34. Travel Greece with a Bible in Your Suitcase | Classical Theater | Philippi, Greece

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Is this a theater or an amphitheater? “Amphi” means both sides, as in amphibian or ambidextrous. An amphibian is an animal that lives in both water and the ground. Ambidextrous is a person who uses both sides equally, both right and left. So, an amphitheater is a round, fully round structure. This place in Philippi, Greece is not an amphitheater. It is a theater because it is only half.

The Greek word for theater, (θέατρο) comes from two words. God + using something from a distance: God (θεός ) and από. The meaning of the root of από is to use something from a distance.

Remember, today we ourselves are up on stage. We are the actors. And God is here watching us. Yes, this is how the two things are connected. God is using something from a distance. We are on the stage. God watches us from the seats.

Here is a close-up of theater seating in Philippi, Greece.

Greek theater was not just to amuse the people. The actors taught morals, the base of the Athenian political system. And for that reason, Greeks called their actors moral makers (ηθοποιός). Itho (ηθο) means maker and ethos (ήθος) is the morals. ­­The maker (actor) taught the morals of the Athenian political system. Theater was born in Athens and grew up alongside Athenian democracy.

The institution of the theater began during a celebration of the god Dionysus in Athens. Near the celebration at the temple of Dionysus, there was a threshing floor. (At the threshing floor, farmers smashed wheat ears to separate the useful wheat grain from the straw.) So, the threshing floor, close to the Temple of Dionysus, was a very convenient place for the farmers to celebrate Dionysus. The Greeks celebrated with dances at the threshing floor. And this is the very beginning of theater.

Greeks still today, celebrate saints (for most Greeks, the saints replace the ancient gods in their minds). Greeks go somewhere, in the yard of the church, or in the store, and they start dancing dances in circles. Have you ever seen Greeks dance in circles?

We know about Greeks dancing in circles. What about singing, and dancing in a circle, at the same time?

The word orchestra (ὀρχήστρα) means dancing and singing at the same time. Orkhéo (ὀρχέο) means to enter into a place singing and dancing. Orchestra comes from the first dance at the farmers’ threshing floor in Athens. Here is what happened:

At the end of sixth century, an Athenian man decided to jump into the middle of the threshing floor, into the middle of the circle of the dancers and the singers. He danced solo.

Greeks today also dance by themselves and sing songs, responding to the songs of the people who dancing and singing. The group of dancers and singers around the solo dancer/singer is called the orchestra.

The name of this man in the center of the orchestra was Thespis (Θέσπις). So, this is why, in some places, actors are called thespians (from the name of this Athenian man.)

It is really a miracle, how in a truly brief time, Greek theater grew from Thespis to Aeschylus. In less than 20 years it grew to Aeschylus with trilogies in front of the stage. This is the first actual drama, the classical drama.

Hopefully, we are going to be in Athens at the theater, the first theater of history, the theater of Dionysus, to talk a little bit more about classical drama.

Theater entrance

Ancient classical drama is close to what we call today, opera, which started from the orchestra. Opera started from dancing and singing at the same time.

Theater developed in two ways: tragedy and comedy.

  1. Tragedy was to teach the people to be pious, which was a way to avoid hubris in their life. Tragedy brought on the stage the stories of famous Greek hubrists’ interaction against the divinity. The people saw on the stage how people with hubris were punished. They witnessed the curse and the dislike of divinity expressed against a person with hubris, against their families, and generations after them. They showed that the hubrist’s curse remained until the day when a person from his family, even from the future generation of the author of the hubris, decided to face the Divine curse and make catharsis. Sophocles wrote a play about catharsis. Are you familiar with Antigone? Antigone was the older sister and daughter of Oedipus.
  2. The other way the ancient theater was developed was comedy. Comedy was like a mirror in front of the face of the spectator. With sarcasm and satire, comedy revealed to a person who he/she really was.

During Roman times, remember, this place was modified into an arena. And an iron fence was placed around the arena, tall enough to protect spectators from hungry animals that were brought into the orchestra. Animals entered through a floor gate. And remember, the animals were fed, in many cases, by fresh Christian flesh.

