Philip'pi. (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 Philippians, The Epistle to
The. At Philippi, the gospel was first preached in Europe. Lydia was
the first convert. Here too, Paul and Silas were imprisoned. Act_16:23. The Philippians sent contributions to
Paul to relieve his temporal wants.
Source:
Smith’s Bible Dictionary
Philippi
fi-lip´ī (Φίλιπποι,
Phílippoi, ethnic Φιλιππήσιος,
Philippḗsios, Phi_4:15):
1. Position and Name:
A city of Macedonia, situated in 41o 5´ North latitude and 24o
16´ East longitude. It lay on the Egnatian Road, 33 Roman miles from Amphipolis
and 21 from Acontisma, in a plain bounded on the East and North by the
mountains which lie between the rivers Zygactes and Nestus, on the West by Mt.
Pangaeus, on the South by the ridge called in antiquity Symbolum, over which
ran the road connecting the city with its seaport, NEAPOLIS (which see), 9
miles distant. This plain, a considerable part of which is marshy in modern, as
in ancient, times, is connected with the basin of the Strymon by the valley of
the Angites (Herodotus vii. 113), which also bore the names Gangas or
Gangites (Appian, Bell. Civ. iv. 106), the modern Anghista.
The ancient name. of Philippi was Crenides (Strabo vii. 331; Diodorus xvi. 3,
8; Appian, Bell. Civ. iv. 105; Stephanus Byz. under the word), so
called after the springs which feed the river and the marsh; but it was
refounded by Philip II of Macedon, the father of Alexander the Great, and
received his name.
2. History:
Appian (Bell. Civ. iv. 105) and Harpocration say that
Crenides was afterward called Daton, and that this name was changed to
Philippi, but this statement is open to question, since Daton, which became
proverbial among the Greeks for good fortune, possessed, as Strabo tells us
(vii. 331 fr. 36), “admirably fertile territory, a lake, rivers, dockyards and
productive gold mines,” whereas Philippi lies, as we have seen, some 9 miles
inland. Many modern authorities, therefore, have placed Daton on the coast at
or near the site of Neapolis. On the whole, it seems best to adopt the view of
Heuzey (Mission archeologique, 35, 62 ff) that Daton was not
originally a city, but the whole district which lay immediately to the East of
Mt. Pangaeus, including the Philippian plain and the seacoast about Neapolis.
On the site of the old foundation of Crenides, from which the Greek settlers
had perhaps been driven out by the Thracians about a century previously, the
Thasians in 360 BC founded their colony of Daton with the aid of the exiled Athenian
statesman Callistratus, in order to exploit the wealth, both agricultural and
mineral, of the neighborhood. To Philip, who ascended the Macedonian throne in
359 BC, the possession of this spot seemed of the utmost importance. Not only
is the plain itself well watered and of extraordinary fertility, but a
strongly-fortified post planted here would secure the natural land-route from
Europe to Asia and protect the eastern frontier of Macedonia against Thracian
inroads. Above all, the mines of the district might meet his most pressing
need, that of an abundant supply of gold. The site was therefore seized in 358
BC, the city was enlarged, strongly fortitled, and renamed, the Thasian
settlers either driven out or reinforced, and the mines, worked with characteristic
energy, produced over 1,000 talents a year (Diodorus xvi. 8) and enabled Philip
to issue a gold currency which in the West soon superseded the Persian darics
(G.F. Hill, Historical Greek Coins, 80 ff). The revenue thus obtained
was of inestimable value to Philip, who not only used it for the development of
the Macedonian army, but also proved himself a master of the art of bribery.
His remark is well known that no fortress was impregnable to whose walls an ass
laden with gold could be driven. Of the history of Philippi during the next 3
centuries we know practically nothing. Together with the rest of Macedonia, it
passed into the Roman hands after the battle of Pydna (168 BC), and fell in the
first of the four regions into which the country was then divided (Livy xlv.
