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Tag: Philippi

  • A cultural clash at the Agora in Roman Philippi

    A cultural clash at the Agora in Roman Philippi

    a Roman Government of Greek Culture

    The Roman-built forum in Philippi with its bustling traditional Greek agora resembled the forum in Rome (cover-photo remains of the Roman forum pillars shows some of the grandeur of these most-public areas of the Empires greatest cities.

    Archaeological Site of Philippi: General view of the forum with adjacent agora marketplace
    Archaeological Site of Philippi: General view of the forum

    Similar-sized pillars in the foreground of the Philippi Forum and agora (to the R) in this aerial view of the archaeological ruins at Philippi gives us a glimpse at the size and importance of this Macedonian City-State namesake of the father of Alexander the Great – a second Rome at the head of the Aegean.

    roman forum
    Roman Forum

    Agora

    Romans call it the public square, others the marketplace — Greeks called it the agora.

    From their own ancient traditions people worshiped there, bought and sold goods, conducted most public aspects of government over the governed and frequently gathered at the agora for general celebrations of social life preceding both religious and private parties.

    Everybody’s there for business seven days a week. The agora was where the paths of the powerful crossed publically with every-day classes of the city-state and also slaves employed to the gain of all.

    The Hellenist agora suited Rome as a place where Roman citizens could mingle with their colonists in Macedonia or any other defeated foe. Roman government was conducted formally from an adjacent forum and pavement for and gathering of citizens, people or slaves before the Prefect.

    You may not agree with my overview of the agora condensing some 500 years back to ancient Greece up to the era of Rome’s first century dominance of all of Europe, but as always check my sources for more details. More later.

    Philippi was ROME in western Macedonia.

    Antioch - Crossroads of Christianity and map of 1sr c. AD Roman Empire
    .. and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. Acts of the Apostles 11:25b NASB

    We began an introduction to Philippi last time which partially answered what Alexander the Great has to do with a second missionary journey of the apostle Paulos and Luke’s account of the ACTS of this 1st c. A.D. Roman citizen in a city of Greece.

    a few additional thoughts that may change your mind about the significance of Philippi
    • Greece is NOT a country
    • City-States of ancient Macedon & Greece were separate from each other
    • Democracy gave way to Empire
    • Philippi was named for Emperor Alexander’s father
    • Alexander died in the same Susa of Persia and Babylon where the Jews had been taken previously
    • Augustus Caesar (mentioned in Luke’s Gospel) is the same Octavian who had defeated Brutus and Cassius in the Battle of Philippi
    • Roman roads connected the land all across Eurasia
    • Philippi as a port between Rome and Alexandria was strategically important SO..

    Rome had rebuilt Philippi as a ROMAN city.

    Think of Philippi as a 1st c. New YORK City to Roman colonies of a ‘new world’ similar to expansion seventeen centuries later when a current Roman conquest to the west Britannia would rule the seas.

    Enter Paul and Silas apostles sent into all the world from a gateway Roman city of Philippi.

    Acts of Paul and Silas

    “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.”

    v. 17b – a slave girl who had a spirit of divination

    “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.”

    v. 18b – Paul, to the spirit in her

    And it came out that very hour.

    We don’t know how many more days have passed in Philippi, but Luke records that the young slave girl no longer has any demonic power to profit her owners. And of course these influential men want justice against any men who have impeded their profit by evil means.

    19 But when her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers.

    More about Philippi’s Forum & Agora

    We need to see the Philippi of A.D. 50 as Roman citizens and Hellenist merchants of this important city would have viewed this scene of commerce interrupted by these out-of-towners.

    forum adjacent to agora of Philippi ruins
    ruins of Forum in Philippi adjacent to agora

    agora, in ancient Greek cities, an open space that served as a meeting ground for various activities of the citizens.

    Agora – source Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “agora”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 15 Dec. 2017, https://www.britannica.com/topic/agora. Accessed 13 March 2023.

    • surrounded by public buildings and by temples. Colonnades, sometimes containing shops, or stoae, often enclosed the space, and statues, altars, trees, and fountains adorned it.
    • the agora influenced the development of the Roman forum and was, in turn, influenced by it. The forum, however, was conceived in a more rigid manner than the agora and became a specific, regular, open area surrounded by planned architecture.
    • meetings devoted to ostracism were still held in the agora, where the main tribunal remained.
    • A distinction was maintained between commercial and ceremonial agoras
    • Men accused of murder and other crimes were forbidden to enter it before their trials. Free men went there not only to transact business and to act as jurors but also to talk and idle

    Democracy of the Marketplace

    20 And when they had brought them to the magistrates, they said,

    “These men are Jews, and they are disturbing our city. 21 They advocate customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to accept or practice.” 

