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Places, art and manuscripts across time. First era: the apostolic and early church, from Pentecost to the early fourth century.
Philippi
A Roman colony and Paul's first stop in Macedonia. Lydia, the jailer and the stocks are Acts; Polycarp's letter to the same church is the fathers.
- 41.012651
- 24.284637
The real question: what does it tell us that the next letter to Philippi after Paul's comes from Smyrna, from Polycarp? A family gets a letter from an old friend's student, years after the friend has died. The student writes as if he knows them. Does that show the friendship carried on, or only that he heard about them?
Paul crosses to Macedonia after a vision of a man asking for help (Acts 16:9). Philippi is the chief city of that part of Macedonia and a colony (Acts 16:12). Lydia, a seller of purple from Thyatira, believes; Paul and Silas are beaten, put in the inner prison with their feet in the stocks, and released (Acts 16:14-40). Paul sails from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread (Acts 20:6). Polycarp and his presbyters write to the church of God sojourning at Philippi (Polycarp, Epistle to the Philippians, salutation), a letter Irenaeus calls very powerful (Against Heresies 3.3.4; Church History 4.14.8).
The vision of the Macedonian (Acts 16:9). Philippi, a colony (Acts 16:12). Lydia (Acts 16:14). The beating, prison and stocks (Acts 16:23-24). Departure after the days of unleavened bread (Acts 20:6).
Polycarp's letter to the Philippians survives (ANF vol. 1). Eusebius says it mentions Ignatius and his companions (Church History 3.36.13) and uses testimonies from the First Epistle of Peter (4.14.9). Irenaeus commends it to anyone who wants to learn Polycarp's faith (Against Heresies 3.3.4).
No manuscript in the sources read here is tied to Philippi in this era.
Eusebius's text, as translated, calls it the epistle ascribed to Polycarp (Church History 3.36.13); a later correction in the same volume says to read his extant Epistle instead. Reading that as a translator's wording rather than doubt about the letter is an inference drawn here. The list of the seventy among the dubious and spurious pieces attributed to Hippolytus makes Hermas bishop of Philippi. That is legend.
Not Caesarea Philippi. The name is shared; the place is in Macedonia, not under Mount Hermon.
- Acts 16:9-40
- Acts 20:6
- Acts, checked in the King James Version
- Polycarp, Epistle to the Philippians, ANF vol. 1
- Irenaeus, Against Heresies, ANF vol. 1, 3.3.4
- Eusebius, Church History, trans. McGiffert, NPNF2 vol. 1 (1890), 3.36.13, 4.14.8-9, with the translator's note on 3.36.13
- Pseudo-Hippolytus, On the Seventy Apostles, ANF vol. 5, Appendix of Dubious and Spurious Pieces
- Pleiades gazetteer, place 501482, Krenides/Philippi/Col. Augusta Iulia Philippensis, places.csv
