PHILIPPI For Bro. J. Morley's The Life Of Paul Class Compiled By KL Paulson May 15, 1993    This paper presents Philippi, one of the cities where Paul planted a church.   A subjective Geographic, Ethnic, Economic, Political and Religious, etc. condition of that time is provided.   A primarily biblical history of this Church is included.   For completeness, I have embodied information about Philippi's country, Macedonia, in the first section by way of introduction to the area concerned.    'MACEDONIA. The country N. of Thessaly and the AEgean Sea, S. of the Balkan mts., extending to Trace on the E., and to Illyria on the W. There are two great plains, one watered by the Axius, which empties into the Thermaic gulf near Thessa- lonica, and the other by the Strymon, which flows by Philippi and Amphipolis into the AEgean Sea. Mt. Athos is a peninsula between these two plains. Philip and Alexander ruled here, and the Romans conquered it from Perseus (B.C. 168). In the N. T. times a proconsul of one district resided at Thessa- lonica, ruling over Macedonia, Thessaly, and a tract along the Adriatic (Acts xvi. 9, 10, 12; xix. 21, etc.). .... Haman is called a Macedonian (Esth. xvi. 10). The Maccabees mention Alexan- der, son of Philip..., who came out of the land of Chettiim and smote Darius, king of the Persians and Medes. This was the first part of Europe that received the Gospel, by the labor of Paul and his companions (Acts xvi. 9), who first preached to a small congregation of women (v. 13), on the banks of the Strymon near Philippi; and the first convert was a woman, LYDIA.' [SBD, p. 188] -- 'Macedonia, the region which lay N. of Achaia and S. of what are now called the Balkan Mts.   It was the first part of Europe in which Paul preached the Gospel, Ac. 16. 9, 10.   M. and Thessaly together constituted a Roman Province under the government of a pro- consul, who lived at Thessalonica.' [CBD, p. 66] --    Macedonia meaning 'extended land' a large and celebrated country lying north of Greece, the first part of Europe which received the Gospel directly from Paul, and an important scene of his subsequent missionary labours, and those of his companions. It was bounded by the range of Haemus or the Balken northward, by the Cambunian hills, southward, by which it is separated from Thessaly, and is divided on the east from Thrace by a less definite mountain boundary running southward from Haemus. Of the space thus enclosed, two of the most remarkable physical features are two great plains, one watered by the Axius, which comes to the sea at the Thermaic Gulf, not far from Thessalonica; the other by Strymon, which after passing near Philippi, flows out below Amphipolis. Between the mouth of these two rivers a remarkable peninsula projects, dividing itself into three points, on the farthest of which Mt. Athos rises nearly into the region of perpetual snow. Across the neck of this peninsula Paul travelled more than once with his companions. This general sketch sufficiently describes the Macedonia which was ruled over by Philip and Alexander, and which the Romans conquered from Perseus. At first the country was divided by Aemilius Paulus into four districts, but afterward was made one province and centralized under the jurisdiction of a proconsul, who resided at Thessalonica. The character of the Christians of Macedonia is set before us in the Scripture in a very favourable light. The 'candor' of the Bereans is highly commended, Acts 17:11; the Thessalonians were evidently objects of Paul's peculiar affection. I Thessalonians 2:8,17-30; 3:10; and the Philippians, besides their general freedom from blame, are noted as remarkable for their liberality and self- denial. Philippians 4:10,14-19; II Corinthians 9:2; 11:9. [TL]    'PHILIPPI. In Macedonia, 9 miles from the sea, on the banks of the deep, rapid stream Gangites (now Angista). Paul says: "on the sabbath we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made" (Acts xvi. 13). The ancient walls can be traced along the course of the river; and there are remains of a gate leading to a bridge across the stream. Philippi was a Roman military colony, originally named Krenides (springs), or Datum; and the Jews were proba- bly not permitted to worship inside of the walls. A ridge, 1600 feet high, behind the city, divided a broad plain from the bay and town of Neapolis, in Thrace. The mines produced 1000 talents of gold a year, from which Philip's coins were made. (see COIN OF MACEDONIA. p. 89). The Via Egnatia passed through it. The ruins of the city are very extensive, but the place is not inhabited.' [SBD, p. 244-245]    'The famous battle which ended the Roman Re- public, was fought on this plain, near Philippi, between armies led by Octavius Caesar and Marc Antony on one side, and on the other by Brutus and Cassius, who were defeated with their repub- lican forces (B.C. 42).' [SBD, p. 245]    'Paul visited the city a third time (Acts xx. 6), where he remained, in company with Silas, for some time. The church at Philippi was friendly to Paul, and sent him help frequently (Phil. iv. 10, 15, 18; 2 Cor. xi. 9; I Thess. ii. 2), for which, and their other kindnesses, he wrote them an Epistle from Rome.' [SBD, p. 245] -- 'Philippi, a city of Macedonia, founded by Philip, f. of Alexander the Great; visited by Paul, Ac. 16. 