Real Places: Philippi
'Testing Luke' #09
What's in the series? Previous: Lydia and the Place of Prayer Next: Accurate Itineraries
In the book of Acts, in the Bible, Luke describes how Paul and his companions came to Philippi:
'From Neapolis we reached Philippi, a major city of that district of Macedonia and a Roman colony.'
Luke specifically says that Philippi was a Roman colony, which it was, and many army veterans had been settled there.
During their stay, Paul healed a woman who was possessed by a demon. Because of this, a hostile mob started up, and Paul was beaten and put in prison. According to Acts, Paul was a Roman citizen, and it was not legal for the local officials to beat him, or to put him in prison, without a trial.
In Luke's dramatic account of Paul's visit to Philippi, he gets the details right again and again: he says that the nearest port is Neapolis, which it is. He says that there was no synagogue in Philippi, and no synagogue has been found there. He talks about a place of prayer by the river, and there are a couple of small rivers nearby. And he mentions that Philippi was a Roman colony, which it was.
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