Setting sail therefore from Troas, we made a straight course to Samothrace, and the day following to Neapolis; and from there to Philippi, which is a city of Macedonia, the foremost of the district, a Roman colony. We were staying some days in this city.
On the Sabbath day we went outside of the city by a riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together. A certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, one who worshiped God, heard us. The Lord opened her heart to listen to the things which were spoken by Paul. When she and her household were baptized, she begged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay.” So she persuaded us.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv11, 13, 14, 15 11. This history doth, as it were in a…
11. This history doth, as it were in a glass, show how sharply the Lord did exercise the faith and patience of his, by bringing them in great straits which they could not have overcome unless they had been endued with singular constancy; for the entrance of Paul into Macedonia is reported to be such, as that it might have cause him to give but small credence to the vision. These holy men, leaving the work which they had in hand, did cross the seas with great haste, as if the whole nation of the Macedonians would have come to meet them with earnest desire to be helped. Now, the success is so far from being answerable to their hope, that their mouths are almost quite stopped. When they enter the chief city, they find non there with whom they may take any pains; therefore they are enforced to go into the field, that they may speak in an obscure corner and wilderness. Yea, even there they cannot have one man which will hearken to their doctrine; they can only have one woman to be a disciple of Christ, and that one which was an alien. Who would not have said that this journey was taken in hand foolishly which fell out so unhappily? But the Lord doth thus bring to pass his works under a base and weak kind, that his power may shine more clearly at length; and it was most meet that the beginnings of the kingdom of Christ should be so ordered, that they might taste [savor] of the humility of the cross. But we must mark the constancy of Paul and his companions, who being not dismayed with such unprosperous beginnings, try whether any occasion will offer itself contrary to their expectation. And assuredly the servants of Christ must wrestle with all lets, neither must they be discouraged, but go forward to-morrow, if this day there appear no fruit of their labor, for there is no cause why they should desire to be more happy than Paul. When Luke saith that they abode in that city, some had rather have it, that they conferred or disputed, but the other translation is more plain. And the text persuadeth us to make choice thereof, because Luke will shortly after declare that Lydia was the first-fruits of that Church; and we may easily guess that the apostles went out of the city, because there was no gate opened to them in it.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv13–15 Where they were wont to assemble themselves.
Where they were wont to assemble themselves.
God beginneth his kingdom in Macedonia by the conversion of a woman, and so showeth that there is no [exception] of persons in the Gospel.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv11, 13, 14, 15 11 Therefore loosing from Troas, we came with a…
11 Therefore loosing from Troas, we came with a straight course to Samothracia, and the next day to Neapolis;
Ver. 11. We came with a straight course] Or with a speedy course. The straight way is the next way: {a} "How long wilt thou go about, O backsliding daughter?" Jer 31:22. Impii ambulant in circuitu, saith the Psalmist, the wicked walk the round; so doth the devil, that great peripatetic, {b} seeking to circumvent, Job 1:7. But the righteous look straight before them, Pro 4:25, and make straight paths for their feet, Heb 12:13; so that they soon finish their course with joy, and live long in a little time.
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To Samothracia] An island opposite Thracia; whereof see Pliny, iv. 11.
Neapolis] A city near Philippi, in the borders between Thracia and Macedonia.
{a} ευθυδρομης’ Utrumquo significat, et recte et cito currentes. Lorin.
{b} Walking about or from place to place in connection with some occupation or calling; itinerant. ŒD
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv11–15 Samothracia; an island so called, because the inhabitants came…
Samothracia; an island so called, because the inhabitants came partly out of Thrace, and partly from Samos. This
Neapolis was a city in the confines of Thrace and Macedonia.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On v11 A farther account is here given of St. Paul’s…
A farther account is here given of St. Paul’s travels to preach the gospel; he departs from Troas to Samothracia, from thence to Neapolis, and thence to Philippi, the chief city of Macedonia. Here on the sabbath-day he went out of the city to the river’s side, where a meeting place for prayer, say some, was built, and made use of, as being remote from the noise and observation of the multitude.
In this oratory, St. Paul preached to the women, they being both most numerous and most zealous; and God gives him the seal of his ministry in the conversion of Lydia.
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In which famous conversion observe how particularly the Holy Ghost is in relating the several circumstances belonging to it; she is described by her person and sex, a certain woman; by her name Lydia; by her calling and employment, a seller of purple; by her city, Thyatira; by her pious disposition, she worshipped God.
Her conversion is described,
1. By the efficient cause of it; the Lord opened her heart.
2. By the instrumental cause of it; her attending to the things that were spoken of Paul.
Learn, 1. That the hearts of persons are naturally shut up and fast barred against Jesus Christ.
2. That the opening of the heart to receive Jesus Christ, is the peculiar effect of the sovereign power and omnipotent grace of God.
3. That till God opens the heart of a sinner, the preaching of the gospel little affecteth, though never so plainly and persuasuvely preached. That when once the heart is opened, the ear will not be shut, the person is truly attentive to the preaching of the gospel: The Lord opened Lydia’s heart, and she attended.
Observe, next, The seal of her conversion and salvation received by her: She was baptized, and her whole house. It was the ordinary way of the apostles to baptize households; not that they were sure that they were all believers, or that the family governors could make them so; but it was their duty to devote all their power to God, and to do their utmost to persuade; and God usually succeeded their endeavours.
Note here, That the church of God for near seventeen hundred years, never refused the baptizing of infants of believing parents, as being taken into covenant with themselves. Having then for so many ages been in the possession of this privilege, we may more reasonably require the Anabaptists to prove by express scripture, that the children were not baptized by the apostles, (when they baptized whole families, yea, whole nations, according to their commission, Mat 28:19) than they can require us to prove that they were.
Lydia and her house were baptized, says the text; that is, says the Syriac, Lydia and her children. Lydia, by reason of her faith in Christ, having a right to baptism, all her family, upon her undertaking to bring them up in the knowledge of Christ, were admitted to the ordinance with her.
Observe lastly, A special fruit and evidence of Lydia’s conversion: she constrained the apostles with an amicable violence, by fervent entreaties and passionate importunities, to receive the civilities of her house. Converted persons have so much love to Christ’s ministers, who were the instruments of their conversion, that they greatly desire to express it by all acts of possible kindness. If ye have judged me faithful, come into my house, and abide there; and she constrained us.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv11–15 Therefore loosing from Troas,.... Or setting sail from thence,…
Therefore loosing from Troas,.... Or setting sail from thence, which, as before observed, was the Hellespont; which was a narrow sea that divided Asia from Europe, now called Stretto di Gallipoii, or Bracci di St. Georgio: and so Pliny (q) speaking of Troas says, it lies near the Hellespont; and Jerom (r) calls it a maritime city of Asia; and it further appears to be on the sea coast, by what is said in Act 20:6, for from Philippi hither, the apostle and his company sailed in five days, and from hence they sailed to Assos, Act 20:6
we came with a straight course to Samothracia; which was an island in the Aegean sea, or Archipelago: it was formerly called Dardania (s), from Dardanus the, son of Jupiter by Electra, who fled hither from Italy, upon killing his brother Jasius; it had its name of Samothracia, from Thracia, near to which it was, and from the Samians who inhabited it; and it was called Samothracia to distinguish it from the island Samos in the Ionian sea; it is now called Samandrachi: Jerom (t) calls it an island in the gulf of Pagasa; of this island of Samothracia, Pliny says (u), that it was free before Hebrus, was thirty two miles from Imbrus, twenty two and a half from Lemnus, thirty eight, from the shore of Thracia, and in circumference thirty two--and that it is fullest of good havens of any in those parts; and adds, that Callimachus calls it by its ancient name Dardania; it seems it was also called Leucosia, or Leucadia, because to spectators at a distance it looked white: according to (w) Herodotus the Pelasgi first inhabited Samothracia, who with the Athenians dwelt there, and from them the Samothracians received their sacred rites and mysteries; for this island was famous for the worship of the Cabiri, or chief deities of the Gentiles, particularly Ceres, Proserpina, Pluto, Mercury, and the two brothers Castor and Pollux, Neptune, and all the sea gods; insomuch that it was called "the holy island" (x), and persons of other nations, and even of the greatest figure, were initiated into the mysteries of the Samothracians, which Pliny (y) calls the most holy; for speaking of Venus, Potho, and Phaeton, adds, who are worshipped with the most holy ceremonies of Samothracia. The apostle did not stay to preach the Gospel in this place, nor do we read of its being preached here by him at any other time, or by any other, nor of any church in this place in after ages in ecclesiastical history. The apostle and his companions are said to come hither, "with a straight course"; not only because they might have a fair gale, which brought them at once hither; but because when they were over the Hellespont, this island lay directly in their way, in a straight line to Macedonia:
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and the next day to Neapolis; the Alexandrian copy reads, "the new city", as the word signifies; hence the Ethiopic version by way of interpretation renders it, "the next day we came to the new city, the name of which is Neapolis": according to Ptolomy, it was a sea port of Edonis, a part of Macedonia, and was upon the borders of Thrace; it is now called Christopoli; and was not Neapolis in Campania, nor Sychem in Samaria, which is so called, but was at a great distance from either of these. Pliny places it in Thracia, as he also does Edonis, and even Philippi (z). Jerom calls (a) it a city of Caria, but wrongly: and though we have no account of the apostles preaching in this place, and of making converts, neither now nor at any other time; yet it appears even in after ages that here was a church in this place: in the "sixth" century the bishop of it was sent to the fifth Roman synod; and in the "seventh" century one Andreas was bishop of this place, who was in the sixth synod at Constantinople (b).
