How The Gallio Inscription Helps Us Date Mark's Gospel: Studies in Mark, Pt. 22
Not long ago, I wrote a post that concerned the Gallio Inscription (read that post and see some photos by clicking the following link: The Gallio Inscription ). In a nutshell, this Inscription is the only hard piece of evidence that we have to date the life of Paul. We are enabled to do this because the Inscription mentions Gallio, the proconsul before whom Paul is tried in the city of Corinth. I noted in the previous post that the Inscription is dated to around AD 51, when Gallio was proconsul and around the same time that Paul was tried before him. In the Inscription, the emperor Claudius mentions that during his 26th acclamation, Gallio was assigned this position once again. The date for this 26th acclamation is uncertain but since we know the date of his 22nd through 25th acclamations (which were all in 52 AD) as well as his 27th acclamation (which was also in 52, in August), then the 26th must have come some time in 52 AD, probably during the summer. If we acknowledge that Paul wa...