Philippi - a town with a church ::: Part 2

  1. The History of the City of Philippi
    1. Philippi was named for Philip the 2, the father of Alexander the Great.  This was a great city with a forum the size of a football field, a library, an open air theater, and two large temples.
    2. It was a greek city for about 300 years.  That means that they were a pagan city that worshipped greek mythological gods.
    3. Then, if you remember your world history, a very famous scene happened there.  In 42 BC Mark Antony and Octovian chased down Brutus who was the guy who killed Julius Ceasar.  They chased him and killed him at Philippi.
    4. Then in 31 BC the Roman Emperor sent some Italian exiles to the city and He made it a Roman City.  That is a big deal because being a Roman city had it’s advantages.
    5. Then in 49 AD (80 years later) Paul comes to plant a church.  So the church is set in a very pagan culture with Greek pagans and Roman pagans.  Needless to say the people of the city thought very highly of themselves.  They weren’t the great city of Rome, but they were a great city in Macedonia.

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