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philippi Summary and Overview

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philippi in Easton's Bible Dictionary

(1.) Formerly Crenides, "the fountain," the capital of the province of Macedonia. It stood near the head of the Sea, about 8 miles north-west of Kavalla. It is now a ruined village, called Philibedjik. Philip of Macedonia fortified the old Thracian town of Crenides, and called it after his own name Philippi (B.C. 359-336). In the time of the Emperor Augustus this city became a Roman colony, i.e., a military settlement of Roman soldiers, there planted for the purpose of controlling the district recently conquered. It was a "miniature Rome," under the municipal law of Rome, and governed by military officers, called duumviri, who were appointed directly from Rome. Having been providentially guided thither, here Paul and his companion Silas preached the gospel and formed the first church in Europe. (See LYDIA T0002339.) This success stirred up the enmity of the people, and they were "shamefully entreated" (Acts 16:9-40; 1 Thess. 2:2). Paul and Silas at length left this city and proceeded to Amphipolis (q.v.). (2.) When Philip the tetrarch, the son of Herod, succeeded to the government of the northern portion of his kingdom, he enlarged the city of Paneas, and called it Caesarea, in honour of the emperor. But in order to distinguish it from the Caesarea on the sea coast, he added to it subsequently his own name, and called it Caesarea-Philippi (q.v.).

philippi in Smith's Bible Dictionary

(named from Philip of Macedonia), a city of Macedonia about nine miles from the sea, to the northwest of the island of Thasos which is twelve miles distant from its port Neapolis, the modern Kavalla. It is situated in a plain between the ranges of Pangaeus and Haemus. The Philippi which St. 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 remains which strew the ground near the modern Turkish village Bereketli are no doubt derived from that city. The original town, built by Philip of Macedonia, was probably not exactly on the same site. Philip, when he acquired possession of the site, found there a town 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 the neighboring Thasos. The proximity of the goldmines was of course the origin of so large a city as Philippi, but the plain in which it lies is of extraordinary fertility. 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. On St. Paul's visits to Philippi, see the following article. At Philippi the gospel was first preached in Europe. Lydia was the first convert. Here too Paul and Silas were imprisoned. #Ac 16:23| The Philippians sent contributions to Paul to relieve his temporal wants.

philippi in Schaff's Bible Dictionary

PHILIP'PI (see Philip), the chief city of the eastern division of Macedonia, situated near the borders of Thrace and 8 miles north-west of Neapolis, which was its seaport. It lay between two mountain-ranges, and a paved Roman road led over the steep range Symbolum from Neapolis to Philippi, over which Paul went. History. - The place was at first called Crenides, or "fountains," from its numerous springs. It also at one time bore the name of Datum. Philip, the father of Alexander the Great, took it from the Thracians, garrisoned it as a frontiertown, and gave it his name. It is made famous by the noted battle of Philippi, fought, b.c. 42, between Octavius and Antony on the one side, and Brutus and Cassius on the other. In honor of this victory Augustus made Philippi a "colony." These colonies were miniature Romes established on foreign soil. The Roman law was administered, and the Roman language was used even among natives who spoke Greek. Scripture References. - Philippi was the first place in Europe to receive the gospel. Paul and Silas preached there; Lydia became a convert; the apostles cast out the "spirit of divination" from a damsel; were thrown into prison and miraculously delivered; the jailer was converted. Acts 16. Afterward, Paul revisited Philippi, and perhaps remained for a considerable time. Acts 20:1-6. The Christians of that city on four occasions sent contributions for his support, and he wrote to them the Epistle to the Philippians. Ignatius visited the city, a.d. 107, on his way to Rome, where he suffered martyrdom, and Polycarp sent the church at Philippi all the letters of Ignatius which Sardis had received, thus keeping up their sympathy with the suffering Christians. Present appearance. - The ruins of the citadel are still seen on the summit of a rounded hill. The circuit of the walls which enclosed the hill and a part of the plain can be traced. Next to the theatre is a temple of Silvanus, and various tablets show the list of donors, the members of the sacred college, etc. Four massive pillars mark the site of the forum, where the apostles were publicly scourged. About 10 furlongs to the west of Philippi is a small river called the Gangas or Gangites, now the Bournabachi, which is probably the place where the Jews had their place of prayer.