29). In 146 the whole of Macedonia was formed into a single Roman province. But
the mines seem to have been almost, if not quite, exhausted by this time, and
Strabo (vii. 331 fr. 41) speaks of Philippi as having sunk by the time of Caesar
to a “small settlement” (κατοικία
μικρά, katoikía
mikrá). In the autumn of 42 BC it witnessed the death-struggle of
the Roman republic. Brutus and Cassius, the leaders of the band of conspirators
who had assassinated Julius Caesar, were faced by Octavian, who 15 years later
became the Emperor Augustus, and Antony. In the first engagement the army of
Brutus defeated that of Octavian, while Antony's forces were victorious over
those of Cassius, who in despair put an end to his life. Three weeks later the
second and decisive conflict took place. Brutus was compelled by his impatient
soldiery to give battle, his troops were routed and he himself fell on his own
sword. Soon afterward Philippi was made a Roman colony with the title Colonia
Iulia Philippensis. After the battle of Actium (31 BC) the colony was
reinforced, largely by Italian partisans of Antony who were dispossessed in
order to afford allotments for Octavian's veterans (Dio Cassius li. 4), and its
name was changed to Colonia Augusta Iulia (Victrix) Philippensium: It
received the much-coveted iusItalicum (Digest L. 15, 8, 8), which
involved numerous privileges, the chief of which was the immunity of its
territory from taxation.
3. Paul's First Visit:
In the course of his second missionary journey Paul set sail from Troas,
accompanied by Silas (who bears his full name Silvanus in 2Co_1:19; 1Th_1:1;
2Th_1:1), Timothy and Luke, and on the
following day reached Neapolis (Act_16:11).
Thence he journeyed by road to Philippi, first crossing the pass some 1,600 ft.
high which leads over the mountain ridge called Symbolum and afterward
traversing the Philipplan plain. Of his experiences there we have in Acts
16:12-40 a singularly full and graphic account. On the Sabbath, presumably the
first Sabbath after their arrival, the apostle and his companions went out to
the bank of the Angites, and there spoke to the women, some of them Jews,
others proselytes, who had come together for purposes of worship.
One of these was named Lydia, a Greek proselyte from Thyatira, a city of
Lydia in Asia Minor, to the church of which was addressed the message recorded
in Rev_2:18-29. She is described as a
“seller of purple” (Act_16:14), that
is, of woolen fabrics dyed purple, for the manufacture of which her native town
was famous. Whether she was the agent in Philippi of some firm in Thyatira or
whether she was carrying on her trade independently, we cannot say; her name
suggests the possibility that she was a freedwoman, while from the fact that we
hear of her household and her house (Act_16:15;
compare Act_16:40), though no mention
is made of her husband, it has been conjectured that she was a widow of some
property. She accepted the apostolic message and was baptized with her
household (Act_16:15), and insisted
that Paul and his companions should accept her hospitality during the rest of
their stay in the city. See further LYDIA.
All seemed to be going well when opposition arose from an unexpected
quarter. There was in the town a girl, in all probability a slave, who was
reputed to have the power of oracular utterance. Herodotus tells us
(vii. III) of an oracle of Dionysus situated among the Thracian tribe of the
Satrae, probably not far from Philippi; but there is no reason to connect the
soothsaying of this girl with that worship. In any case, her masters reaped a
rich harvest from the fee charged for consulting her. Paul, troubled by her
repeatedly following him and those with him crying, “These men are bondservants
of the Most High God, who proclaim unto you a way of salvation” (Act_16:17 margin), turned and commanded the
spirit in Christ's name to come out of her. The immediate restoration of the
girl to a sane and normal condition convinced her masters that all prospect of
further gain was gone, and they therefore seized Paul and Silas and dragged
them into the forum before the magistrates, probably the duumviri who
stood at the head of the colony. They accused the apostles of creating
disturbance in the city and of advocating customs, the reception and practice
of which were illegal for Rom citizens. The rabble of the market-place joined
in the attack (Act_16:22), whereupon
the magistrates, accepting without question the accusers' statement that Paul
and Silas were Jews (Act_16:20) and
forgetting or ignoring the possibility of their possessing Rom citizenship,
ordered them to be scourged by the attendant lictors and afterward to be
imprisoned. In the prison they were treated with the utmost rigor; they were
confined in the innermost ward, and their feet put in the stocks. About
midnight, as they were engaged in praying and singing hymns, while the other
prisoners were listening to them, the building was shaken by a severe
earthquake which threw open the prison doors. The jailer, who was on the point
of taking his own life, reassured by Paul regarding the safety of the
prisoners, brought Paul and Silas into his house where he tended their wounds,
set food before them, and, after hearing the gospel, was baptized together with
his whole household (Act_16:23-34).
On the morrow the magistrates, thinking that by dismissing from the town
those who had been the cause of the previous day's disturbance they could best
secure themselves against any repetition of the disorder, sent the lictors to
the jailer with orders to release them. Paul refused to accept a dismissal of
this kind. As Rom citizens he and Silas were legally exempt from scourging,
which was regarded as a degradation (1Th_2:2),
and the wrong was aggravated by the publicity of the punishment, the absence of
a proper trial and the imprisonment which followed (Act_16:37).
