Gallio Inscription

Archaeology

Fragments recovered by the French School at Athens in its excavations at the Temple of Apollo at Delphi in 1905, with further pieces identified afterwards; now in the Delphi Archaeological Museum. The whole was reassembled and re-edited by A. Plassart in the Revue des Etudes Grecques in 1967 and in Fouilles de Delphes III.4 in 1970, and that edition is the basis of all modern work on it. Two inferential steps sit between the stone and the usual "AD 51-52" for Paul's hearing, and they are worth naming. The emperor's titles in the letter — his twelfth tribunician power and twenty-sixth imperatorial acclamation — date the letter itself to roughly January 51 to August 52 CE, and most read it as 52. Gallio's proconsulship is then inferred from the letter, commonly as 1 July 51 to the summer of 52; Paul's appearance before him is then inferred from that term. There is more disagreement than popular accounts admit: Murphy-O'Connor argues for a tight window because Gallio left early for his health; H. D. Slingerland calls the early-departure argument speculative and rejects the narrow window; R. Novak allows a two-year term, which would open a range from late spring 50 to early summer 54 CE; and others simply date the proconsulship to 52/53. The honest formulation is a year or two either side of AD 51 — still the single firmest date in Pauline chronology, just not a precise one. Emile Bourguet is often named as the fragments' first publisher in 1905; that attribution could not be confirmed, so the excavating body is credited instead.

On a modern map

Gallio Inscription today

Further reading

• Acts 18:12 — Bible Gateway
• Gallio: An Archaeological Biography — Bible Archaeology Report