    22 The crowd joined in attacking them,

    and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods.

    23 And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely.

    24 Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.

    ACTS of Paul and Silas — To Be Continued…

  • A Python of Prophesy Stalking Paul in Philippi

    A Python of Prophesy Stalking Paul in Philippi

    Who is this soothsaying python of Philippi?

    Luke mentions this woman in Acts 16 who follows Paul, Silas and Timothy around as they frequent a place of prayer down by the river.

    She may not have had such a nickname but her presence foretells the inevitable upcoming skirmishes between good and evil in Europe.

    Acts of the apostles 16:16

    As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling. 17 She followed Paul and us, crying out,

    “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.”

    She’s right!

    Who is this girl?

    Why is a slave girl following these apostles sent out by the Holy Spirit of the Most High God?

    Luke continues by telling the reader:

    18 And this she kept doing for many days. 

    This Philippian slave girl continually followed them back and forth between the wall of Philippi and their place of prayer down by the Krenides River near town.

    Mythical and 1st c. Greece

    Many first century cultural subtleties escape our 21st century eyes. This is especially true of 1st century Greece.

    Paul understands the people of Macedonia much more than we will.

    Luke reveals more about Paul’s challenge ahead in this first European missionary battle about to take place in Philippi between good and evil.

    Philippi is an important Roman city unlike the small mountainous towns we just left. This incident is central to events about to take place.

    This girl is a slave. In the Roman empire her role is ordinary where more than one in ten people (perhaps more than 10% in Philippi) are slaves owned by and performing their labors for someone in town.

    Roman men, their families and slaves settled here in Macedonia live their everyday lives steeped in the myths and idolatries of a Hellenist lifestyle foreign to our 21st century cultural-inclusiveness and geometrically opposed to the Lord God and Christ Jesus.

    Mysteries of a higher and spiritual plane impact men and women in unknown and partially evident ways.

    Certain messengers of darkness, seers of the divine such as this young girl, become actors of revelation in the unseen battles between good and evil. These diviners of the oracles of darkness typically shun exposure to the Very Light of The Most High God.

    pneuma python – the spirit of divination

    Luke’s account of Acts begins with the power of the HOLY SPIRIT, of course — and therein lies the battle in the heavenly places between that which is HOLY [hagios] and that which is unholy.

    πύθων – pythōn

    From Putho (the name of the region where Delphi, the seat of the famous oracle, was located) – source: BlueLetterBible.org

    Parnassos, son of the nymph Kleodora – source Wikipedia.org

    Mount Parnassus [Python] near Corinth Greece
    oracle of the snake charmer

    Python – myth & mystery of the oracle

    DIVINATION .. a spirit by which she predicted the future

    .. by supernatural means. ..a fortune teller,

    μαντεύομαι –manteuomai from a derivative of G3105 (meaning a prophet, as supposed to rave through inspiration); to divine, i.e. utter spells (under pretense of foretelling:—by soothsaying.

    The young slave girl in Philippi is a soothsayer for her owner.

    “These men are slaves of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation.”

    Acts of the apostles 16:17b Legacy Standard Bible

    Since as sons and daughters of Adam and Eve we have partaken of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, what conclusion must we draw from the source of her magical insight?

    Paul understood her evil and super-natural source of knowledge. He may have been familiar with Greek mythology of the Oracle of Delphi (as are some of us).

    The Apostle certainly knew Scriptural instances of such knowledge, even one by his Hebrew namesake.

    The Witch at Endor

    1 Samuel 28:

    3 Now Samuel had died, and all Israel had mourned for him and buried him in Ramah, his own city. And Saul had put the mediums and the necromancers out of the land…

    6 And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him, either by dreams, or by Urim, or by prophets. 7 Then Saul said to his servants, “Seek out for me a woman who is a medium, that I may go to her and inquire of her.” And his servants said to him, “Behold, there is a medium at En-dor.”

    Previously, on Cypress

    And Paul was more recently familiar with encountering such spiritual battles as the Apostle engaged a Jewish magician on Cypress.

    Elymas the magician, AKA Bar-Jesus

    But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said,

    “You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time.”

    Immediately mist and darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand..

    Acts of the Apostles 13:9-11a
    Opposed to the Gospel at the Gate: Bar-Jesus
    READ more about this earlier incident above.

    THESE Biblical encounters challenge the 21st century view of all mystery being explainable by science and logic. Even Christians struggle to image the higher reality of powers and principalities of the heavenly places.

    More of Greek Myths & false gods

    We will return to 1st c. Philippi shortly, but first some more background into the culture of these Roman cities in Greece.