Doubtless Paul had declared his citizenship when the scourging was inflicted,
but in the confusion and excitement of the moment his protest had been unheard
or unheeded. Now, however, it produced a deep impression on the magistrates,
who came in person to ask Paul and Silas to leave the city. They, after
visiting their hostess and encouraging the converts to remain firm in their new
faith, set out by the Egnatian Road for Thessalonica (Act_16:38-40). How long they had stayed in
Philippi we are not told, but the fact that the foundations of a strong and
flourishing church had been laid and the phrase “for many days” (Act_16:18) lead us to believe that the time must
have been a longer one than appears at first sight. Ramsay (St. Paul the
Traveler, 226) thinks that Paul left Troas in October, 50 AD, and stayed at
Philippi until nearly the end of the year; but this chronology cannot be
regarded as certain.
Several points in the narrative of these incidents call for fuller
consideration. (1) We may notice, first, the very small part played by Jews and
Judaism at Philippi.
There was no synagogue here, as at Salamis in Cyprus (Act_13:5), Antioch in Pisidia (Act_13:14, Act_13:43),
Iconium (Act_14:1), Ephesus (Act_18:19, Act_18:26;
Act_19:8), Thessalonica (Act_17:1), Berea (Act_17:10),
Athens (Act_17:17) and Corinth (Act_18:4). The number of resident Jews was
small, their meetings for prayer took place on the river's bank, the
worshippers were mostly or wholly women (Act_16:13),
and among them some, perhaps a majority, were proselytes. Of Jewish converts we
hear nothing, nor is there any word of Jews as either inciting or joining the
mob which dragged Paul and Silas before the magistrates. Further, the whole
tone of the epistle. to this church seems to prove that here at least the
apostolic teaching was not in danger of being undermined by Judaizers. True,
there is one passage (Phi_3:2-7) in
which Paul denounces “the concision,” those who had “confidence in the flesh”;
but it seems “that in this warning he was thinking of Rome more than of
Philippi; and that his indignation was aroused rather by the vexatious
antagonism which there thwarted him in his daily work, than by any actual
errors already undermining the faith of his distant converts” (Lightfoot).
(2) Even more striking is the prominence of the Rom element in the
narrative. We are here not in a Greek or Jewish city, but in one of those Rom
colonies which Aulus Gellius describes as “miniatures and pictures of the Rom
people” (Noctes Atticae, xvi. 13).
In the center of the city is the forum (ἀγορά,
agorá, Act_16:19), and the
general term “magistrates” (ἄρχοντες,
árchontes, English Versions of the Bible, “rulers,” Act_16:19) is exchanged for the specific title
of praetors (στρατηγοί,
stratēgoí, English Versions of the Bible “magistrates,” Act_16:20, Act_16:22,
Act_16:35, Act_16:36,
Act_16:38); these officers are attended
by lictors (ῥαβδοῦχοι,
rhabdoúchoi, English Versions “sergeants,” Act_16:35, Act_16:38)
who bear the fasces with which they scourged Paul and Silas (ῥαβδίζω,
rhabdízo, Act_16:22). The
charge is that of disturbing public order and introducing customs opposed to
Roman law (Act_16:20, Act_16:21), and Paul's appeal to his Roman civitas
(Act_16:37) at once inspired the
magistrates with fear for the consequences of their action and made them
conciliatory and apologetic (Act_16:38,
Act_16:39). The title of praetor
borne by these officials has caused some difficulty. The supreme magistrates of
Roman colonies, two in number, were called duoviri or duumviri (iuri
dicundo), and that this title was in use at Philippi is proved by three
inscriptions (Orelli, Number 3746; Heuzey, Mission archeologique, 15,
127). The most probable explanation of the discrepancy is that these
magistrates assumed the title Of praetor, or that it was commonly
applied to them, as was certainly the case in some parts of the Roman world
(Cicero De lege agraria ii. 34; Horace Sat. i. 5, 34; Orelli,
Number 3785).
(3) Ramsay (St. Paul the Traveler, 200 ff) has brought forward
the attractive suggestion that Luke was himself a Philippian, and that he was
the “man of Macedonia” who appeared to Paul at Troas with the invitation to
enter Macedonia (Act_16:9).