12-40; 20. 6; see also Phil. 1. 1; I Thes. 2. 2.   It is described as a Roman "colony", i.e. it contained a body of Roman citizens, placed there for military purposes, governed directly from Rome, and indepen- dent of provincial governors and local magis- trates.   The church there was mainly Gentile, there being no Jewish synagogue.   Paul's visit was memorable for his assertion of his rights as a Roman citizen, Ac. 16. 37.   The converts were afterward generous in their contribu- tions towards his support, Phil. 4. 15.' [CBD, p. 80] --    Philippi meaning 'lover of horses' was a city in Macedonia, about nine miles from the sea, to the northwest of the island Thasos, which is twelve miles distant from its port Neapolis, the modern Kavalla. It is situated on a plain between the ranges of Pangaeus and Haemus. The Philippi which Paul visited was a Roman colony founded by Augustus after the famous battle of Philippi, fought here between Antony and Octavius and Brutus and Cassius, B.C. 42. The original town, built by Philip of Macedonia, was probably not on the same site. Philip, when he acquired possession of the site, founded a town there named, Datus or Datum, which was probably in its origin a factory of the Phoenicians, who were the first that worked the gold mines in the mountains here, as in neighboring Thasos. The proximity of the gold mines was of course the origin of so large a city as Philippi, but the plain in which it lies is extremely fertile. The position, too, was on the main road from Rome to Asia, the Via Egnatia, which from Thessalonica to Constantinople followed the same course as the existing post road. At Philippi the gospel was first preached in Europe. Paul and Silas were imprisoned here (Acts 16:23). The Philippians sent contributions to Paul to relieve his temporal needs. [TL] THE LETTER OF PAUL TO THE PHILIPPIANS INTRODUCTION    'To the church at Philippi goes the honor of being the first known Christian congregation in what is now Europe. The occasion of its beginning is related in Acts 16:6-40. This account, however, gives no clues for understanding the Letter to the Philip- pians, since it deals with persons and issues never mentioned in the letter and ignores those which the letter does mention. The interest of the Acts nar- rative is in Paul, and the founding of a church in the city, though implied (Acts 16:40b), is never described.' [IVP, p. 845]    'Philippi, a Macedonian city located some 10 miles from the Aegean Sea (...), had been made a Roman colony. The church there ap- pears to have been almost entirely Gentile--note that Jewish sabbath worship took place outside the city and apparently only women attended (Acts 16:13). Despite the unhappy circumstances in which Paul had to cut short his first visit (Acts 16:39b-40) the church took root and became the only congregation that supported his work financially (4:14-16; cf. II Cor. 11:9)--another key fact that Acts ignores. Paul stayed in touch with these friends through their gifts, brought by members such as Epaphroditus (2:25-30), and presumably visited them again (cf. Acts 19:21; 20:1-3). All this took place in the decade beginning ca. A.D. 50.' [IVP, p. 845]    'Place and Date of Composition. It is not clear where and when Paul wrote Phil. The traditional view is that he did so at Rome near the end of his life, 3 or more years after his last visit to the church. The author was a prisoner (1:12-13, 17; 2:17, 23), and Paul is known to have been in prison for at least 2 years at Caesarea (Acts 24:27) and then under house arrest for 2 years at Rome (Acts 28:16, 30-31). Al- though Caesarea has been advocated by a few scholars, more have preferred Rome.' [IVP, p. 845]    The case for Rome rests largely on the references to ‘praetorian’ "the palace" (1:13) and to "Caesar's household" (4:22). The praetorian guard was an elite military unit established by Augustus as the emperor's bodyguard. The Greek word elsewhere in the NT is rendered "Praetorium" (e.g. Mark 15: 16; Acts 23:35), meaning a government headquarters building such as existed in many cities of the Roman Empire. "Caesar's household" refers to the official staff--a term used of those in the service of the im- perial government both in Rome and throughout the empire. These phrases, then, favor but do not require Rome as the place of writing.' [IVP, p. 845-846]    '....'    'In sum, then, the case for Rome rests on what we know about Paul's imprisonment from Acts but is undercut by what we may rightly infer from Phil. itself. ....' [IVP, p. 846]    'If Phil. was written from Rome it dates from the end of Paul's career, ca. 60-62. ....' [IVP, p. 846] --    I. Time, Place, and Occasion of Philippians. The indications of the time and place of this Epistle are unusually clear. It is written by Paul 'in bonds' (Philippians 1:7?