Philippi
Roman colony in eastern Macedonia. Paul founded here the first church that Acts records in Macedonia, and later wrote to it the letter to the Philippians.
Philippi was in Paul’s day a Roman colony, as Acts notes (Acts 16:12). Paul, Silas and Timothy came to it from Troas by way of the port of Neapolis. Lydia and her household were baptised, Paul and Silas were beaten and jailed, and the jailer and his household were baptised in turn (Acts 16:11–40); see Paul Carries the Gospel into Europe. Paul recalls the rough treatment he received there (1 Thessalonians 2:2). He passed through again on his way to Jerusalem (Acts 20:6). His letter to the church is addressed to “all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and servants”, and thanks them for the gifts they had sent him from the beginning (Philippians 1:1) (Philippians 4:15–16).
What happened here
- about AD 49 to AD 52, estimated datePaul Carries the Gospel into Europe
With Silas and Timothy, Paul crosses from Asia Minor to Macedonia and founds churches at Philippi, Thessalonica and Corinth. Acts brings him before the proconsul Gallio at Corinth, whose year of office an inscription at Delphi puts at about AD 51–52.