Acts 18:17 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Then all the Greeks took Sosthenes,— The Jews did not pay a proper regard to Gallio's orders: they had indeed the power of scourging in their synagogues whom they thought proper, of their own nation and religion: but they were at present so enraged and insolent, as to seize upon Sosthenes, who had been one of the chief rulers of their synagogue, but was now, it is most likely, become a convert to Christianity, and tobeat him,— τυπτειν,— even before the tribunal. However, Gallio regarded none of these things; all their insolence could not provoke him to inter-meddle, as long as they beat only one of their own people; and though it was not in the synagogue, but before the tribunal, he chose rather to let it pass, as considering, very probably, the mutinous temper of the Jews, which rather increased by opposition.