(q) Nat. Hist. l. 5. c. 30. (r) De locis Hebraicis, fol. 96. K. (s) Pausanias Achaica, sive, l. 7. p. 403. Ptolom. Geograph. l. 3. c. 11. (t) Ib. fol. 96. I. (u) Nat. Hist. l. 4. c. 12. (w) Euterpe, c. 51. (x) L. Attilius in Liv. Hist. l. 45. c. 5. (y) Nat. Hist. l. 36. c. 5. (z) Ib. l. 4. c. 11, (a) De locis Hebraicis, fol. 96. F. (b) Magdeburg. Hist. Eccl cent. 6. c. 2. p. 7. cent. 7. c. 10. p. 258.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv11–15 We ran with a straight course - Which increased…
We ran with a straight course - Which increased their confidence that God had called them.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv11–15 Verse 11. Loosing from Troas] Setting sail from this…
Verse 11. Loosing from Troas] Setting sail from this place.
With a straight course to Samothracia] This was an island of the AEgean Sea, contiguous to Thrace, and hence called Samothracia, or the Thracian Samos. It is about twenty miles in circumference, and is now called Samandrachi by the Turks, who are its present masters.
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And the next day to Neapolis.] There were many cities of this name; but this was a sea-port town of Macedonia, a few miles eastward of Philippi. Neapolis signifies the new city.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv11, 13 Act 16:11-12. Therefore, loosing from Troas, we came to…
Act 16:11-12. Therefore, loosing from Troas, we came to Samothracia — An island in these seas, famous for being the seat of certain religious mysteries, in equal estimation with those called Eleusinian. But it does not appear that they went ashore there, for they landed the next day at Neapolis — A seaport town of Macedonia. Nor did they make any stay even there, but went straight to Philippi; because it was the chief city of that part of Macedonia — And a Roman colony. Thus Paul, having preached first at Damascus, next at Jerusalem, after that throughout all the coasts of Judea, and then to the Gentiles in Syria, Cilicia, and most of the countries of the Lesser Asia, went at length, by the particular commandment of Christ, among the Greek nations, to whom it was proper that the glad tidings of salvation should now be given. For, seeing the gospel was a revelation from the true God, and was supported by great and undeniable miracles, it was fit that it should, in due course, be proposed to those nations who were best qualified to judge of its nature and evidences; because if, upon an accurate examination, great numbers of men embraced the gospel, whose minds were improved by science, and every kind of culture, their conversion would render it indubitable, in after times, that the gospel was supported by those great and undeniable miracles, which the Christian records affirm were performed in every country, by the preachers of the gospel. Besides, God, in his infinite wisdom, was determined that the reigning idolatry should be utterly overthrown in those countries of Europe where it had the greatest support, from the ability and learning of its abetters; that no person might suspect, or affirm, in after times, that idolatry was destroyed, and Christianity established, merely through the ignorance and simplicity of the people among whom it was first preached.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv11–15 Loosing from Troas - Setting sail from this place.
Loosing from Troas - Setting sail from this place.
To Samothracia - This was an island in the Aegean Sea not far from Thrace. It was populated by inhabitants from Samos and from Thrace, and hence called Samothracia. It was about 20 miles in circumference, and was an asylum for fugitives and criminals.
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And the next day to Nepalese - This was a maritime city of Macedonia, near the borders of Thrace. It was about 10 miles from Philippi.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On v13 There was prayer.[1] The Greek word signifies either prayer…
There was prayer.[1] The Greek word signifies either prayer itself, or an oratory, or place to pray in. (Witham) --- Not every prayer is here understood, but that which was joined in the celebration of the sacred mysteries. (Estius, in different location.) See 1 Corinthians vii. and Acts vi.
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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]
Oratio, Greek: proseuche, preces, oratio & Oratorium.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv11–15 Therefore loosing from Troas, we came--literally, "ran."
Therefore loosing from Troas, we came--literally, "ran."
with a straight course--that is, "ran before the wind."
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to Samothracia--a lofty island on the Thracian coast, north from Troas, with an inclination westward. The wind must have set in strong from the south or south-southeast to bring them there so soon, as the current is strong in the opposite direction, and they afterwards took five days to what they now did in two (Act 20:6) [HOWSON].
next day to Neapolis--on the Macedonian, or rather Thracian, coast, about sixty-five miles from Samothracia, and ten from Philippi, of which it is the harbor.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv11–15 11. Loosing from Troas—Directly before them lie the isles…
11. Loosing from Troas—Directly before them lie the isles of the AEgean, celebrated by the genius of Homer, Tenedos, Lemnos, Imbros, and, farther to the northwest, the tall cliffs of Samothrace overlooking the others, and gazing upon the shore of Troas. By a brisk wind from the south, it must have been, that they were able to take a straight course to Samothrace, and to accomplish in two days their trip to Neapolis, which often takes five. Neapolis was a small marine town, (now called Cavallo,) too unimportant to detain the apostle, who had the large metropolis, Philippi, in view. And when Paul debarks at Neapolis, he sets his foot for the first time on the soil of Europe. From Neapolis, moving to the northwest, he ascends a mountain ridge, from which, in the rear, a beautiful view of the sea which they have crossed is spread before their eyes; while in front they behold the vast plain of PHILIPPI, where was fought one of the great decisive battles of the world.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv11–15 11. Samothracia] This island lies in the north of…
11. Samothracia] This island lies in the north of the Aegean Sea, opposite to that part of the Thracian coast at which the river Hebrus empties itself.
Neapolis] The port of Philippi. This place is generally identified with the modern Kavalla. On the discussion about its identity, see Dictionary of the Bible (s. v.)
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv11–15 (11) We came with a straight course to Samothracia.—Their…
(11) We came with a straight course to Samothracia.—Their course lay to the north-west, and, probably, after the manner of the navigation of the time, they put into harbour each night; and the historian, with his characteristic love of geographical detail (see Introduction to St. Luke’s Gospel), notes the main facts of the voyage. The “straight course” implies that they had the wind in their favour. The current, which sets to the south after leaving the Hellespont, and to the east between Samothrace and the mainland, would, of course, be against them. In Act_20:6, the voyage from Philippi to Troas takes five, days. The name of Samothrace points, probably, to its having been a colony from Samos. In early Greek history it had been one of the chief seats of the worship of the Pelasgic race, and, besides the mysteries of Demeter and Persephone, which it had in common with the rest of Greece, was celebrated for the local cultus of the Cabiri, a name of uncertain origin, and applied to the twelve great gods.
The next day to Neapolis.—The name (=new town) was naturally common wherever Greek was spoken. It survives in two conspicuous instances—in Naples, and in Nablous as the modern name of Sychem. The town now before us was in Thrace, about twelve miles from Philippi, which was the frontier town of Macedonia. It has been identified, on adequate grounds, with the modern Kavalla, where a Roman aqueduct, columns, and Greek and Latin inscriptions remain to attest the former importance of the city. Ten or twelve miles to the west are the traces of another harbour at Eski Kavalla, which was probably the Palæopolis (= old town) that had been superseded by the new port.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv11–15 Setting sail therefore for therefore loosing, A.V.; made for…
Setting sail therefore for therefore loosing, A.V.; made for came with, A.V.; (eujqudromew, elsewhere only in Act_21:1) Samothrace for Samothracia, A.V.; day following for next day, A.V.. In the New Testament this latter phrase only occurs in the Acts.
Vers. 11-15. The opened heart; or, the power of Divine gentleness.
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Promptly obedient to the heavenly vision, Paul and Silas went "with a straight course to Samothracia," and by Neapolis to Philippi. There, eagerly awaiting a sacred opportunity, they "abode certain days." They availed themselves of the weekly gathering "at the river-side," where women, who everywhere are the most devout, were wont to meet for prayer. The whole narrative suggests the by-truths:
1. That we should instantly carry out the will of Christ when we are distinctly assured of it.
2. That we should chemise the largest and likeliest sphere chief city" (ver. 12) for our activity.
3. That those who are least honored of man are they who find most solace in the service of God.
4. That those who go reverently to worship are in the way to secure a greater blessing than they seek. God reveals himself in unexpected ways to us, as now to Lydia: going to render the homage of a pure heart, she returned with a new faith in her mind, a new hope and love in her soul, a new song in her mouth.
5. That holy gratitude to God will show itself in a generous, constraining kindness toward man a kindness that will not be refused (ver. 15). But the lesson of our text is the truth which we learn concerning the gentle power of God in opening the closed heart of man: "Whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul" (ver. 14). We may regard
I THE FACT THAT HE DOES WORK THUS UPON US. If we appeal to our own consciousness we find that it is the case. Often God"s Spirit so touches and moves the human soul, that it is only just aware, at the time, that it is being wrought upon; or he so operates that we can only tell, by comparing past things with present, that we have changed our spiritual position. It is found by us to be the fact that the Lord is not in the storm, nor in the earthquake, nor in the fire, but rather in the "still small voice.
Silently, like morning light, Putting mists and chills to flight;
he lays his hand upon us and touches the deepest springs of our nature. Any faith which does not include the action of God"s gentle power in awakening, enlightening, renewing, reviving, the souls of men is utterly inadequate and completely fails to cover the facts of human experience.
II THE WAY IN WHICH HE WORKS. God opens our hearts in different ways.
1. Sometimes it is by making us gradually sensible of our own unworthiness, and therefore of our need of a Divine Savior.
