Achaia

AI summary: Achaia is significant in the New Testament because it names the southern Greek province in which major Christian communities formed. Paul's work there, especially around Corinth, gives Achaia an important place in missionary travel, teaching, and the growth of Gentile churches. It is often paired conceptually with Macedonia, together marking the Christian expansion into Greece. The cross references present Achaia as a major provincial setting for apostolic ministry and church development.¹

The name originally of a narrow strip of territory in Greece, on the north-west of the Peloponnesus. Subsequently it was applied by the Romans to the whole Peloponnesus, now called the Morea, and the south of Greece. It was then one of the two provinces (Macedonia being the other) into which they divided the country when it fell under their dominion. It is in this latter enlarged meaning that the name is always used in the New Testament (Acts 18:12, 27; 19:21; Rom. 15: 26; 16:5, etc.). It was at the time when Luke wrote the Acts of the Apostles under the proconsular form of government; hence the appropriate title given to Gallio as the “deputy,” i.e., proconsul, of Achaia (Acts 18:12). ³