Acts 18:14

14 But [when] Paul was about to open [his] mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, "If it was some crime or wicked villainy, O Jews, {I would have been justified in accepting} your complaint.

Acts 18:14 Meaning and Commentary

Acts 18:14

And when Paul was now about to open his mouth
In his own defence, and plead his own cause, and answer to the charge exhibited against him:

Gallio said unto the Jews, if it was matter of wrong;
of injury to any man's person or property, as murder, theft

or wicked lewdness;
as fraud, forgery, perjury, treason

O ye Jews, reason would that I should bear with you:
his sense is, that it would be according to right reason, and agreeably to his office as a judge, to admit them and their cause, and try it, and hear them patiently, and what was to be said on both sides of the question, what the charges were, and the proof of them, and what the defendant had to say for himself. The Vulgate Latin version reads, "O men Jews"; and so Beza's ancient copy.

Acts 18:14 In-Context

12 Now [when] Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews rose up with one purpose against Paul and brought him before the judgment seat,
13 saying, "This man is persuading people to worship God contrary to the law!"
14 But [when] Paul was about to open [his] mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, "If it was some crime or wicked villainy, O Jews, {I would have been justified in accepting} your complaint.
15 But if it is questions concerning a word and names and {your own law}, see to [it] yourselves! I do not wish to be a judge of these [things]."
16 And he drove them away from the judgment seat.

Footnotes 3

  • [a]. *Here "[when]" is supplied as a component of the temporal genitive absolute participle ("was about")
  • [b]. *Literally "the"; the Greek article is used here as a possessive pronoun
  • [c]. Literally "with respect to a motive I would have accepted"
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