2. Sometimes by drawing our thought and love upward, higher and higher, from the true and pure and gracious that are found in the human, to him who is the true and pure and gracious Friend Divine.
3. Sometimes by constraining us to feel dissatisfied with the seen and temporal, and to seek our joy and our treasure in the unseen and eternal.
III THE MEANS BY WHICH HE WORKS. These are manifold: the sacred Scriptures; the services of the sanctuary; the friendship of the holy; the opening, enlarging experiences of life; the trial which, though not startling and terrible, is yet arresting and revealing.
IV THE EXCELLENCY OF HIS WORK. Some may suppose that they have more to be thankful for when they can point to one quickening and arousing circumstance in their life, sent of God to awaken and change them. But there is as much of the Divine in the opening of the flower by the light of the morning as in the upheaval of the lava by the fires beneath the crust of the earth; and there is as much of Divine power in its gentler action on the soul as there is in its more palpable and more terrible manifestations. It is open to us to think that there is even greater kindness shown in the former than in the latter. It behooves us
(1) to recognize the reality of his gentle power;
(2) to bless him most gratefully for his exercise of it upon ourselves;
(3) to seek that he would put it forth on those with whom we have to do children, etc.;
(4) to watch for its operation in them, and to co-operate with God therein. C.
Vers. 11-15 (or ver. 14). The opened heart.
a certain woman named Lydia," etc. Study of personal history specially helpful. A few broad strokes make up the picture. Fill in the outline from human nature and experience. Describe the circumstances. Philippi a local metropolis. In the midst of perishing heathenism a germ of spiritual life. Country market-place outside the gate. Devout women, Jewesses and proselytes. The Old Testament read there. Prayer offered. Without Christ they could not be made perfect. Influence of praying women. The contrast. The great heathen city, the small gathering of pious souls waiting for consolation. An image of the world with the true Church beside it waiting to take possession. "Stone cut out of the mountain." Apostles sent to lift up the little one into a thousand. Lydia the first convert from Europe. The message came as an answer to prayer.
I THE GOSPEL WAITING TO FIND A PLACE IN THE HUMAN HEART.
1. Devoutness, religiousness, not all that is required. Apostles preached Christ to religious people. Christianity a positive system of truth, which must be known and received. The moral side of it not separable from the spiritual. This specially seen in the mission of the Church to the world. If Lydia was herself to preach to her neighbors, she must be taught.
2. Attention to truth a work in the heart. Curiosity, habit, sentiment, all may fall short of bringing the mind to lay hold of truth. Personal application. The spring of affection opened. Love of Jesus shed abroad. Faith fixed on its objects.
II THE GRACE OF GOD WORKING THROUGH HUMAN AGENCY. Paul preached; the Lord opened the heart.
1. The distinction must be recognized in all ministrations.
2. The record of the apostolic ministry an example. The greatest preachers may fail. If they succeed, to the Lord"s Name be the praise.
3. We are cast by such a mystery on prayer.
4. The opened heart is the pre-requisite to the changed and consecrated life. R.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv12, 13, 15 And from thence to Philippi.
Act_16:12
And from thence to Philippi.
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Philippi
The apostle had not paused at Samothrace--an island celebrated for its sanctity and its amulets, its gods and orgies, its Cybele and Cobira--a scene where the mysteries of Eastern and Western superstition seem to have met and blended. Nor did he stop at Neapolis, the harbour of the Thymonic gulf, but he pressed on to Philippi; and the ground of his preference was that it was the chief city, etc. This cannot mean the chief or capital city, for that was Thessalonica; and if there existed at that period a minuter subdivision, the principal town was Amphipolis. It probably means that it was the first city of the province that lay upon his journey. It was the chief city of that part, and there was every inducement to fix upon it as a centre of operations. As it was a city and a colony, its importance in itself, and in relation to other towns and districts, made it a fitting place for present work and subsequent enterprise. You may either say that Paul went to Philippi as the first city in his path, for he had been summoned into Macedonia, and he could never think of passing the first city which he came to; or that he formally selected Philippi because of its rank and its privileges as a Roman colony. Philippi was anciently called Krenides, or the Springs, on account of its numerous fountains, in which the Gangites has its sources. Philip, about 358 B.C., enlarged the old town and fortified it, in order to protect the frontiers against Thracian invaders, and named it after himself, to commemorate the addition of a new province to his empire. After the famous battle fought and won in its neighbourhood by the Triumvirs, Augustus conferred special honours on the city, and made it a Roman colony. A military settlement had been made in it, chiefly of the soldiers who had been ranged under the standard of Antony, so that it was a protecting garrison on the confines of Macedonia. A colonia was a reproduction in miniature of the mother city Rome. The Roman law ruled; and the Roman insignia were everywhere seen. The municipal affairs were managed by duumvirs, or praetors. Philippi had also the Jus Italicum, or quaritarian ownership of the soil, its lands enjoying the same freedom from taxation as did the soil of Italy. Highly favoured as Philippi had been, it was in need of help. Political franchise and Roman rights, Grecian tastes and studies, wide and varied commerce, could not give it the requisite aid. It was sunk in a spiritual gloom, which needed a higher light than Italian jurisprudence or Hellenic culture could bring it, It was helpless within itself, and the man who represented it had appealed to the sympathies of a Jewish stranger, whose story of the Cross could lift the darkness off its position and destiny. The spear and phalanx of Macedonia had been famous, and had carried conquest and civilisation through a large portion of the Eastern world; the sun of Greece had not wholly set, and Epicureans and Stoics yet mingled in speculation, and sought after wisdom; the sovereignty of Rome had secured peace in all her provinces, and her great roads not only served for the march of the soldier, but for the cortege of the trader; art and law, beauty and power, song and wealth, the statue and the drama, survived and were adored; but there was in many a heart a sense of want and powerlessness, an indefinite longing after some higher good and portion, a painless and restless agitation, which only he of Tarsus could soothe and satisfy with his preaching of the God-man--the life, hope, and centre of humanity. (Prof. Eadie.)
The first three Philippian converts
1. They are representatives of three different races--the one an Asiatic, the other a Greek, the third a Roman.
2. In the relations of everyday life they have nothing in common: the first is engaged in an important and lucrative branch of traffic; the second, treated by law as a mere chattel without any social or political rights, is employed by her masters to trade on the credulous superstition of the ignorant; the third, equally removed from both, holds a subordinate office under government.
3. In their religious training they stand no less apart. In the one, the speculative mystic temper of Oriental devotion has at length found deeper satisfaction in the revealed truths of the Old Testament; the second, bearing the name of the Pythian god, the reputed source of Greek inspiration, represents an artistic and imaginative religion, though manifested in a very low and degrading form; while the third, if he preserved the characteristic features of his race, must have exhibited a type of worship essentially political in tone. The purple dealer and proselyte of Thyatira, the native slave girl with the divining spirit, the Roman jailer, all alike acknowledge the supremacy of the new faith. In the history of the gospel at Philippi, as in the history of the Church at large, is reflected the great maxim of Christianity, the central truth of the apostles preaching--that here is neither Jew nor Greek, etc. (Gal_3:28).
4. The order of these conversions is significant: first the proselyte, next the Greek, lastly the Roman. Thus the incidents in their sequence, no less than in their variety, symbolise the progress of Christianity throughout the world. Through the Israelite dispersion, through the proselytes whether of the covenant or the gate, the gospel message first reached the Greek. By the instrumentality of the Greek language, and the diffusion of the Greek race, it finally established itself in Rome, the citadel of power and civilisation, whence directly or indirectly it was destined to spread over the whole world. (Bp. Lightfoot.)
Christianity in Europe
I. Accepting Christ (verses 14, 15). It is well to note--
1. Who this convert was.
(1) She was a woman of business. Her perceptions had been sharpened by trade. She was free from the bondage of local prejudice.
(2) She was from Thyatira, a city of Asia, in which district the missionaries had been forbidden to speak the Word. When the Holy Spirit shuts the door in one place, it may be that He intends to reach it by the way of another.
(3) She was a Jewish proselyte. She had learned to worship the true God. Having made that much progress, she was prepared to go still further--much more prepared than the Jews themselves.
2. How she was converted. Whose heart the Lord opened, etc., Paul spoke the Word, but the Lord gave the Word fruitfulness. I planted, Apollos watered; God gave the increase.
3. How her conversion was shown.
(1) Her whole family was converted with her. Through her faith, her servants, and her children, if she had children, were brought into the kingdom of Christ.
(2) She constrained the missionaries to abide with her, which was no small burden. Paul, Timothy, Silas, and Luke made quite a party to take care of. And note how she puts her request. She makes it appear as though they were doing her a favour, rather than she them. They had done so much for her soul that she wanted to do something for their bodies.
II. Saved through Christ. We turn from one who was ready to accept Christ to one who was in the power of Satan. But the power of Christ was shown in the one ease as in the other. The Lord opened the heart of the one, cast out the evil spirit from the other.
1. The evil spirit in possession.
(1) Bringing gain. The unfortunate girl was owned by a joint-stock company. Her owners speculated in the credulity of men. Her insane ravings were taken as the revelation of an oracle.
(2) Bringing reproach. The same following after Paul and us, cried, etc. This she did for many days. The testimony which she bore was the same as that of the evil spirits to the Saviour. The witness was true, but it was not from a good source.
2. The evil spirit cast out.
(1) Why? Paul being sore troubled, etc. At what? Presumably at the character of the endorsement he and his friends were receiving. With this, however, there may have been a great sympathy for the poor girl.
