The Gallio Inscription
When I was in Greece a few months ago, one of the locations I visited was Delphi, which, in antiquity was known as the navel of Greece and the pagan world. Anyways, one of the last things I had the opportunity to see while there was the infamous "Gallio Inscription." For those of you who have an interest in Paul, you are familiar with the inscription. For those of you who may not be or are new at all of this, suffice it to say that this is the only piece of material we have that allows us to date Paul's life with any degree or certainty (funny how a non-biblical inscription is the only thing that allows us to do this). It is dated to AD 51, when Gallio was proconsul and around the same time that Paul was tried before him. Thus, if we acknowledge that Paul was in Corinth at this time (where Gallio was) and was tried at the bema seat, we can work both backwards and forwards and attempt to date his missionary travels. From there, we can try to date his life. If Jesus died around AD 30-33 and Paul, as he asserts, became a Christian about 14-15 years later (AD 44-48), then the Gallio Inscription not only allows us to date some of Paul's life but also comports with Paul's own testimony.
Below is a photo I took. It is of the largest remaining portion of the Inscription. Since it is hard to read at many points, I have filled in the lettering to make it both easier to see and read. The readable and translatable portions of the Inscription are to the right of the photo. Enjoy. If you have any thoughts on this, please post them in the comment section.
..said to be...
[Jun]ios Gallio my...
...Should continue to...
...city...
...them...
...city...
As you can see (and as I pointed out above), this is only one part of the full Inscription (I have placed the full Inscription below), yet, it is noticeably the largest and most intact part. New Testament scholars such as Diessmann, Conzelmann and Fitzmeyer have all worked on reconstructing this passage. K. C. Hanson has too, he says a bit about it and has some questions regarding it at his site, which you can access by clicking the following link: KC Hanson & the Gallio Inscription.
Alan,
ReplyDeleteyou're welcome!
Thank you for the tidbit on TypeGreek, I'll try it out.
Thank you so much for posting your pictures. I was not going to give up searching until I found a picture of the "Gallio inscrption." I am so in love with the book of acts and having a time of it studing archaeological evidances. Carma
ReplyDeleteCarmen, Glad you've found these images helpful. I have been to scores of places mentioned in Acts; it was very intersting voyaging through Turkey & Greece, following Paul's footsteps. One of my former professors, Joel B. Green, has done a ton of great work on Acts, you should check out some of his stuff. Another professor and mentor of mine, Ben Witherington, III, has also done some good stuff. Why are you particularly interested in Acts?
ReplyDelete