that Hellenism involved syncretism. Syncretism involves the combining or adopting of various
religions or cultures as part of another. Greece came before Rome as an empire. So many of the Asia
Minor cities adopted the Greek pantheon of deities as their own. Some of the deities were adopted by
the name they were known in in that culture. The same then happened when Rome took over. Writes
explains that

168 Todd Bolen, BiblePlaces.com. https://www.bibleplaces.com/acts18/.
169 The Bema Seat at Corinth. http://www.corinth-museum.gr/en/archaeological-site/bema-of-saint-paul/.
170 N.T. Wright and Michael F Bird, The New Testament in Its World: An Introduction to the History, Literature, and
Theology of the First Christians (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2019), 153.

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