(2) How? I charge thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. The act was done in such a way as to show the faith of Paul in Christ, his dependence upon Christ, and as to honour Christ. Those who witnessed the miracle could not have any doubt as to the power through which the marvel was accomplished.
III. Suffering for Christ.
1. The anger of the masters.
(1) How it arose. Her masters saw that the hope of their gain was gone. The maid now spoke rationally, instead of raving, or giving wild, weird utterances that made people think that they were listening to something supernatural. Now no one would pay anything to hear the girl speak good sense. It did not matter to them that the maid was released from a most cruel thraldom. Let a drunkard burst his bonds, and what rum seller will rejoice over his deliverance? Let a gambler throw off the terrible fascination, and how angry are those whom he has been enriching.
(2) How it was manifested.
(a) They laid hold on Paul and Silas, etc. The dragging, we may be sure, was not gently done.
(b) They said, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city, etc. The formal complaint did not correspond to the offence. They knew that the magistrates could take no cognisance of such an injury as they had received. They craftily word their complaint. They appeal to the Roman prejudice against the Jews.
2. The anger of the magistrates. The multitude became a mob, and the magistrates not much better. No form of a trial was even pretended. Against these Jews, the accusation of such respectable, dividend-receiving citizens was taken as conclusive evidence. Judgment and sentence were instantaneous.
(1) The missionaries were beaten with many stripes, more cruelly than if they had been committing a crime.
(2) They were cast into the inner prison, and their feet made fast in the stocks. What land is there where a similar heroic record has not been made? (M. C. Hazard.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv11, 13 11, 12. We came with a straight course. Before…
11, 12. We came with a straight course. Before the wind. To Samothracia. An island about halfway between Troas and Neapolis, the European port where they landed.
And from thence to Philippi. Only a few miles distant. They sought it at once, because it was the chief city of that part of Macedonia. The apostles tried to leaven the centers of influence with the Gospel. The city had been rebuilt about 400 years before this by Philip, the father of Alexander the Great, who named it after himself. It was famous as the place of the decisive battle between Brutus and Cassius on the one hand, and Mark Antony and Octavius, afterwards Augustus Cæsar, upon the other. A colony. A Roman colony was a settlement of Romans in a foreign country, with all the privileges of Romans. The colony had its own senate, its own magistrates, observed all the Roman forms, and was a miniature Rome. This colony had been established by Augustus Cæsar, who settled at this place a multitude of the partisans of his rival, Mark Antony, after the death of the latter. Philippi is now a small village named Filiba.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv11, 14 Act_16:12. The chief city of that part of Macedonia,…
CRITICAL REMARKS
Act_16:12. The chief city of that part of Macedonia, and a colony.—Better, a city of Macedonia, the first of the district, a colony—i.e., of Rome. Macedonia was divided into four parts; but whether “the first” meant “the first arrived at” (Winer, Zöckler, Lightfoot Alford), not a very valuable observation; or the first in political importance (Farrar, Ramsay), which Philippi was, though Thessalonica was the capital of Macedonia, and Amphipolis of the province; or “the first to be made a colony” (Grotius, Meyer, Wendt, Overbeck), the distinction pointed out in the text; or “the first city on the frontier” (Wordsworth), is debated, and is not clear. Wordsworth’s idea derives support from the occurrence of a similar phrase in Xenophon (Anab., I. iv. 1): εἰς Ἰσσούς, τῆς Κιλικίας ἐσχάτην πόλιν. Dr. Hort thinks some early corruption has crept into the text, and that instead of μερίδος should be read Πιερίδος (M for II), for Philippi belonged to the Pieria of Mount Paragon, and might well be called “a chief city of Pierian Macedonia” (Westcott and Hort’s The New Testament in Greek, 2:97, Appendix.) Ramsay says: “The term ‘first’ was commonly assumed by towns which were or claimed to be chief of a district or province.”
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Act_16:13. By a river side.—Neither the Strymon nor the Nestos, which are both distant from Philippi, but the smaller stream Gangas close by the town. Where prayer was wont to be made; or, where we supposed there has as a place of prayer (R.V.). The received reading corrected thus, where a place of prayer was wont to be, has the support of good authorities. Josephus (Ant., XIV. x. 23) mentions the custom of making “prayer houses” at the seaside.
HOMILETICAL ANALYSIS.—Act_16:11-13
Paul and Silas in Philippi; or, the Gospel carried to Europe
I. The journey to Philippi.—
1. From Troas to Samothraoia. No sooner had Paul and his companions, Silas, Timothy, and Luke, the beloved physician, who had now joined the apostle (see “Critical Remarks,” Act_16:10, and “Hints” on Act_16:11), understood the significance of the midnight vision than they proceeded to comply with the call of the Macedonian man. With the early dawn, having turned their steps towards the harbour, and found a ship about to sail for Europe, they engaged berths. As the vessel weighed anchor and shot into the deep “the sun rose and spread the day over the sea and the islands as far as Athos and Samothrace” (Conybeare and Howson). Running in a straight course, or, in modern nautical phrase, sailing before the (south) wind (see Act_21:1, and compare Act_27:16), the vessel would reach the island of Samothrace that day, anchoring for the night to the leeward of it. Samothrace, the present-day Samothraki, about half-way between Troas and Neapolis, contains the highest land in this part of the Ægean except Mount Athos.
2. From Samothrace to Neapolis. “A run of seven or eight hours would bring the vessel under the lee of the island of Thasos, and within a few miles of the coast of Macedonia” (Conybeare and Howson), which accordingly was reached next day. The harbour in which the four passengers disembarked belonged to the town of Neapolis, the modern Kavala, in Thrace, on the Gulf of Strymon, and about ten miles distant from Philippi, to which it served as a port. Hence the missionaries did not linger in Neapolis, but pushed on towards the capital of the district.
3. From Neapolis to Philippi. A short journey of not more than three hours would conduct them to “the chief city of that part of Macedonia,” or to “a city of Macedonia, the first of the district [see “Critical Remarks”], a Roman colony.” This city was Philippi, once an obscure place, called Krenides from its streams and springs, but erected into a frontier city against the Thracian mountaineers, and named after himself by the father of Alexander, and constituted a colonia by Augustus. It was “a fact of deep significance that the first city at which Paul arrived on his entrance into Europe was that colony which was more fit than any other in the empire to be considered the representative of Imperial Rome” (Conybeare and Howson, i. 267).
II. The stay in Philippi.—
1. How long it continued. Impossible to tell. Clearly two Sabbaths (Act_16:13; Act_16:16), and most likely some weeks were spent in the city (Act_16:20).
2. What incidents occurred.
(1) The conversion of Lydia on the first Sabbath in a prayer-house by the river-side, through Paul’s preaching (Act_16:13-15). See below.
(2) The cure of a Pythoness, or damsel possessing a spirit of divination, by the word of Paul who, in the name of Jesus, commanded the spirit to come out of her (Act_16:16-18).
(3) The imprisonment of Paul and Silas by the town magistrates, who first commanded them to be beaten and then handed them over to the care of the town jailor (Act_16:19-24).
(4) The conversion of the jailor, who was spiritually awakened by an earthquake which shook the foundations of the prison at midnight, and by Paul was directed how to find salvation (Act_16:25-34).
III. The departure from Philippi.—
1. After liberation from jail. This took place:
(1) on the morning after the earthquake—“when it was day”;
(2) at the request of the magistrates, who had become alarmed at the situation, either in consequence of the earthquake which seemed like an interposition of the gods on behalf of the prisoners, or because on reflection they had grown convinced of the injustice of what they had done (Act_16:35-36);
(3) after the remonstrance of Paul, who declined to be surreptitiously thrust out of bonds after having been publicly scourged, and that, too, while they were Romans, and who demanded that they should be honourably and openly liberated by the magistrates themselves (Act_16:37); and
(4) by the hands of the magistrates, who, on learning that their prisoners were Roman citizens, feared what might happen to themselves for having so thoughtlessly violated the sanctity of Roman law, and, like evildoers generally who tremble when confronted with the consequences of their crimes, were exceeding glad to get them peacefully despatched beyond the city precincts (Act_16:39).
2. After visiting the house of Lydia. Having resided there before arrest and imprisonment (Act_16:15), they naturally returned thither on release from confinement. Not, however, to stay, but to exchange Christian greetings with, and address words of comfort to, the brethren there assembled, who, having been converted by their ministry, formed the nucleus of the Church to which afterwards the epistle to the Philippians was directed. This done, they departed, but not for ever (see Act_20:6).
Learn.—
1. That the track of the gospel over land and sea has always been guided by God.
2. That Europeans have reasons to bless God for having so early sent the gospel to their shores.
3. That nothing befalls God’s people without His express permission.
4. That events which seem to hinder may eventually further the gospel.
5. That the gospel spreads by means of preaching.
HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Act_16:11. The Writer of the “We” Passages; or, Luke the Beloved Physician (see Introduction).—“Of Luke himself, beyond what we learn of his movements and of his character from his own writings, we know but little. There is no reason to reject the unanimous tradition that he was by birth an Antiochene, and it is clear (?) from St. Paul’s allusions that he was a Gentile convert, and that he had not been circumcised (Col_4:10-11; Col_4:14). That he was a close observer, a careful narrator, a man of cultivated intellect, and possessed of a good Greek style we see from his two books; and they also reveal to us a character gentle and manly, sympathetic and self-denying. The incidental allusion of St. Paul shows us that he was a physician, and this allusion is singularly confirmed by his own turns of phrase. The rank of a physician in those days was not in any respect so high as now it is, and does not at all exclude the possibility that St. Luke may have been a freedman; but on this, and all else which concerns him, Scripture and tradition leave us entirely uninformed. That he was familiar with naval matters is strikingly shown in his account of the shipwreck, and it has even been conjectured that he exercised his art in the huge and crowded merchant vessels which were incessantly coasting from point to point of the Mediterranean.—Farrar, “The Life and Work of St. Paul,” chap. xxiv.
