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  • The Keeper of the Philippian Prison

    The Keeper of the Philippian Prison

    What is your experience as the keeper of something important?

    Have you ever been the one of importance kept safe in some place?

    (Were YOU ever the prisoner OR a jailer guard charged as the keeper a prisoner for justice?)

    Prison and Prisoners

    IF the only light you ever see seeped filtered though a hole in the ceiling of your cell WOULD YOU SING?

    (Likely, neither would I.)

    Roman prisons were nothing to sing about, but that didn’t stop Paul and Silas.

    S.O.P. – Prisons of Roman Cities & Colonies

    Imprisonment was not a sentence under Roman statutory law.. Incarceration (publica custodia) .. was intended to be a temporary measure prior to trial or execution; abuses of this principle occurred but were officially censured. Located near the law courts, the [prison (carcer) with a dungeon (oubliette)] was used as a jail or holding cell for short periods before executions and as a site for executions.

    Source: Wikipedia Commons

    Of course this Philippian carcer of the Roman colony is bound by the same same rules for jailer and prisoner alike according to Roman Law and the SOP manual of its occupying Legions of this Greek-speaking European colony of Macedonia.

    φυλακή – Strong’s translates G5438 in the following manner: prison (36x), watch (6x), imprisonment (2x), hold (1x), cage (1x), ward (1x).

    Paul and Silas end up in the ‘temporary’ place near the agora and forum where they have already been punished severely by flogging under the jurisdiction of a Roman Magistrate for unspecified crimes against culture and misdemeanors for which they will most likely be run out of town rather than executed.

    Therefore, this evening they have been placed into the care of a prison keeper (jailer) in Philippi for final disposition of their case in the morning.

    Previously:

    A cultural clash at the Agora in Roman Philippi
    ACTS 16: 22 The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods.

    .. they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely. Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.

    Who is this Philippian keeper of prisoners for Magistrates of the Court?

    φυλάσσω –

    Strong’s G5442 – phylassō, Probably from φυλή (G5443) through the idea of isolation

    NOTE, however the same responsibility of the Roman 'keeper' of prisoners AND the jailer's two Roman prisoners, apostles sent out with the message of the Jerusalem Council to communicate interpretation of the LAW for these Gentiles as well as the few Jews of Philippi.

    to guard

    • to watch, keep watch
    • to guard or watch, have an eye upon: lest he escape
    • to guard a person (or thing) that he may remain safe
    • to guard i.e. care for, take care not to violate
      • to observe
    • to observe for one’s self something to escape
      • to avoid, shun flee from
      • to guard for one’s self (i.e. for one’s safety’s sake) so as not to violate, i.e. to keep, observe (the precepts of the Mosaic law

    Source: BlueLetterBible.org

    And as they went through the cities, they delivered them the decrees for to keep, that were ordained of the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem.

    ACTS of the Apostles 16:4 KJV – Mission of Paul, Silas and Timothy

    Scenario of a night in the Jail of Philippi

    A guard of the second watch [9 pm] comes on duty and shouts down to you in the hole and other prisoners in cells near you, “Lights out!” He then extinguishes the candle above expecting all to go to sleep.

    Unlike the other prisoners YOU and your brother have been locked in here with wooden stocks bound to your ankles and chained to the floor of your cell.

    What now?

    We prayed for a while. Out loud. In fact, we recited much scripture as we prayed. Other prisoners complained to us, but after no intervention from the keeper assigned to this second watch they had no choice but to sleep (or just ignore us).

    A little later we hear sounds through the darkness of the third watch [midnight-3 am] keeper coming on duty.

    Silas starts singing and Paul joins his voice to the familiar Psalm:

    Acts of Awesome Faith

    As we continue with the Acts of Paul, Silas and Timothy in Philippi put yourself in their place — an uncertain and unpleasant prison of the moment. Hear the cries of each soul cast into the trembling darkness — the fear of God resounding in each heart. 

    What Psalm? (For they knew so many from faithful worship.) 

YOU may find other PSALMS on TalkofJESUS.com which will encourage you in such dark circumstances: https://talkofjesus.com/shaken/ 

Perhaps this: The LORD is My Salvation from Psalm 27:13 OR

    Psalm 142 – You Are My Refuge

    A Maskil of David, when he was in the cave. A Prayer.

    With my voice I cry out to the LORD;
with my voice I plead for mercy to the LORD.
I pour out my complaint before him;
I tell my trouble before him.

When my spirit faints within me,
you know my way!
In the path where I walk
they have hidden a trap for me.
Look to the right and see:
there is none who takes notice of me;
no refuge remains to me;
no one cares for my soul.

I cry to you, O LORD;
I say, “You are my refuge,
my portion in the land of the living.”
Attend to my cry,
for I am brought very low!
Deliver me from my persecutors,
for they are too strong for me!
Bring me out of prison,
that I may give thanks to your name!
The righteous will surround me,
for you will deal bountifully with me.

    Suppose that you are another prisoner listening to the apostles sing..

    And then, something happens!

    Acts of Paulos and Silas

    δικαίωμα Παῦλος δέ Σιλᾶς

    Acts of the Apostles Missions trips of Paul, Barnabas, Silas and several others

    About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken.

    And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened.

    When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried with a loud voice,

    “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.”

    29 And [he] called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas.

    “Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all,” Paul will write a decade later to the church in Philippi from a prison in Rome.

    Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
    And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

    ACTS of the apostles 16:30-31 ESV – Keeper of the Philippian jail to Paul & Silas, followed by the apostles’ answer.

    Acts of the Apostles 16 – To Be Continued in the light of a new day in 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…

  • 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