Claudius and the Expulsion of the Jews from Rome

The event

Claudius was an unlikely emperor. Widely dismissed by his own family as awkward and physically afflicted (he reportedly walked with a limp and struggled with a stutter), he was, almost as a joke, hailed as emperor by the Praetorian Guard after his nephew Caligula was assassinated in AD 41 — and then proceeded to rule with more competence than almost anyone expected, expanding the empire (including the conquest of Britain) and reforming its administration.

For readers of the book of Acts, Claudius's most notable act is a brief one: the Roman historian Suetonius records that Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome because of constant rioting 'at the instigation of Chrestus' — very likely a garbled Roman reference to disputes over Christ among Rome's Jewish community. Acts 18:2 confirms the effect of this edict on the ground: it records that Paul, arriving in Corinth, met a Jewish couple named Aquila and Priscilla 'because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome.' That expulsion is what placed this gifted couple in Corinth just in time to become some of Paul's closest partners in ministry.

Claudius's reign also saw the severe, empire-wide famine that the prophet Agabus foretold in Acts 11:28 — a prediction Luke tells us 'took place in the days of Claudius,' prompting the church at Antioch to send relief to believers in Judea. Twice, then, in the pages of Acts, the ordinary events of Claudius's reign intersect directly with the spread and support of the early church.

Dating

Claudius became emperor on 24 January AD 41 (firm). But the expulsion of Jews from Rome named in the title — the event behind Acts 18:2, which brought Priscilla and Aquila to Corinth — is most commonly dated AD 49, not 41. Suetonius (Claudius 25.4, the 'Chrestus' disturbances) gives no year; the 5th-century historian Orosius places it in Claudius's ninth year (AD 49), and this fits the Acts chronology: Paul met the couple, 'lately come from Italy,' on reaching Corinth c. AD 50 (anchored by the Gallio inscription). A minority view, following Dio Cassius 60.6.6 — who says Claudius did not expel the Jews in 41 but restricted their assemblies — places a (lesser) measure in AD 41, and some scholars distinguish two separate actions. Evangelical scholarship overwhelmingly uses AD 49 for the expulsion relevant to Acts.

Scripture references

• Acts 18:1-3
• Acts 11:27-30

Other witnesses

• Suetonius, Life of Claudius 25.4