St. Luke and St. Paul.—“It may be well to note the phenomena in the writings ascribed to the physician which, though they do not directly indicate his calling, at least fall in with it and are best explained by it.… Thus we find him noting specifically the special combination of fevers (πυρετοί, as in Hippoc., Aph., vii. 63, 64—the plural is obviously technical for feverish symptoms) and a bloody flux (δυσεντερία) from which the father of Publius suffered at Melita (Act_28:8), and using in relation to the generous gifts which it called forth the special word “honour” (τιμή), which, like our “honorarium,” was applied to the payments made to those who practised a profession and not a trade (?). So, again, in the healing of the cripple in the temple (Act_3:7), he records with a technical precision which our English Version but partially represents that “his feet” (not the common πόδες, but βάσεις—a word used by Hippocrates, p. 637) “and ankle-bones” (σφυρά) “were strengthened,” the previous crippled state being due to the congenital imperfect development of the bones and tendons of the feet.… So he stated that the paralysis of Æneas lasted eight years, and that for the whole of that period he had been bedridden (Act_9:33); that from Saul’s eyes “there fell as it had been the scales” (ὡσεὶ λεπίδες) of the incrustation incidental to ophthalmia (Act_9:18); and that the damsel at Philippi had “a spirit of Python,” or Apollo, “presenting phenomena identical with the convulsive movements and wild cries of the Pythian priestess at Delphi” (Act_16:16); while as one whose previous studies had made him acquainted with the recorded cases of phthiriasis, such as those of Antiochus Epiphancs (2Ma_9:9), Pheretima (Herod., iv. 205), and Sylla, and perhaps Herod the Great (Josephus, Ant., Act_17:15), he would note with a special interest the addition of another instance in the death of Herod Agrippa as “eaten by worms,” σκωληκόβρωτος (Act_12:23).—Dean Plumptre, in “The Expositor” (1876), iv., pp. 137–139.
Act_16:13. An Ancient Prayer Meeting.
I. The place of worship.—
1. Outside the city. Rendered necessary because of the character of the city which, being large and heathen, was not much suited for devotion. Those who wish to pray should withdraw from both the world’s bustle and the world’s superstition and sin (Mat_6:6).
2. By a river side. Jewish prayer-houses were usually erected on river-banks, or at places where water could be easily obtained for ceremonial lustrations. Suggestive of that inward cleansing which is required by all who would approach God in prayer (Isa_1:15-16; Jas_4:8).
3. In a prayer-house. Not an ordinary synagogue (Schürer), there being few Jews in the town; most likely an open space consecrated to Divine worship. Prayer may be offered anywhere. If Christians, for any reason, cannot obtain comfortable edifices in which to worship, rather than not worship at all they should betake themselves to river-banks, hillsides, district moors, dens, and caves of the earth.
II. The time of worship.—The Sabbath. Whether on other days is not clear (see Act_16:16); but in any case the seventh-day worship was not neglected. Neither should the Lord’s-day worship be omitted by Christians (Act_20:7; Heb_10:25).
III. The congregation of worshippers.—A few women; amongst them some converts to Judaism, like Lydia (see below). If no men were present before Paul and his companions arrived upon the scene, the intrusion of four male worshippers must have caused a sensation. Women have always been more devout than men (Act_1:14, Act_13:50).
IV. The acts of worship.—
1. Prayer. This the primary object of such gatherings.
2. Reading of the Scriptures. Though not stated, this may be assumed.
3. Exposition of the word. As in the synagogue by any capable person who might happen to be present (Act_13:15).
Act_16:13. The Opening of the Mission.
I. When was it that they had an opportunity of preaching? It was on the Sabbath day. The Sabbath was the great day on which he knew that his work was to be done.
II. Observe, then, the place at which he preached. It was by the river-side, “where prayer was wont to be made.” There appears to have been no synagogue at Philippi.
III. One other thing to be observed is, the persons to whom they preached. They “sat down and spake unto the women which resorted thither.”
Now, what are the lessons which we are to learn for ourselves from this account of the first preaching of the gospel at Philippi?
1. It is fitted to remind us of the great practical value of the Sabbath.
2. Another lesson which we learn from the history, closely connected with this, is the importance of meeting together for united prayer whenever we have the opportunity.
3. One other thing we are taught by this passage of history which we have been considering to-day, and that is, not to despise any means of doing good, however small it may be, which is put within our reach. We do not know what great results may follow it.—M. F. Day.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On vv11–15 11. Samothracia is a large island far up near…
11. Samothracia is a large island far up near the northern coast of the Aegean Sea, while Neapolis is in Thrace on the European shore, whither the evangelistic quarto disembark.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain On v13 Section 2. (Act 16:13-40.)
Section 2. (Act 16:13-40.)
Progress through conflict.
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Philippi is evidently the starting-point of the history proper, as the Spirit of God is pleased to take it up for our instruction. It begins with conflict, and the power of Satan is more nakedly manifest here than at Paphos upon the former journey. It is no longer, however, debased Judaism that is the instrument, but heathenism, the rule of the demons or false gods, which had for the world at large usurped the place of the One true God. The power of the world has here therefore to be reckoned with,, and the progress of the gospel in the teeth of persecution. Yet under no circumstances does the gospel succeed so well; and Philippi is a marked instance of this, -always in lively sympathy with the gospel, as we know from the epistle to the saints there; and to whom the apostle speaks as to sympathetic bearers of his own earnest pressing forward in what was to him a race for a prize. The name Philippi, "fond of horses," naturally reminds us of this, and stamps with its significance spiritually those who now come before us, as well as the whole-hearted laborers the fruit of whose work they are. Progress through conflict may well characterize this section; and there is little true progress made where the adverse power is not realized.
1. The beginning here is in a humble way enough. Here, where they have been brought by, a vision of imploring need, the very man of the vision does not appear; and in the absence of any synagogue, such as in general provided them with their first opportunity, they are fain to go outside the city-gate, by the bank of the river where it was the custom for prayer to be, and speak to the women who seem alone to have the heart to come together. We see that they are not men who will miss a small door open in seeking a large one; and here also, if there be effectual entrance, it must be the Lord who makes it. The heart of Lydia* is thus divinely opened to attend to the things spoken by Paul. Her baptism soon follows, with that of her house, or family, as if the natural consequence of her own faith. So undoubtedly would a proselyte to Judaism as she was have considered it; and the Lord has long since assured us that such a rule as to the kingdom of God has not been repealed (Mat 18:14). Entrance into the Church is not at all in question; to which the baptism of the Spirit alone could introduce. It is the confusion between Church and Kingdom which has largely been the cause of the difficulty upon these points which has arisen. The doctrine is not here before us to consider. Lydia, as the faithful person that she desires to be known as, does not shrink from identifying herself with those who have been the means of bringing her the truth which has won her. In those days it was not possible to be long ignorant of what it involved to do this; but with whole-hearted decision she at once presses the little company of. Christ’s witnesses to come into her house and abide there; and her earnestness will admit of no refusal: she constrained them. In fact the clouds were already gathering which portended a storm which was soon to break.
{*Lydia’s occupation and the city whence she came are given, and these with the significance of her name, would doubtless help in illuminating the brief narrative we have of her conversion, had we eyes to see. Thyatira was a city in Asia, where the door had just been closed on Paul. The first convert in Europe was from that city, and thus the continuity of the work is shown. Her business -said to be characteristic of the city -had to do with the adornment of the natural man. Her lowliness is in striking contrast with the Church of Thyatira (Rev 2:18, etc.), which represents the Church of Rome, the "woman arrayed in purple and scarlet color." -S.R.}
2. The enemy does not begin, however, with an open attack -far from it: he announces himself in the first place as himself a witness to the message that Paul brings! A female slave, having a spirit of Python (supposed to be inspired by Apollo) and who brought her masters much gain by her divinations, followed Paul and his companions on their way to the place of prayer, and day after day cried out, "These men are servants of the Most High God, who show you the way of salvation." It was an astonishing testimony from one accredited by the multitude as a true prophetess, but whose whole condition spoke to those who could discern the truth of dreadful bondage to an evil spirit! Yet it was in this case a true testimony, and which from such lips would naturally bring the attention of many to the truth. Nor had those accredited by it any responsibility apparently in the matter. Why should they not even accept such homage to the truth forced from the mouth of a demon? So had the evil spirits in the Lord’s time owned Him as the Holy One of God whom men scoffed at as the Nazarene. But He had silenced them, and cast them out; and now also there could be no alliance between the awful power that held the world captive and Him who is its Deliverer. Satan, if he will testify, shall testify in being cast out; and the apostle, though for a time simply ignoring his effort to attach himself as a parasite to the tree of life, at last brings to bear on him the power of the Name of Jesus Christ, and his captive is set free.
Alas, not always was there to be the wisdom to discern the attack of the enemy in that which spoke highly of the way of salvation, and glorified its ministers. And so in fact was the way to be perverted, and the ministry to become the chief agency in its perversion; the little seed became a tree, with the birds of the air lodged securely in its branches. Who can doubt that we have here a forecast of that which has now become history? -though the disaster wrought is not yet all told out.