In any case, the change from the 3rd to the 1st person in Act_16:10 marks the point at which Luke joined
the apostle, and the same criterion leads to the conclusion that Luke remained
at Philippi between Paul's first and his third visit to the city (see below). Ramsay's
hypothesis would explain (a) the fullness and vividness of the narrative
of Acts 16:11-40; (b) the emphasis laid on the importance of Philippi (Act_16:12); and (c) the fact that Paul
recognized as a Macedonian the man whom he saw in his vision, although there
was nothing either in the language, features or dress of Macedonians to mark
them out from other Greeks. Yet Luke was clearly not a householder at Philippi
(Act_16:15), and early tradition refers
to him as an Antiochene (see, however, Ramsay, in the work quoted 389 f).
(4) Much discussion has centered round the description of Philippi given
in Act_16:12. The reading of Codices
Sinaiticus, Alexandrinus, Ephraemi, etc., followed by Westcott and Hort, The
New Testament in Greek, the Revised Version (British and American), etc., is:
ἤτις ἐστὶν
πρώτη τῆς μερίδος
Μακεδονίας
πόλις κολωνία, hḗtis
estín prṓtē tḗs merídos
Makedonías pólis kolōnía. But it
is doubtful whether Makedonias is to be taken with the word which
precedes or with that which follows, and further the sense derived from the
phrase is unsatisfactory. For prōtē must mean either (1)
first in political importance and rank, or (2) the first which the apostle
reached. But the capital of the province was Thessalonica, and if tēs
meridos be taken to refer to the easternmost of the 4 districts into
which Macedonia had been divided in 168 BC (though there is no evidence that
that division survived at this time), Amphipolis was its capital and was
apparently still its most important city, though destined to be outstripped by
Philippi somewhat later. Nor is the other rendering of prōtē
(adopted, e.g. by Lightfoot) more natural. It supposes that Luke reckoned
Neapolis as belonging to Thrace, and the boundary of Macedonia as lying between
Philippi and its seaport; moreover, the remark is singularly pointless; the use
of estin rather than ḗn is against this view, nor is prōtē
found in this sense without any qualifying phrase. Lastly, the tēs
in its present position is unnatural; in Codex Vaticanus it is placed after,
instead of before, meridos, while D (the Bezan reviser) reads κεφαλἡ τῆς Μακεδονιας,
kephalḗ tḗs Makedonías. Of
the emendations which have been suggested, we may notice three: (a) for meridos
Hort has suggested Pierídos, “a chief city of Pierian Macedonia”;
(b) for prōtē tēs we may read prōtēs,
“which belongs to the first region of Macedonia”; (c) meridos may
be regarded as a later insertion and struck out of the text, in which case the
whole phrase will mean, “which is a city of Macedonia of first rank” (though
not necessarily the first city).
4. Paul's Later Visits:
Paul and Silas, then, probably accompanied by Timothy (who, however, is
not expressly mentioned in Acts between Act_16:1
and Act_17:14), left Philippi for
Thessalonica, but Luke apparently remained behind, for the “we” of Act_16:10-17 does not appear again until Act_20:5, when Paul is once more leaving
Philippi on his last journey to Jerusalem. The presence of the evangelist
during the intervening 5 years may have had much to do with the strength of the
Philippian church and its stealfastness in persecution (2Co_8:2; Phi_1:29,
Phi_1:30). Patti himself did not
revisit the city until, in the course of his third missionary journey, he
returned to Macedonia, preceded by Timothy and Erastus, after a stay of over 2
years at Ephesus (Act_19:22; Act_20:1). We are not definitely told that he
visited Philippi on this occasion, but of the fact there can be little doubt,
and it was probably there that he awaited the coming of Titus (2Co_2:13; 2Co_7:5,
2Co_7:6) and wrote his 2nd Epistle to
the Corinthians (2Co_8:1 ff; 2Co_9:2-4). After spending 3 months in Greece,
whence he intended to return by sea to Syria, he was led by a plot against his
life to change his plans and return through Macedonia (Act_20:3). The last place at which he stopped
before crossing to Asia was Philippi, where he spent the days of unleavened
bread, and from (the seaport of) which he sailed in company with Luke to Troas
where seven of his companions were awaiting him (Act_20:4-6).