-13?); in the Praetorium (Philip. 1:13?), that is, under the charge of the Praetorian guard; it sends greeting from the 'saints of Caesar's household' (Philip. 4:21?); it expresses an expectation of some crisis in his imprisonment (Philip. 1:20-26?), and a confident hope of revisiting Philippi (Philip. 1:26?; 2:24?). All these indications place it in the Roman imprisonment of Paul -- which we know (Acts 28:30?) to have lasted without trial or release for 'two whole years,' and which certainly began about A.D. 61. The date of the Epistle must therefore be fixed about the year A.D. 62 or 63. [GEP]    Nor is the occasion of the Epistle less obvious. The Church of Philippi now, as at an earlier time (Philippians 4:10-19?), had sent contributions to Paul necessities, under the distress and destitution of imprisonment, when he was unable to maintain himself by the labour of his hands, as he had formerly done at Thessalonica, Corinth, and Ephesus. Epaphroditus, their messenger, through his affectionate exertions on Paul's behalf, had fallen into dangerous illness, and on his 'convalescence' had been seized with home-sickness, aggravated by the uneasiness of knowing that his danger had been reported to his friends at home (Philip. 2:25-30?). Paul, therefore, sent him back with his Letter, the immediate object of which was to convey his thanks and blessing for the generosity of the Philippians, and to commend warmly the devotion of Epaphroditus, which had been in great degree the cause of his illness. [GEP]    II. The church to which it was written. [Omit.] The foundation of the church had been laid amidst a persecution in which the Roman magistrates, with a characteristic dislike of all foreign superstitions likely to lead to uproar, and a characteristic disregard of justice towards two or three obscure Jews, simply played into the hands of mob violence. The step which Paul afterwards took of asserting his citizenship and forcing the magistrates to confess their wrong-doing (Acts 16:37-38) looks like a precaution to render the recurrence of arbitrary persecution less likely after his departure. But we gather from Philippians 1:27-30 that the church had still, like the sister Church at Thessalonica (I Thessalonians 1:6; 2:14) and the other Macedonian churches (II Corinthians 8:1-2), to undergo the same conflict of suffering from their adversaries, which they had seen in him. It grew up under the bracing air of trial, with a peculiar stedfastness, warm heartedness, and simplicity, apparently unvexed by the speculative waywardness of Corinth, or the wild heresies of Ephesus or Colosse. Again like the Thessalonian Church, its dangers were mainly practical (see Philip. 3); the Judaising influence was probably foreign and not very formidable; the tendencies to 'Antinomian profligacy' (Philip. 3:17-21), to some division by 'party spirit' (Philip. 2:1-4; 4:2-3), to occasional 'despondency' under trial (Philip. 1:28), hardly appear to have affected the church widely or seriously. In its conditon, accordingly, Paul could rejoice almost without reserve of sorrow or anxiety. [GEP]    Of Paul's subsequent visit(s?) to Philippi we have no full record. We cannot doubt that he visited the city on his way from Ephesus to Macedonia and Greece on the third missionary circuit (Acts 20:3). The common tradition, exceeding probable in itself, dates the Second Epistle to the Corinthians from Philippi on that occasion. We know (Acts 20:6) that it was from Philippi that he started, some months after, on his last journey to Jerusalem. At a period subsequent? to Philippians, we learn (I Timothy 1:3) that Paul, apparently after a visit to Ephesus, "went into Macedonia" after this first? captivity, and so, no doubt, fulfilled his hope of revisiting this well-beloved church. After this we have no notice of the church in history till we read of their kindly reception of Ignatius on his way to martyrdom, and study the Epistle of Polycarp to them, written shortly after, mainly practical and 'hortatory', and implying, with but slight reservation, a still strong and vigorous Christianity, and a constant grateful memory of the great Apostle. [Omit.] Tertullian also alludes to it (de Praescr. xxxvi.) as one of the churches where the 'authentic letters of the Apostles' -- no doubt, Philippians itself -- were read. Afterwards we have little reference to it in church history. Like Colosse, it sank into insignificance. [GEP] BIBLIOGRAPHY SBD = SMITH'S BIBLE DICTIONARY <-- Includes Apocrypha references. CBD = CONCISE BIBLE DICTIONARY    (Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge    The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1RP    32 East 57th Street, New York, NY 10022, USA) TL = Thayer's Lexicon IVP = THE LETTER OF PAUL TO THE PHILIPPIANS by Leander E. Keck in INTERPRETER'S ONE-VOLUME COMMENTARY <-- Uses some perversions.  GEP = THE EPISTLES TO THE GALATIANS EPHESIANS and PHILIPPIANS WITH COMMENTARY by W. Sanday, D.D. and Alfred Barry, D.D. Edited by Charles John Ellicott, D.D. (Cassell and Company, Limited, New York, 1910)