Alliance or persecution, -these are the alternatives: false friendship or open war. The apostle’s act shows at once his acceptance of the issue, and presages the final result; though for the present -and this in the ordering of God for blessing to His own -the conflict may seem largely to go against them. The cross must be the way to the crown, as the Lord fully assured us; and "if we suffer, we shall also reign with Him." The world is adverse, and the condition of progress is that we make our way through hostile forces. At Philippi, the enemy seeks to turn his first discomfiture into success. The loss of their gains stirs up the girl’s masters to drag Paul and Silas before the magistrates, with the charge that as Jews they are troubling the city by introducing customs unlawful to them as Romans. The prejudice against Jews was great, and the last part of the charge had in it a certain amount of truth, as well as ability to rouse the fanaticism of Romans. "The letter of the Roman law, even under the republic, was opposed to the introduction of foreign religions; and though exceptions were allowed, as in the case of the Jews themselves, yet the spirit of the law entirely condemned such changes in worship as were likely to unsettle the minds of the citizens, or to produce any tumultuous uproar . . . . Thus Paul and Silas had undoubtedly been doing what in some degree exposed them to legal penalties; and were beginning a change which tended to bring down, and ultimately did bring down, the whole weight of the Roman law on the martyrs of Christianity" (Conybeare and Howson).
Thus the prince of this world had taken means to secure himself against the truth which might dethrone him; and at Philippi different causes combined to rouse the excitement of the mob so as to carry the magistrates along with it. The arrested men are stripped and beaten in the merciless way natural, not merely in the hard pagan world, but in the lawless condition in which things were at present. Bruised and bleeding they are thrust into prison, with a charge to the jailer to keep them safe; who on his part thrusts them into the innermost dungeon, and their feet into the stocks.
These are the world’s weapons, which are freely used upon unarmed and defenceless men, teachers, as an oracle of their own had loudly proclaimed, of the way of salvation. But if the weapons of these men are not carnal, they are, in the language of one of the sufferers here, "mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds," and presently the prison walls are stirred to their foundations, as vibrating to the unaccustomed sound of prayer and praise from lips that cannot be silenced as the hearts that move them cannot be stilled.
3. "At midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God; and the prisoners listened to them."
What a new sound it must have been! Had it been in a Christian land, as we say, however poorly any land may be that, we should think of memories that it would awaken in whatever hardened hearts; but here there were no memories to awaken; it was a new gospel of gladness going forth, which in such circumstances those old Romans knew not. They could die well, as we know; -sternly, grimly, they could die; with their song too upon their lips, as heroes, patriots, and in softer moods of love and loyalty; but all this was inspiration from earthly sources, and not strange to men: here was inspiration of another kind, -a new strain that held the listeners by its rapt unearthliness, its confidence and joy in an unseen God. Here was its revelation -its gospel: would there be answer to this undoubting claim upon One assumed so near and competent?
Suddenly an unexpected answer came: a great earthquake rocked the prison to its foundations; and in a moment all the doors were opened, and every one’s bonds were loosed! Yet all the more the wonder held them: they were in hands so manifestly mighty, so interested too, and guided by purpose for the manifestation of which they could only wait. Did not some realize perhaps, that there was here a God worth waiting for, whom it must be a joy to know?
There was one, however, to whom what had taken place was a message of death, or seemed such. The jailer, roused from sleep by the sudden shock, and seeing the prison doors open, supposed that the prisoners had escaped. In that case, from the severity of the Roman law there would have been for him no escape. He had drawn his sword to kill himself, in despair of life, when a voice of quiet assurance from the depths of the prison arrested him. "Do thyself no harm," it called; "for we are all here." In that instant the voice of God had spoken to him; the keeper and his captives had changed places: the perfect authority breathing in these words, coupled with mercy to himself so great, which had laid aside all that self-concern prompted to, to care for a mere careless and hardened persecutor, smote him with conviction that God was with these men. He was in their hands, and not they in his. Conscience and heart were roused in him together; the sense of sin, and of goodness that drew him after it. He called for lights, and sprang in, and fell down before Paul and Silas, trembling with these new emotions; and bringing them out, with the voice of the prophetess, no doubt, ringing in his ears, he said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"
It was such a cry as divine grace awakens and responds to. The facing of death immediately before, the consciousness of the divine hand in all that had taken place, had been used of the Spirit of God to make him understand what salvation would mean, though not the way of it. The way he did not understand; nor could he have understood without further help the simple words (to us, thank God!) in which it was made known to him: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, -thou and thy house." It is a blessed word; blessed in the largeness of assurance that clings to it; and which, though on opposite sides misconceived, we are not to give up on that account.
It is faith in a personal Saviour that is preached to the convicted man, -a committing himself to One mighty to save; a believing on, which is trusting, leaning on. It is not a doctrine simply that he is to accept, but a living Person who is to be trusted.
But then it is a Person who has accomplished a work for men, in the power of which He is Lord and Christ; not simply Sovereign Ruler, but the "Anointed" Priest, the Representative of His people. As having stood in our place upon the cross, He stands as the One in whom we are accepted before God.
It is necessarily, therefore, faith which saves, just because it is Christ who saves; it is not the value of faith in itself, although there is value in faith; for it is the real active principle in every soul: so that it can be said, "Faith, if it have not works, is dead, being alone." It works because it puts Christ in His place, and so God (as manifested in Christ) in His also. But as contrasted with works it is the very confession of creature nothingness and worthlessness, in which it lays hold of Another as all its competence and all its boast. Repentance and faith are thus but the opposite sides of the amazing change which is wrought in conversion: the one is the face turned towards God, as the other is the back turned upon self. Each therefore implies the other.
But now as to the closing words, "thou and thy house:" have they any special encouragement as to the family of a believer, or have they not? Do they mean only "thou, if thou believest, and thy house also, if they believe"? Or do they mean something more than this? Would there be need to assure the penitent here, that faith being the way of salvation, it was as open to his house upon their believing as to himself? It does not seem as if he would need to be assured of that.
On the other hand, there should not need to say, that if faith be, as it surely is, the way of salvation there is no exemption of the family of a believer from the necessity of faith. If there should possibly be any, as is sometimes stated, who with the plain word of Scripture before them can yet hold that for a believer’s house there is even the possibility that without faith they may still please God, or that the father’s faith can in anywise be proxy for that of the child, such a superstition needs only to be brought into honest daylight to be refuted. Quite a different thing it is to believe that there are special promises to a believer’s house, not unconditional, and yet conditioned only upon his being in practical reality, and in relation to that which is in question, a believer. Such a belief has plenty to ground itself upon in Scripture, and is not a superstition but a faith.
Take Abraham, "the father of all them that believe" (Rom 4:11), as an illustration and somewhat more. "I know him," says the Lord, "that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which He hath spoken of him" (Gen 18:19). Here is, indeed, not a promise but an assurance, grounded upon that which the practical character of his faith wrought in the Old Testament example of it. Himself called out from the idolatry around to keep the way of the Lord, he acknowledged Him as the God of his household as well as his own God. With such purpose of heart the wise man’s proverb would be fulfilled as to his house, "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it" (Pro 22:6). This is the rule of the Christian’s house, according to which he is to bring up his children in the "nurture (or discipline) and admonition of the Lord" (Eph 6:4). To this the promise applies that assures him that it shall be effectual; and not in vain is the assurance. The faith which it is true they need cannot be imparted by all that man can do for them: how comforting then the word which entitles confidence in the Lord to whom we bring them, and whose we would have them, that nevertheless this "discipline and admonition" shall be effectual! Discipleship, government, discipline belong to the kingdom; and "thou and thy house" have always been the rule in the kingdom of God. Yet all here is distinctly conditional, not absolute, as the Gospels fully show us; and to this, and not to the Church, is baptism introductory (see Mat 28:18-19, notes); all is perfectly intelligible, therefore, when we find directly here, that "they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house;" and that the jailer "was baptized, he and all his, immediately."
Notable it is that of Israel’s "set times" (Lev 23:1-44), which typically present God’s ways (as we say dispensationally), on to the end which is God’s rest, those from Passover to Pentecost speak of what was indeed offered to Israel, and thus might have been hers, but being rejected through unbelief, they have passed from her in their spiritual significance and become the peculiar portion of the (characteristically Gentile) Church. No doubt can be entertained as to Pentecost; but the Sheaf of First-fruits also, which is Christ in resurrection, the promise of the harvest to come, is also ours whose portion will be with Him in this, while Israel inherits hers upon earth. Accordingly the feasts which speak of the national blessing come afterwards, with an interval between, in the seventh month; the feast of trumpets gathering them afresh, at the new moon, when the Sun of righteousness begins to shine afresh upon Israel; the day of atonement then showing their sins put upon the scapegoat and sent away; and finally the feast of tabernacles consummates their blessing.
Passover, let us notice, is not like the day of atonement, one sacrifice covering all the people, but "a lamb for a house," each family distinctly represented. Nay, if one should be defiled at the time of its celebration, or on a journey afar off, a second Passover can be kept, to remedy the omission. I do not say but that, in a secondary sense, this may apply to Israel, who were indeed defiled at the time of Christ’s suffering for men; but this would only confirm the more the application of the Passover primarily to the present going out of the gospel in the day of Israel’s rejection.
