Lydia, a worshiper of God

A brief outline of the opening of Europe to the Gospel of Jesus Christ beginning with the baptism of Lydia, a Jewish woman near a city with with few Jews.

I’ll take you back to Philippi, Macedonia (geographically part of Greece) in the 1st c. superpower Empire of Rome and then continue with details of this apostolic account.

Acts of the apostles 16:12

~ A.D. 50
Paulos, Silas & Timotheos

We remained in this city some days. – v.12b

Don’t miss it:

These three apostles sent out by the Holy Spirit, worshipers of the risen Lord Jesus Christ whom Paul had encountered in Person, have just sailed across to Philippi after Paul had received a vision of a man of Macedonia asking for HELP.

Come over to Macedonia and Help us

13 And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together.

One who heard us was a woman named Lydia.. she was baptized, and her household as well..

Acts of the Apostles 16:14-15 excerpt ESV

Before we introduce you to Lydia, the woman who will become Europe’s first VIP of our second missionary journey — now arrived and residing in Macedonia — let’s glance again at the map and background of this 1st century Roman entry point to Europe across from Asia.

Philippi

Founded in 356 BC by the Macedonian King Philip II, the city developed as a “small Rome” with the establishment of the Roman Empire in the decades following the Battle of Philippi, in 42 BC.

source: unesco

• 340 BC – At age 16 he is left in charge of Macedonia during Philip’s attack on Byzantium
• 336 BC – Philip II assassinated; Alexander III becomes King, assassinates rivals, along with the League for Corinth he conquers Greek city-states and amasses an army to invade Persia.
• 334 – 325 BC – Alexander defeats Darius III, king of Persia; Tyre (just S. of 1st Antioch, the church home of Paul’s missions); and Egypt, where he founds the city of Alexandria.
• Alexander now occupied Babylon, city and province.. & invades India, defeating several local rulers.
  • source: Britannica.com

Philippi at a cultural crossroads between East and West

As Mazaeus’s appointment indicated, Alexander’s views on the empire were changing.

He had come to envisage a joint ruling people consisting of Macedonians and Persians, and this served to augment the misunderstanding that now arose between him and his people.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alexander-the-Great

This same cultural cohesion of Alexander (from ancient Greek areas and philosophies admired by Rome) is a forerunner of the Pax Romana required of Greek, Roman, Persian, Jewish and all other peoples incorporated in the the Roman Empire.

Continuing in Britannica’s description of Alexander’s final years:

This policy of racial fusion brought increasing friction to Alexander’s relations with his Macedonians, who had no sympathy for his changed concept of the empire.

His determination to incorporate Persians on equal terms in the army and the administration of the provinces was bitterly resented.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alexander-the-Great

Philippi – Battleground for the Roman Empire

To what extent Paul and Silas, both Roman citizens, Timothy born of a Jewish mother and Greek father, and Lydia from Thyatira in Asia Minor across the Aegean from Philippi knew this Alexandrian background of their combined cultures we cannot be certain. However we can be confident that all would be familiar with a more recent and decisive incursion here known as the Battle of Philippi.

3 and 23 October 42 B.C.

Paul and Silas, Roman citizens, traveled on Roman-approved commercial ships and Roman roads to Roman cities like this leading city of Philippi where they met Lydia.

It is neither Greek in one sense nor as Macedonian as its namesake. And one cultural certainty these travelers encountered after a few days in the city, PHILIPPI is NOT Jewish.

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Acts 16:13 – Morning Prayer Outside Philippi

It’s now the Sabbath. Have Paul and Silas found some Jewish men in Roman Philippi?

(IF there are at least 10, then these men would gather in a synagogue in their Macedonian/Roman city.)

16:13 τῇ τε ἡμέρᾳ τῶν σαββάτων ἐξήλθομεν ἔξω τῆς πύλης παρὰ ποταμὸν οὗ ἐνομίζομεν προσευχὴν εἶναι καὶ καθίσαντες ἐλαλοῦμεν ταῖς συνελθούσαις γυναιξίν

Apparently, NO. Not withing the acropolis of these Roman walls. So these faithful Jews seek a place of prayer.

¹³ And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together. 

And after she was baptized..

and her household as well, she urged us, saying,

“If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.”

And she prevailed upon us.

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ACTS of the apostles + To Be Continued — in Philippi

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