It seems likely that Paul paid at least one further visit to Philippi in the
interval between his first and second imprisonments. That he hoped to do so, he
himself tells us (Phi_2:24), and the
journey to Macedonia mentioned in 1Ti_1:3
would probably include a visit to Philippi, while if, as many authorities hold,
2Ti_4:13 refers to a later stay at
Troas, it may well be connected with a further and final tour in Macedonia. But
the intercourse between the apostle and this church of his founding was not
limited to these rare visits. During Paul's first stay at Thessalonica he had
received gifts of money on two occasions from the Philippian Christians (Phi_4:16), and their kindness had been repeated
after he left Macedonia for Greece (2Co_11:9;
Phi_4:15). Again, during his first
imprisonment at Rome the Philippians sent a gift by the hand of one of their
number, Epaphroditus (Phi_2:25; Phi_4:10, Phi_4:14-19),
who remained for some time with the apostle, and finally, after a serious
illness which nearly proved fatal (Phi_2:27),
returned home bearing the letter of thanks which has survived, addressed to the
Philippian converts by Paul and Timothy (Phi_1:1).
The latter intended to visit the church shortly afterward in order to bring
back to the imprisoned apostle an account of its welfare (Phi_2:19, Phi_2:23),
but we do not know whether this plan was actually carried out or not. We
cannot, however, doubt that other letters passed between Paul and this church
besides the one which is extant, though the only reference to them is a
disputed passage of Polycarp's Epistle to the Philippians (iii. 2),
where he speaks of “letters” (ἐπιστολαί,
epistolaí) as written to them by Paul (but see Lightfoot's note on
Phi_3:1).
5. Later History of the Church:
After the death of Paul we hear but little of the church or of the town
of Philippi. Early in the 2nd century Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, was
condemned as a Christian and was taken to Rome to be thrown to the wild beasts.
After passing through Philadelphia, Smyrna and Troas, he reached Philippi. The
Christians there showed him every mark of affection and respect, and after his
departure wrote a letter of sympathy to the Antiochene church and another to
Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, requesting him to send them copies of any letters
of Ignatius which he possessed. This request Polycarp fulfilled, and at the
same time sent a letter to the Philippians full of encouragement, advice and
warning. From it we judge that the condition of the church as a whole was satisfactory,
though a certain presbyter, Valens, and his wife are severely censured for
their avarice which belied their Christian profession. We have a few records of
bishops of Philippi, whose names are appended to the decisions of the councils
held at Sardica (344 AD), Ephesus (431) and Chalcedon (451), and the see
appears to have outlived the city itself and to have lasted down to modern
times (Le Quien, Oriens Christ., II, 70; Neale, Holy Eastern Church,
I, 92). Of the destruction of Philippi no account has come down to us. The name
was perpetuated in that of the Turkish hamlet Felibedjik, but the site
is now uninhabited, the nearest village being that of Raktcha among the
hills immediately to the North of the ancient acropolis. This latter and the
plain around are covered with ruins, but no systematic excavation has yet been
undertaken. Of the extant remains the most striking are portions of the
Hellenic and Hellenistic fortification, the scanty vestiges of theater, the
ruin known among the Turks as Derekler, “the columns,” which perhaps
represents the ancient thermae, traces of a temple of Silvanus with
numerous rock-cut reliefs and inscriptions, and the remains of a triumphal arch
(Kiemer).
Literature.
The fullest account of the site and antiquities is that of Heuzey and
Daumet, Mission archeologique de Macedoine, chapters i through v and
Plan A; Leake, Travels in Northern Greece, III, 214-25; Cousinery, Voyage
dana la Macedoine, II, 1 ff; Perrot, “Daton. Neapolis. Les ruines de
Philippos,” in Revue archeologique, 1860; and Hackett, in Bible Union
Quarterly, 1860, may also be consulted. For the Latin inscriptions see Corpus
Inscriptionum Latinarum, III, 1, numbers 633-707; III, Suppl., numbers
7337-7358; for coins, B.V. Head, Historia Numorum, 192; Catalogue of
Coins in the British Museum: Macedonia, etc., 96. For the history of the
Philippian church and the narrative of Acts 16:12-40 see Lightfoot, Paul's
Epistle to the Philippians, 47-65; Ramsay, St. Paul the Traveler and
the Roman Citizen, 202-26; Conybeare and Howson, Life and Epistles of
Paul, chapter ix; Farrar, Life and Work of Paul, chapter xxv; and
the standard commentaries on the Acts - especially Blass, Acta Apostolorum
- and on Philippians.
Source:
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Philippi
(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 (359-336
B.C.). 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.) This success stirred up the enmity of the
people, and they were “shamefully entreated” (Acts 16:9-40; 1Th_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.).
Source:
Easton’s Bible Dictionary