    Oracle of Delphi

    source: ehistory.OSU.edu

    Source: Britannica.com

    a python at a river's edge

    The world famous Oracle of Delphi played an influential role in ancient history. For fourteen centuries it helped determine the course of empires. The prophesying was abolished in the 4th century as it conflicted with Christian beliefs that were at that time being embraced by Rome.

    Preston Chesser, Professor Dept of History, The Ohio State University

    A booming industry grew up around the Oracle. Temples were built and rebuilt, priests were trained, rituals evolved and sacrifices were performed. Priests interpreted the incoherent utterances of the Pythia. Presents were brought to both placate the deity and in the hope of influencing a positive prophesy. The Delphic temple itself became one of the largest “banks” in the world. Delphi became a center for banking and commerce.

    oracle, (Latin oraculum from orare, “to pray,” or “to speak”) – source Britannica.com

    DO NOT MISS THIS! Paul, Silas, Timothy and others have gone down to the river to pray. 
So has the young slave girl who speaks revelation of the identity of these apostles of God.

    The most famous ancient oracle was that of Apollo at Delphi, located on the slopes of Mt. Parnassus above the Corinthian Gulf. Traditionally, the oracle first belonged to Mother Earth (Gaea) but later was either given to or stolen by Apollo.

    Oracles delivered through incubation were believed to come from chthonian (underworld) powers..

    A cultural ACT against idolatry.

    18 And this she kept doing for many days.

    Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, 

    “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.”
    And it came out that very hour.

    Acts of the Apostle Paul [16:18b ESV]

    SO WHAT HAPPENS when a soul is freed from an evil spirit who has given mysterious knowledge by the powers hidden in the recesses of life’s light?

    The slave girl no longer posses the power that has possessed her and therefore can no longer give oracles of value to her owner.

    You don't believe in such power beyond your 21st century scientifically enlightened knowledge, do you? 

I have encountered such evil attached to a place or person. 
Perhaps you have as well, yet were deceived by angels (messengers) of darkness in the unseen places or even the pulpit of false teaching.

Jesus and the Apostles warned the Church against such evil. Paul acted against it by the Power of the Holy Spirit.

    19 But when her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers. 

    ACTS of the apostles Paul and Silas — To Be Continued — in the town square of Philippi…

  • Lydia a Worshipper Down By The River

    Lydia a Worshipper Down By The River

    |:”WE’RE GOING DOWN TO THE RIVER 😐 TO PRAY”

    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

    Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony.

    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
    And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. – Acts 16:10

    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.

    Krenidas River near Philippi Macedonia where Paul baptized Lydia
    illustration of Krenides River near Philippi

    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
    Western Eurasia map AD50
    • A.D. 50 – The Roman Empire of Paul’s missionary journeys was vast and dominated the west or European part of Afro-Eurasia connected by the Mediterranean.
    • Much of it had once been part of a larger Alexandrian Empire founded by the MACEDONIAN King Philip for which Philippi was named.
    Alexander III and a Macedonian army of his father Philip had conquered much of Afro-Eurasia in the 4th c. B.C.
    • 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.

    Philippi at a cultural crossroads between East and West

    Mazaios)[1] (died 328 BC) was an Achaemenid Persian noble and satrap of Cilicia and later satrap of Babylon for the Achaemenid Empire, a satrapy which he retained under Alexander the Great.[2]

    As a reward for his recognition of Alexander as the legitimate successor of Darius, Mazaeus was rewarded by being able to retain the satrapy of Babylon, as a Hellenistic satrap.

    – source

    possible coin of Mazaios, Satrap of Cilicia (under the Achaemenids) Satrap of Babylon (under Alexander the Great) - source: Wikipedia Commons

    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.

    • involving up to 200,000 men in one of the largest of the Roman civil wars
    • Brutus pushed back Octavian and entered his legions’ camp.
    • to the south, Cassius was defeated by Antony and committed suicide
    • the Republican fleet was able to intercept and destroy the triumvirs’ reinforcements of two legions ..The strategic position of Antony and Octavian became perilous
    • Octavian’s soldiers were able to capture the gates of Brutus’s camp.. Seeing that surrender and capture were inevitable, Brutus committed suicide
    Roman ports included Roman cities including Philippi modeled after ROME itself.

    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.

    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. 

    Lydia of Thyatira now lives in Philippi Macedonia

    Lydia

    14 One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira [L on map across the Aegean in Asia Minor], a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God.

    The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.

    Krenidas River near Philippi Macedonia where Paul baptized Lydia

    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.

    ACTS of the apostles + To Be Continued — in Philippi