PHILIPPI
(Phi·lipʹpi).
At the time of the apostle Paul’s second missionary tour this city was “the principal [or, first] city of the district of Macedonia,” though apparently not its capital. It was located in the eastern part of the district, at the N end of the Aegean Sea, not far from the district of Thracia. Paul, coming by boat from Troas, landed at Philippi’s seaport town, Neapolis, and traveled about ten miles (16 kilometers) NW along the Via Egnatia or Egnatian Way, the great commercial and military road from Asia to Rome, which ran through a mountain pass some 1,600 feet (488 meters) above sea level, and down into the Philippian plain.—Acts 16:11, 12.
The city was situated on a hill rising out of the plain, near the river Gangites (modern Angista). On the S was an extensive marsh. Philippi’s acropolis was on a large rock formation in the NE part of the city. Excavations of the ruins indicate that the Egnatian Way ran through the middle of the city and alongside it was a fair-sized forum. Amphipolis, to which Paul traveled after leaving Philippi, was apparently the capital of the district, and lay about thirty miles (48 kilometers) S-SW of Philippi. From Amphipolis, Paul went S approximately thirty miles (48 kilometers) to Apollonia, thence to Thessalonica some thirty-eight miles (61 kilometers) W, where he stayed for about three weeks before heading SW through Beroea to take a boat for Athens.
HISTORY
Philippi was originally called Crenides (Krenides, place of small fountains). Philip II of Macedon (father of Alexander the Great) took the city from the Thracians about the middle of the fourth century B.C.E. and named it after himself. There were rich gold mines in the area, and gold coins were issued in Philip’s name. About 168 B.C.E. the Roman consul Aemilius Paullus defeated Perseus, the last of the Macedonian kings, and took Philippi and surrounding territory. In 146 B.C.E. all Macedonia was formed into a single Roman province. The battle in which Octavian and Mark Antony defeated the armies of Brutus and Cassius, assassins of Julius Caesar, took place on the plain of Philippi (in 42 B.C.E.). Afterward, as a memorial of his great victory, Augustus made Philippi a Roman “colony.” (Acts 16:12) Some years later, when Octavian was made Caesar Augustus by the Roman senate, he called the town Colonia Augusta Julia Philippensis.
Its designation as a Roman colony granted the city freedom from taxes, and other privileges, among them possibly being a secondary form of Roman citizenship. The citizens therefore had a stronger attachment to and sentiment toward Rome than would otherwise have been the case. This may explain why the masters of the girl from whom the apostle Paul exorcised a demon of divination stressed the point before the magistrates, “We are Romans,” in their accusations against Paul and Silas. (Acts 16:16-24) It also would be very understandable to the Philippian Christians when Paul later wrote exhorting them to be “behaving as citizens” worthily of the good news of the Christ, and reminding them that “our citizenship exists in the heavens,” for worldly, Roman citizenship would be highly prized in Philippi, even something about which to boast.—Phil. 1:27; 3:20, Kingdom Interlinear Translation.
PAUL’S VISIT
Philippi was privileged to be the first city in Europe to hear Paul preach the good news, in about 50 C.E., during his second missionary tour. He went there in obedience to a night vision at Troas in Asia Minor, in which a Macedonian man entreated him: “Step over into Macedonia and help us.” (Acts 16:8-19) Paul and his companions, evidently including their chronicler Luke, stayed there for several days, and on the sabbath they “went forth outside the gate beside a river,” where, Luke recounts, “we were thinking there was a place of prayer.” Some think that there was no synagogue in Philippi, due to the city’s military character; that the Jews there may have been forbidden to assemble inside the city for worship. (See CAESAR, p. 273, par. 1.) In any case, Paul spoke to the women assembled there and found one, Lydia by name, a worshiper of God, who “opened her heart wide to pay attention to the things being spoken by Paul.” She and her household were baptized, and her appreciation and hospitality were so great that “she just made [Paul and his companions] come” to stay at her house.—Acts 16:11-15.
But now, after answering the call to come into Macedonia, Paul was faced with persecution in this very first city, this time not from Jewish sources, as had been the case in Galatia. The magistrates of the city acted on false accusations made by the owners of the demonized girl who had lost their income because she was no longer able to carry on her practice of prediction, from which they had made much gain. Paul and Silas were beaten with rods, thrown into prison and their feet made fast in stocks.—Acts 16:16-24.
In the middle of the night, however, as they prayed and praised God with song, the other prisoners listening, a miracle occurred. An earthquake broke the prisoners’ bonds and threw the doors open. The jailer, knowing that he would face the death penalty for loss of the prisoners committed to him, was about to kill himself when Paul called out: “Do not hurt yourself, for we are all here!” The jailer and his household then listened to Paul and Silas, took care of their stripe wounds and became baptized believers.—Acts 16:25-34.
The next morning, perhaps hearing of the miraculous occurrence, the city magistrates ordered the jailer to release Paul. But Paul was concerned with vindicating, defending and legally establishing the good news more than in immediate release. He was not going to submit to any secret “back-door” release in order to save face for the magistrates. He called attention to his own Roman citizenship and the fact that they had beaten him and Silas publicly uncondemned. No, indeed! they must openly acknowledge that they, and not the Christians, had acted unlawfully. On hearing that Paul and Silas were Romans the magistrates were struck with fear and, coming down personally, “entreated them,” brought them out and requested they leave the city.—Acts 16:35-40.
Nevertheless, Paul had established a fine congregation in Philippi, one that was always dear to his heart. Their love for him was manifested by their anxious care and provision for him, even when he was elsewhere. (Phil. 4:16) Paul visited Philippi again during his third missionary tour, and, possibly, a third time, after his release from his first imprisonment in Rome.—Acts 20:1, 2, 6; Phil. 1:19; 2:24.