But what then is the principle that faces us in the Passover? Clearly, it is "Thou and thy house;" the heads of the houses kill the lamb, and sprinkle the blood upon the lintel and the two side-posts of the houses where they eat it. The family character of the redemption feast is manifest; and notice again that it is at Philippi, among those who are Gentile -no synagogue of the Jews in the place, and not a word of any man of Israel in the place, save only the preachers themselves, that we hear what we may call now the passover gospel -"Thou shalt be saved: thou and thy house."
What a change has passed, and as in a moment, upon the hardened instrument of heathen cruelty and opposition to the word of Christ! "He took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes, and having brought them up into his house, set food before them, and rejoiced with all his house, believing God." Although we have to translate perhaps in this way, on account of the difficulty of other rendering in English, yet it should be understood that the expression "with all his house" is not here as in the case of Crispus afterwards where it is said that he "believed with all his house" (Act 18:8). Here it is an adverb, and there should be a reason for the difference, the effect of which would be to make the joy more simply his own. It is certain, at least, that although they had spoken the word to all that were in his house, faith is ascribed to himself alone.
The work in the prison is done, and now indeed the prison doors can hold them no longer. The day having come, the magistrates sent the lictors with a curt message to "Let those men go." But Paul is concerned that there should be no avoidable reproach left upon the testimony, and he refuses to be dismissed in this manner after the public wrong upon men uncondemned. The magistrates are afraid when they hear that they are Roman citizens they have been treating in this manner, and come in humble fashion to bring them out; begging them, however, to leave the city. They return therefore to Lydia’s house; and after having there met the brethren (of whom, in the time that had elapsed, and as from the epistle afterwards we cannot but infer that, there were many), and having comforted them, they departed.
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v13
Acts
PAUL AT PHILIPPI
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Act 16:13.
This is the first record of the preaching of the Gospel in Europe, and probably the first instance of it. The fact that the vision of the man of Macedonia was needed in order to draw the Apostle across the straits into Macedonia, and the great length at which the incidents at Philippi are recorded, make this probable. If so, we are here standing, as it were, at the wellhead of a mighty river, and the thin stream of water assumes importance when we remember the thousand miles of its course, and the league-broad estuary in which it pours itself into the ocean. Here is the beginning; the Europe of to-day is what came out of it. There is no sign whatever that the Apostle was conscious of an epoch in this transference of the sphere of his operations, but we can scarcely help being conscious of such.
And so, looking at the words of my text, and seeing here how unobtrusively there stole into the progressive part of the world the power which was to shatter and remould all its institutions, to guide and inform the onward march of its peoples, to be the basis of their liberties, and the starting-point of their literature, we can scarcely avoid drawing lessons of importance.
The first point which I would suggest, as picturesquely enforced for us by this incident, is-
I. The apparent insignificance and real greatness of Christian work.
There did not seem in the whole of that great city that morning a more completely insignificant knot of people than the little weather-beaten Jew, travel-stained, of weak bodily presence, and of contemptible speech, with the handful of his attendants, who slipped out in the early morning and wended their way to the quiet little oratory, beneath the blue sky, by the side of the rushing stream, and there talked informally and familiarly to the handful of women. The great men of Philippi would have stared if any one had said to them, ‘You will be forgotten, but two of these women will have their names embalmed in the memory of the world for ever. Everybody will know Euodia and Syntyche. Your city will be forgotten, although a battle that settled the fate of the civilised world was fought outside your gates. But that little Jew and the letter that he will write to that handful of believers that are to be gathered by his preaching will last for ever.’ The mightiest thing done in Europe that morning was when the Apostle sat down by the riverside, ‘and spake to the women which resorted thither.’
The very same vulgar mistake as to what is great and as to what is small is being repeated over and over again; and we are all tempted to it by that which is worldly and vulgar in ourselves, to the enormous detriment of the best part of our natures. So it is worth while to stop for a moment and ask what is the criterion of greatness in our deeds? I answer, three things-their motive, their sphere, their consequences. What is done for God is always great. You take a pebble and drop it into a brook, and immediately the dull colouring upon it flashes up into beauty when the sunlight strikes through the ripples, and the magnitude of the little stone is enlarged. If I may make use of such a violent expression, drop your deeds into God, and they will all be great, however small they are. Keep them apart from Him, and they will be small, though all the drums of the world beat in celebration, and all the vulgar people on the earth extol their magnitude. This altar magnifies and sanctifies the giver and the gift. The great things are the things that are done for God.
A deed is great according to its sphere. What bears on and is confined to material things is smaller than what affects the understanding. The teacher is more than the man who promotes material good. And on the very same principle, above both the one and the other, is the doer of deeds which touch the diviner part of a man’s nature, his will, his conscience, his affections, his relations to God. Thus the deeds that impinge upon these are the highest and the greatest; and far above the scientific inventor, and far above the mere teacher, as I believe, and as I hope you believe, stands the humblest work of the poorest Christian who seeks to draw any other soul into the light and liberty which he himself possesses. The greatest thing in the world is charity, and the purest charity in the world is that which helps a man to possess the basis and mother-tincture of all love, the love towards God who has first loved us, in the person and the work of His dear Son.
That which being done has consequences that roll through souls, ‘and grow for ever and for ever,’ is a greater work than the deed whose issues are more short-lived. And so the man who speaks a word which may deflect a soul into the paths which have no end until they are swallowed up in the light of the God who ‘is a Sun,’ is a worker whose work is truly great. Brethren, it concerns the nobleness of the life of us Christian people far more closely than we sometimes suppose, that we should purge our souls from the false estimate of magnitudes which prevails so extensively in the world’s judgment of men and their doings. And though it is no worthy motive for a man to seek to live so that he may do great things, it is a part of the discipline of the Christian mind, as well as heart, that we should be able to reduce the swollen bladders to their true flaccidity and insignificance, and that we should understand that things done for God, things done on men’s souls, things done with consequences which time will not exhaust, nor eternity put a period to, are, after all, the great things of human life.
Ah, there will be a wonderful reversal of judgments one day! Names that now fill the trumpet of fame will fall silent. Pages that now are read as if they were leaves of the ‘Book of Life’ will be obliterated and unknown, and when all the flashing cressets in Vanity Fair have smoked and stunk themselves out, ‘They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.’ The great things are the Christian things, and there was no greater deed done that day, on this round earth, than when that Jewish wayfarer, travel-stained and insignificant, sat himself down in the place of prayer, and ‘spake unto the women which resorted thither.’ Do not be over-cowed by the loud talk of the world, but understand that Christian work is the mightiest work that a man can do.
Let us take from this incident a hint as to-
II. The law of growth in Christ’s Kingdom.
Here, as I have said, is the thin thread of water at the source. We to-day are on the broad bosom of the expanded stream. Here is the little beginning; the world that we see around us has come from this, and there is a great deal more to be done yet before all the power that was transported into Europe, on that Sabbath morning, has wrought its legitimate effects. That is to say, ‘the Kingdom of God cometh not by observation.’ Let me say a word, and only a word, based on this incident, about the law of small beginnings and the law of slow, inconspicuous development.
We have here an instance of the law of small, silent beginnings. Let us go back to the highest example of everything that is good; the life of Jesus Christ. A cradle at Bethlehem, a carpenter’s shop in Nazareth, thirty years buried in a village, two or three years, at most, going up and down quietly in a remote nook of the earth, and then He passed away silently and the world did not know Him. ‘He shall not strive nor cry, nor cause His voice to be heard in the streets.’ And as the Christ so His Church, and so His Gospel, and so all good movements that begin from Him. Destructive preparations may be noisy; they generally are. Constructive beginnings are silent and small. If a thing is launched with a great beating of drums and blowing of trumpets, you may be pretty sure there is very little in it. Drums are hollow, or they would not make such a noise. Trumpets only catch and give forth wind. They say-I know not whether it is true-that the Wellingtonia gigantea, the greatest of forest trees, has a smaller seed than any of its congeners. It may be so, at any rate it does for an illustration. The germ-cell is always microscopic. A little beginning is a prophecy of a great ending.
In like manner there is another large principle suggested here which, in these days of impatient haste and rushing to and fro, and religious as well as secular advertising and standing at street corners, we are very apt to forget, but which we need to remember, and that is that the rate of growth is swift when the duration of existence is short. A reed springs up in a night. How long does an oak take before it gets too high for a sheep to crop at? The moth lives its full life in a day. There is no creature that has helpless infancy so long as a man. We have the slow work of mining; the dynamite will be put into the hole one day, and the spark applied- and then? So ‘an inheritance may be gotten hastily at the beginning, but the end thereof shall not be blessed.’
Let us apply that to our own personal life and work, and to the growth of Christianity in the world, and let us not be staggered because either are so slow. ‘The Lord is not slack concerning His promises, as some men count slackness. One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.’ How long will that day be of which a thousand years are but as the morning twilight? Brethren, you have need of patience. You Christian workers, and I hope I am speaking to a great many such now; how long does it take before we can say that we are making any impression at all on the vast masses of evil and sin that are round about us? God waited, nobody knows how many millenniums and more than millenniums, before He had the world ready for man. He waited for more years than we can tell before He had the world ready for the Incarnation. His march is very slow because it is ever onwards. Let us be thankful if we forge ahead the least little bit; and let us not be impatient for swift results which are the fool’s paradise, and which the man who knows that he is working towards God’s own end can well afford to do without.
