Macedonia in the Bible Encyclopedia - ISBE

mas-e-do'-ni-a (Makedonia, ethnic Makedon,): I. THE MACEDONIAN PEOPLE AND LAND II. HISTORY OF MACEDONIA 1. Philip and Alexander 2. Roman Intervention 3. Roman Conquest 4. Macedonia a Roman Province 5. Later History III. PAUL AND MACEDONIA 1. Paul's First Visit 2. Paul's Second Visit 3. Paul's Third Visit 4. Paul's Later Visits IV. THE MACEDONIAN CHURCH 1. Prominence of Women 2. Marked Characteristics 3. Its Members LITERATURE A country lying to the North of Greece, afterward enlarged and formed into a Roman province; it is to the latter that the term always refers when used in the New Testament. I. The Macedonian People and Land. Ethnologists differ about the origin of the Macedonian race and the degree of its affinity to the Hellenes. But we find a well-marked tradition in ancient times that the race comprised a Hellenic element and a non-Hellenic, though Aryan, element, closely akin to the Phrygian and other Thracian stocks. The dominant race, the Macedonians in the narrower sense of the term, including the royal family, which was acknowledged to be Greek and traced its descent through the Temenids of Argos back to Heracles (Herodotus v.22), settled in the fertile plains about the lower Haliacmon (Karasu or Vistritza) and Axius (Vardar), to the North and Northwest of the Thermaic Gulf. Their capital, which was originally at Edessa or Aegae (Vodhena), was afterward transferred to Pella by Philip II. The other and older element--the Lyncestians, Orestians, Pelagonians and other tribes--were pushed back northward and westward into the highlands, where they struggled for generations to maintain their independence and weakened the Macedonian state by constant risings and by making common cause with the wild hordes of Illyrians and Thracians, with whom we find the Macedonian kings in frequent conflict. In order to maintain their position they entered into a good understanding from time to time with the states of Greece or acknowledged temporarily Persian suzerainty, and thus gradually extended the sphere of their power. II. History of Macedonia. Herodotus (viii.137-39) traces the royal line from Perdiccas I through Argaeus, Philip I, Aeropus, Alcetas and Amyntas I to Alexander I, who was king at the time of the Persian invasions of Greece. He and his son and grandson, Perdiccas II and Archelaus, did much to consolidate Macedonian power, but the death of Archelaus (399 BC) was followed by 40 years of disunion and weakness. 1. Philip and Alexander: With the accession of Philip II, son of Amyntas II, in 359 BC, Macedonia came...