Philippi

Philippi was a Roman city in Macedonia, and Paul’s visit there gives Acts 16 some of its liveliest scenes. By a river he met Lydia, a seller of purple “whose heart the Lord opened”. After he freed a slave girl from a spirit, he and Silas were beaten and put in the inner prison. At midnight they “prayed, and sang praises unto God”, and an earthquake opened the doors. The jailer asked, “What must I do to be saved?” Paul later wrote the letter to the Philippians to the church that grew there.

36 verses

Acts

Acts 16:12

And from thence to Philippi, which is the chief city of that part of Macedonia, and a colony: and we were in that city abiding certain days.

Acts 16:13

And on the sabbath we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made; and we sat down, and spake unto the women which resorted thither.

Acts 16:14

And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul.

Acts 16:15

And when she was baptized, and her household, she besought us, saying, If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and abide there. And she constrained us.

Acts 16:16

And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying:

Acts 16:17

The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation.

Acts 16:18

And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour.

Acts 16:19

And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, and drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers,

Acts 16:20

And brought them to the magistrates, saying, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city,

Acts 16:21

And teach customs, which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans.

Acts 16:22

And the multitude rose up together against them: and the magistrates rent off their clothes, and commanded to beat them.

Acts 16:23

And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailor to keep them safely:

Acts 16:24

Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks.

Acts 16:25

And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.

Acts 16:26

And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed.

Acts 16:27

And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled.

Acts 16:28

But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here.

Acts 16:29

Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas,

Acts 16:30

And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?

Acts 16:31

And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.

Acts 16:32

And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house.

Acts 16:33

And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway.

Acts 16:34

And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house.

Acts 16:35

And when it was day, the magistrates sent the serjeants, saying, Let those men go.

Acts 16:36

And the keeper of the prison told this saying to Paul, The magistrates have sent to let you go: now therefore depart, and go in peace.

Acts 16:37

But Paul said unto them, They have beaten us openly uncondemned, being Romans, and have cast us into prison; and now do they thrust us out privily? nay verily; but let them come themselves and fetch us out.

Acts 16:38

And the serjeants told these words unto the magistrates: and they feared, when they heard that they were Romans.

Acts 16:39

And they came and besought them, and brought them out, and desired them to depart out of the city.

Acts 16:40

And they went out of the prison, and entered into the house of Lydia: and when they had seen the brethren, they comforted them, and departed.

Acts 20:1

And after the uproar was ceased, Paul called unto him the disciples, and embraced them, and departed for to go into Macedonia.

Acts 20:2

And when he had gone over those parts, and had given them much exhortation, he came into Greece,

Acts 20:3

And there abode three months. And when the Jews laid wait for him, as he was about to sail into Syria, he purposed to return through Macedonia.

Acts 20:4

And there accompanied him into Asia Sopater of Berea; and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus; and Gaius of Derbe, and Timotheus; and of Asia, Tychicus and Trophimus.

Acts 20:5

These going before tarried for us at Troas.

Acts 20:6

And we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread, and came unto them to Troas in five days; where we abode seven days.

Philippians

Philippians 1:1

Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons:

From Easton's Bible Dictionary

Matthew George Easton, 1897

(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.) 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.).

Read the full entry

(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.).

From Smith's Bible Dictionary

William Smith, 1884

(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. (Acts 16:23) The Philippians sent contributions to Paul to relieve his temporal wants.

Based on Nave's Topical Bible by Orville J. Nave (1896). Dictionary entries from Easton's Bible Dictionary and Smith's Bible Dictionary. Public domain. KJV scripture text, public domain.