Smith's Bible Dictionary.pdf - Online Christian Library

Smith's Bible Dictionary
period—not less than eighteen or nineteen years—we lose sight of him. The last glimpse of him
in the New Testament is in the account of St. Paul’s journey to Jerusalem. It is to his house as to
one well known to them, that St. Paul and his companions turn for shelter. He has four daughters,
who possess the gift of prophetic utterance and who apparently give themselves to the work of
teaching instead of entering on the life of home. (Acts 21:8,9) He is visited by the prophets and
elders of Jerusalem. One tradition places the scene of his death at Hierapolis in Phrygia. According
to another, he died bishop of Tralles. The house in which he and-his daughters had lived was pointed
out to travellers in the time of Jerome.
Philippi
(named from Philip of Macedonia), a city of Macedonia about nine miles from the sea, to the
northwest of the island of Thasos which is twelve miles distant from its port Neapolis, the modern
Kavalla . It is situated in a plain between the ranges of Pangaeus and Haemus. The Philippi which
St. Paul visited was a Roman colony founded by Augustus after the famous battle of Philippi, fought
here between Antony and Octavius and Brutus and Cassius, B.C. 42. The remains which strew the
ground near the modern Turkish village Bereketli are no doubt derived from that city. The original
town, built by Philip of Macedonia, was probably not exactly on the same site. Philip, when he
acquired possession of the site, found there a town named Datus or Datum, which was probably in
its origin a factory of the Phoenicians, who were the first that worked the gold-mines in the mountains
here, as in the neighboring Thasos. The proximity of the goldmines was of course the origin of so
large a city as Philippi, but the plain in which it lies is of extraordinary fertility. The position, too,
was on the main road from Rome to Asia, the Via Egnatia, which from Thessalonica to
Constantinople followed the same course as the existing post-road. On St. Paul’s visits to Philippi,
see the following article. At Philippi the gospel was first preached in Europe. Lydia was the first
convert. Here too Paul and Silas were imprisoned. (Acts 16:23) The Philippians sent contributions
to Paul to relieve his temporal wants.
Philippians, Epistle To The
was St. Paul from Rome in A.D. 62 or 63. St. Paul’s connection with Philippi was of a peculiar
character, which gave rise to the writing of this epistle. St. Paul entered its walls A.D. 52. (Acts
16:18) There, at a greater distance from Jerusalem than any apostle had yet penetrated, the
long-restrained energy of St, Paul was again employed in laying the foundation of a Christian
church, Philippi was endeared to St. Paul not only by the hospitality of Lydia, the deep sympathy
of the converts, and the remarkable miracle which set a seal on his preaching, but, also by the
successful exercise of his missionary activity after a long suspense, and by the happy consequences
of his undaunted endurance of ignominies which remained in his memory, (Philemon 1:30) after
the long interval of eleven years. Leaving Timothy and Luke to watch over the infant church, Paul
and Silas went to Thessalonica, (1 Thessalonians 2:2) whither they were followed by the alms of
the Philippians, (Philemon 4:16) and thence southward. After the lapse of five years, spent chiefly
at Corinth and Ephesus, St. Paul passed through Macedonia, A.D. 57, on his way to Greece, and
probably visited Philippi for the second time, and was there joined by Timothy. He wrote at Philippi
his second Epistle to the Corinthians. On returning from Greece, (Acts 20:4) he again found a refuge
among his faithful Philippians, where he spent some days at Easter, A.D. 58, with St. Luke, who
accompanied him when he sailed from Neapolis. Once more, in his Roman captivity, A.D. 62, their
care of him revived-again. They sent Epaphroditus bearing their alms for the apostle’s support, and
ready also to tender his personal service. (Philemon 2:25) St. Paul’s aim in writing is plainly this:
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William Smith