philippi in Fausset's Bible Dictionary

A city of Macedon, in a plain between the Pangaeus arid Haemus ranges, nine miles from the sea. Paul from the port Neapolis (Kavalla) on the coast (Acts 16:11) reached Philippi by an ancient paved road over the steep range Symbolum (which runs from the W. end of Haemus to the S. end of Pangaeus) in his second missionary journey, A.D 51. The walls are traced along the stream; at 350 ft. from it is the site of the gate through which Paul went to the place of prayer by the river's (Gangites) side, where the dyer Lydia was converted, the firstfruits of the gospel in Europe. (See LYDIA.) Dyed goods were imported from Thyatira to the parent city Philippi, and were dispersed by pack animals among the mountaineers of Haemus and Pangaeus. The Satriae tribe had the oracle of Dionysus, the Thracian prophet god. The "damsel with the spirit of divination" may have belonged to this shrine, or else to Apollo's (as the spirit is called "Pythoness," Greek), and been hired by the Philippians to divine for hire to the country folk coming to the market. She met Paul several days on his way to the place of prayer, and used to cry out on each occasion "these servants of the most high God announce to us the way of salvation." Paul cast out the spirit; and her owners brought him and Silas before the magistrates, the duumvirs, who inflicted summary chastisement, never imagining they were Romans. Paul keenly felt this wrong (Acts 16:37), and took care subsequently that his Roman privilege should not be set at nought (Acts 22:25; 1 Thessalonians 2:2). Philippi was founded by Philip of Macedon, in the vicinity of the famed gold mines, on the site "the springs" (Kremides). Augustus founded the Roman "colony" to commemorate his victory over Brutus and Cassius Acts 16:12), Acts 16:42 B.C., close to the ancient site, on the main road from Europe to Asia by Brundusium, Dyrrachium, across Epirus to Thessalonica, and so forward by Philippi. Philippi was "the first (i.e. farthest from Rome and first which Paul met in entering Macedon) city of the district" called Macedonia Prima, as lying farthest eastward, not as KJV "the chief city." Thessalonica was chief city of the province, and Amphipolis of the district "Macedonia Prima." A "colony" (accurately so named by Luke as distinguished from the Greek apoikia) was Rome reproduced in miniature in the provinces (Jul. Gellius, 16:13); its inhabitants had Roman citizenship, the right of voting in the Roman tribes, their own senate and magistrates, the Roman law and language. That the Roman "colonia," not the Greek apoikia is used, marks the accuracy of Acts 16:12. Paul visited Philippi again on his way from Ephesus into Macedon (Acts 20:1), and a third time on his return from Greece (Corinth) to Syria by way of Macedon (Acts 20:3; Acts 20:6). The community of trials for Christ's sake strengthened the bond which united him and the Philippian Christians (Philemon 1:28-30). They alone supplied his wants twice in Thessalonica soon after he left them (Philemon 4:15-16); a third time, through Epaphroditus, just before this epistle (Philemon 4:10; Philemon 4:18; 2 Corinthians 11:9). Few Jews were in Philippi to sow distrust between him and them. No synagogue, but merely an oratory (proseuchee), was there. The check to his zeal in being forbidden by the Spirit to enter Asia, Bithynia, and Mysia, and the miraculous call to Macedon, and his success in Philippi and the love of the converts, all endeared it to him. Yet the Philippians needed to be forewarned of the Judaizing influence which might assail their church at any time as it had crept into the Galatian churches (Philemon 3:2). The epistle (Philemon 4:2-3), in undesigned coincidence with the history (Acts 16:13-14), implies that females were among the prominent church members. Its people were poor, but most liberal (2 Corinthians 8:1-2); persecuted, but faithful: only there was a tendency to dissension which Paul reproves (Philemon 1:27; Philemon 2:1-4; Philemon 2:12; Philemon 2:14; Philemon 4:2). In A.D. 107 the city was visited by Ignatius, who passed through on his way to martyrdom at Rome. Immediately after Polycarp wrote to the Philippians, sending at their request a copy of all the letters of Ignatius which the church of Smyrna had; so they still retained the same sympathy with sufferers for Christ as in Paul's days. Their religion was practical and emotional, not speculative; hence but little doctrine and quotation of the Old Testament occur in the epistle of Paul to them. The gold mines furnished the means of their early liberality, but were a temptation to covetousness, against which Polycarp warns them. Their graces were doubtless not a little helped by the epistle and the oral teaching of the great apostle.