In this session of our Acts Bible Study, we explore chapters 17 and 18, traveling with Paul and his team through the major cities of Greece: Thessalonica, Athens, and Corinth. Be a Berean and join us! Watch with us, and if you enjoy these teachings, kindly share them to a friend.

Class notes are available here as a PDF.

If you like, you can also watch on my YouTube channel.

EXCERPT:

At Corinth, Paul didn’t even have to defend himself. Proconsul Gallio decided that he didn’t want to bother with something he saw as an internal Jewish matter.

This was a momentous decision because it gave Paul freedom to keep operating. Remember that the Jews had a privileged status: the Romans saw Judaism as a religio licita – a permitted religion. That made Jews exempt from some of the religious obligations that others had to follow. By making this ruling, Gallio was saying that as far as Rome was concerned, Christians were not different from any other Jews. That gave Paul, for the time being, protected status.

That wouldn’t last very long, and we know that the Romans viciously persecuted believers in Jesus on and off for centuries. But for the time being, the plan of the Jews at Corinth had backfired, and the Christians were free to live out their faith without government persecution.

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