And now, lastly, let me ask you to notice, still further as drawn from this incident-
III. The simplicity of the forces to which God entrusts the growth of His Kingdom.
It is almost ludicrous to think, if it were not pathetic and sublime, of the disproportion between the end that was aimed at and the way that was taken to reach it, which the text opens before us. ‘We went out to the riverside, and we spake unto the women which resorted thither.’ That was all. Think of Europe as it was at that time. There was Greece over the hills, there was Rome ubiquitous and ready to exchange its contemptuous toleration for active hostility. There was the unknown barbarism of the vague lands beyond. Think of the established idolatries which these men had to meet, around which had gathered, by the superstitious awe of untold ages, everything that was obstinate, everything that was menacing, everything that was venerable. Think of the subtleties to which they had to oppose their unlettered message. Think of the moral corruption that was eating like an ulcer into the very heart of society. Did ever a Cortez on the beach, with his ships in flames behind him, and a continent in arms before, cast himself on a more desperate venture? And they conquered! How? What were the small stones from the brook that slew Goliath? Have we got them? Here they are, the message that they spoke, the white heat of earnestness with which they spoke it, and the divine Helper who backed them up. And we have this message. Brethren, that old word, ‘God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself,’ is as much needed, as potent, as truly adapted to the complicated civilisation of this generation, as surely reaching the deepest wants of the human soul, as it was in the days when first the message poured, like a red-hot lava flood, from the utterances of Paul. Like lava it has gone cold to-day, and stiff in many places, and all the heat is out of it. That is the fault of the speaker, never of the message. It is as mighty as ever it was, and if the Christian Church would keep more closely to it, and would realise more fully that the Cross does not need to be propped up so much as to be proclaimed, I think we should see that it is so. That sword has not lost its temper, and modern modes of warfare have not antiquated it. As David said to the high priests at Nob, when he was told that Goliath’s sword was hid behind the ephod, ‘Give me that. There is none like it.’ It was not miracles, it was the Gospel that was preached, which was ‘the power of God unto salvation.’
And that message was preached with earnestness. There is one point in which every successful servant of Jesus Christ who has done work for Him, winning men to Him, has been like every other successful servant, and there is only one point. Some of them have been wise men, some of them have been foolish. Some of them have been clad with many puerile notions and much rubbish of ceremonial and sacerdotal theories. Some of them have been high Calvinists, some of them low Arminians; some of them have been scholars, some of them could hardly read. But they have all had this one thing: they believed with all their hearts what they spake. They fulfilled the Horatian principle, ‘If you wish me to weep, your own eyes must overflow’-and if you wish me to believe, you must speak, not ‘with bated breath and whispering humbleness,’ but as if you yourself believed it, and were dead set on getting other people to believe it, too.
And then the third thing that Paul had we have, and that is the presence of the Christ. Note what it says in the context about one convert who was made that morning, Lydia, ‘whose heart the Lord opened.’ Now I am not going to deduce Calvinism or any other ‘ism’ from these words, but I pray you to note that there is emerging on the surface here what runs all through this book of Acts, and animates the whole of it, viz., that Jesus Christ Himself is working, doing all the work that is done through His servants. Wherever there are men aflame with that with which every Christian man and woman should be aflame, the consciousness of the preciousness of their Master, and their own responsibility for the spreading of His Name, there, depend upon it, will be the Christ to aid them. The picture with which one of the Evangelists closes his Gospel will be repeated: ‘They went everywhere preaching the word, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following.’
Dear brethren, the vision of the man of Macedonia which drew Paul across the water from Troas to Philippi speaks to us. ‘Come over and help us,’ comes from many voices. And if we, in however humble and obscure, and as the foolish purblind world calls it, ‘small,’ way, yield to the invitation, and try to do what in us lies, then we shall find that, like Paul by the riverside in that oratory, we are building better than we know, and planting a little seed, the springing whereof God will bless. ‘Thou sowest not that which shall be, but bare grain . . . and God giveth it a body as it hath pleased Him.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain On vv11–15 11, 12. An opportunity was offered without delay, for…
11, 12. An opportunity was offered without delay, for the apostolic company to make the contemplated voyage to Macedonia. (11) " Therefore, setting sail from Troas, we ran by a straight course to Samothrace, and the next day to Neapolis; (12) and thence to Philippi, which is the first city of that part of Macedonia, and a colony. And we abode in that city some days. "
Samothrace is an island in the Archipelago, about midway between Troas and Neapolis. Neapolis was a seaport of Macedonia, and the landing place for Philippi. The remark that they sailed to Samothrace, and the next day to Neapolis, shows that they spent the night at Samothrace, which accords with the custom of ancient navigators, who generally cast anchor at night, during coasting voyages, unless the stars were out. This voyage occupied a part of two days.
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Philippi was not the chief city of that part of Macedonia, as rendered in the common version, but the first city; by which is meant, either that it was the first which Paul visited, or the first in point of celebrity. I think the latter is the real idea; for it is obvious from the history that this was the first city Paul visited, and of this the reader need not be informed. But it was the first city of that region in point of celebrity, because it was the scene of the great battle in which Brutus and Cassius were defeated by Marc Antony. Thessalonica was then, and is yet, the chief city of Macedonia.
The observant reader will here notice a change in the style of the narrative, which indicates the presence of the writer among the companions of Paul. Hitherto he had spoken of them only in the third person; but when about to leave Troas, he uses the first person plural, saying, " we sought to go forth into Macedonia," and " we ran to Samothrace," etc. It is only by such a change in the pronoun employed, from the third to the first person, and from the first to the third that we can detect the presence or absence of Luke. From this indication we conclude that he first joined the company in the interior of Asia Minor, just previous to entering the city of Troas. The company with whom we are now traveling is composed of Paul and Silas, Timothy and Luke.
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv12–13 i.e. a Roman colony.
colony
i.e. a Roman colony.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv11, 14 Paul and His Companions at Philippi
Paul and His Companions at Philippi
The voyage to Philippi:
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v. 11. Therefore loosing from Troas, we came with a straight course to Samothracia and the next day to Neapolis,
v. 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.
v. 13. And on the Sabbath we went out of the city by a riverside, where prayer was wont to be made; and we sat down and spake unto the women which resorted thither.
In those days of active commercial intercourse between the various Aegean ports, it did not take long for them to find a ship upon which they could take passage. Paul and his companions therefore drew away, they set sail from Troas, being favored by a good stiff breeze from the south and east, which enabled them to make a straight run past the island of Imbros to that called Samothrace, one of the northernmost islands of the Grecian archipelago. Here they turned toward the west and sailed past the island of Thasus to the Macedonian port of Neapolis, the latter part of the journey taking only one day. Thus the voyage had been undertaken under unusually propitious circumstances and completed in an exceptionally short time. The missionaries did not remain in Neapolis, however, but pressed on to the larger city of Philippi, which was a Roman colony, both coins and inscriptions corroborating the words of Luke. Near it was fought the great battle between Augustus and Antony on one side, and Brutus and Cassius, the murderers of Julius Caesar, on the other, the battle which decided that Rome would be an empire, and not a republic. In honor of this event Philippi had been granted the rights of a Roman colony, as the name "praetors," used by Luke to designate the officials of the city, also shows. And Philippi was the first city in that district, or division, of Macedonia. For almost two Centuries before, Macedonia had been divided into four districts, whose general boundaries were still recognized, although they were no longer accepted by the government as political districts. That Philippi was the first, the most important city of that part of Macedonia was due to its location on the great Egnatian Way, the main Roman road between Europe and Asia. It was in those days what Byzantium, or Constantinople, later became, the gateway to the Orient. The Roman province of Macedonia lay between Greece and the Aegean Sea, on the south, and the Balkan Mountains, on the north. In Philippi, then, where the East and the West met, these travelers from the Orient spent some time, anxious to gain some souls for the Lord. Since the Jewish population of the city at that time was not large enough to support a synagogue, and the Jews had therefore the custom of gathering outside of the city gates, on the banks of a river, by the riverside, and of holding their meetings of prayer there, this site had become known as the place of prayer. To that spot, therefore, Paul and his companions also went on the Sabbath, to the river Gangas or Gangites. There was probably no formal worship, as in the synagogues, although there may have been leaders of the devotions. At any rate, Paul accommodated himself to the conditions. He sat down with his party among the worshipers and spent the morning talking to the women that had come together there. It seems, then, that the Jews and proselytes of the city consisted largely of women, many of whom occupied positions of considerable freedom and social influence, a fact which is fully borne out by careful historical research. Note: it may have seemed strange to Paul, after all the elaborate preparations, to find only a handful of women assembled, but God has His own ways of doing things and conducting the affairs of His kingdom, as the subsequent condition of the Philippian congregation shows.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv11, 14 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
Paul and his companions are now in Philippi on their missionary trip. Verse 13 begins the story of Lydia. This short story happens during Paul's travels.
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Samothrace ... Neapolis
These are coastal cities near Phillipi in Macedonia. (See: How to Translate Names)
we came to Neapolis
Here "came to" can be translated as "went to" or "arrived at." (See: Go and Come)
a Roman colony
This is a city outside of Italy where many people who came from Rome lived. The people there had the same rights and freedoms as people who lived in cities in Italy. They could govern themselves and they did not have to pay taxes. (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
translationWords
Troas
Philippi
Macedonia
Rome
day
Sabbath
gate
pray
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv11–14 16:11 Samothrace is a small mountainous island lying west-northwest…
16:11 Samothrace is a small mountainous island lying west-northwest of the Hellespont about twenty miles (32 km) from the coast of Thrace. • Neapolis (modern Kavala) was the seaport for Philippi and the eastern terminus of the famous Via Egnatia (the Egnatian Way), which ran from Rome to Asia.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.