Welcome and thank you for taking a bible break to test your knowledge of God's word.
This week's question:

During the time of the early church, Rome governed Israel and an officer would be commissioned by Rome be chief magistrate over a foreign area that he would reside in and help safe guard the interest of Rome. While Jesus walked this earth, the Jews were looking for the Messiah to lead them to victory over Rome so that the kingdom that they hoped for would be established on this earth, "When therefore the people saw the sign which He had performed, they said, 'This is of the truth the prophet who is to come into the world.' Jesus therefore perceiving that they were intending to come and take Him by force, to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone." (John 6:14-15). So too was Jesus to stand before the symbol of Rome before Pilot and allowed them to put him to the cross.

That bring us to our question, "Who was the proconsul of Achaia?". Paul , before his conversion, was a diligent persecutor of the church. But, after he saw the light (Acts 9:3), so to speak, and heeded the words of Jesus by going to Damascus and being baptized to wash away his sins (Acts 22:16), which included having Christians put to death (Acts 26:10), the Jews that were trying to hold onto the Old Testament Law were frustrated by one that was so dedicated to the Old Law was now trying to show a new path, "But Saul kept increasing in strength and confounding the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that this Jesus is the Christ. And when many days had elapsed, the Jews plotted together to do away with him, but their plot became known to Saul. And they were also watching the gates by day and night so that they may put him to death; but his disciples took him by night, and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a large basket." (Acts 9:22-25) "And he was with them moving about freely in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord. And he was talking and arguing with the Hellenistic Jews; but they were attempting to put him to death." (Acts 9:28-29).

On Paul's second missionary journey, after preaching on Mars Hill in Athens, he left there and went to Corinth where he stayed with Priscilla and Aquilla who were tentmakers as himself. Each Sabbath (Saturday), Paul reasoned in the Synagogue, as he tried to persuade the Jews and Greeks that Jesus is the Christ, "But when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul began devoting himself completely to the word, solemnly testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. And when they resisted and blasphemed, he shook his garments and said to them, 'Your blood be upon your own heads! I am clean. From now on I shall go to the Gentiles. And he departed from there and went to a house of a certain man named Titius Justus, a worshipper of God, whose house was next to the synagogue. And Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, believed in the Lord with all his household, and many of the Corinthians when they heard were believing and being baptized. And the Lord said to Paul in the night by a vision, 'Do not be afraid any longer, but go on speaking and do not be silent; for I am with you, and no man will attack you in order to harm you, for I have many people in this city.' And he settled there a year and six months, teaching the word among them." (Acts 18:5-11).

Just as Jesus faced false charges before his accusers the night before His crucifixion, so did Paul face them as we turn to the answer of our question in that same chapter and read, "But while Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews with one accord rose up against Paul and brought him before the judgment seat, saying, 'This man persuades men to worship God contrary to the Law.' But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, 'If it were a matter of wrong or of vicious crime, O Jews, it would be reasonable for me to put up with you; but if there are questions about words and names and your own law, look after it yourselves; I am unwilling to be a judge of these matters.' And he drove them away from the judgment seat." (Acts 18:12-16).

So there we have the answer to our question as the proconsul of Achaia is "Gallio", who was not concerned about their religious doctrine of the Old Testament versus the New Testament, but only of a wrong or violent crime of a secular nature was broken, would he listen to the matter! Interestingly enough, the Jews were not too happy with his words as they showed their displeasure, "And they all took hold of Sosthenes, the leader of the synagogue, and began beating him in front of the judgment seat. And Gallio was not concerned about any of these things." (Acts 18:17).

Let us be as bold as Paul in standing for truth, as he says to the Hebrew brethren, "Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary and lose heart." (Hebrews 12:1-3).