Unfortunately, the place where morals and the ethics of Athenian democracy were once taught, became the bloodiest place of the city, during the Roman times.

So, the orchestra turned into an arena, not only in Athens, and Philippi, but in all the Roman Empire. The coliseum arena became the place where Christians passed into glory. They died in front of the eyes of screaming crowds, who were full of joy, glad to see the blood and the cruel activity of the animals.

Of acoustic interest, Artist/Professor of Music at Moody Bible Institute, Dr. David Gauger, had two things about acoustics that people might be interested in.

1. Today’s orchestra took its name from the location where the musicians played. The physical location became the name of the instrumental group. So, today, the group of musicians (for example, those playing in a symphony) take on the title of orchestra.

2. We tend to think of sound radiating along a straight line, but sound radiates in a spherical pattern. The voice of an actor went directly from the stage to the audience, and it also bounced off the orchestra floor and into the audience as well. The two sound paths combined in the listeners’ hearing mechanism which made it sound louder. Amazing that the Greeks had a way to “amplify” sound (to make the sound louder for the listener) before electricity was ever invented.

Remember the story of Jesus talking from the boat to people on the shore? A related sound phenomena was utilized then also. The air above the surface of the water was cooled by the water. When Jesus spoke, the sound of His voice bounced back and forth in an acoustic tunnel (created by the waters’ surface and the cooler air layer) directing the sound more loudly to the people on the shore.

Philippi, Greece, Theater orchestra and seating

33. Travel Greece with a Bible in Your Suitcase | Classical Theater, Lion’s Arena | Philippi, Greece

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We see, in front of us now, the lower part of the façade of the theater in Philippi, Greece.

In front of the façade was a marble paved square upon which, at the Byzantine time, were workshops.

The walls of the workshops were built upon the marble pavement of the square.

Pillars, with muses depicted on them, supported arches with space between the arches.

In the Classical time, the time when this monument was a theatre, curtains covered the openings and behind the curtains were the actors’ chambers and storage area for the theater.

But when the Romans came, the Romans modified the theater making it into an arena. For that reason, they removed the curtains that hung between the pillars, and they built up the space between the pillars. So, when the archeologists found this place all of the spaces between the pillars were closed up with walls.

With this Roman modification, the actors’ chambers were turned into cages for lions and beasts. And open in the middle, (in the left of the above picture) was a kind of entrance which led to another ground chamber dug into the bedrock exactly in the middle of the orchestra.

Inside the orchestra used to be a mechanism, like a lift, bringing the lions right in the middle of the orchestra through a floor door. Have you seen the movie, Gladiator? It was something like that.

The archeologists, to restore the monument closer to its original function. removed the walls between the pillars, except for one – there for you to see (in the left-middle of the picture above) how this placed looked at the time of the Romans.

So, now you see the whole area: from where the lions entered the orchestra (on the left), the Roman façade in between the middle columns, and two Classical façades on the left and right of the Roman façade.

The classical façades are emptied from having a stone wall in front of them. Archeologists removed the Roman façade so that you can see where the curtains for the theater used to hang.

Let us go next inside the theater and I will explain the meaning of the orchestra to you.

32. Travel Greece with a Bible in Your Suitcase | Prison of St. Paul | Philippi, Greece

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People of the eighth century thought they found the Prison of Saint Paul! When the basilica, built on top of a chamber, collapsed, they assumed the basilica had been built there because it was the site of the Prison of the Apostle Paul. They developed the tradition that this chamber was a prison. But was it the long sought-after site of the prison of the Apostle Paul?

Written in Hebrew, Greek, and English, a sign points towards a chamber door, “Prison of Saint Paul.” Is this chamber the prison of the Apostle Paul? No, it is not.

It is not the prison of anyone. This is not a prison. The plaster on the inside is the hydraulic plaster of cisterns. But temples did have water cisterns, or wells, because people made blood sacrifices at the temple. It is a temple cistern.

Above the level of the Via Ignatia, from the time of the Apostle Paul and approximately four hundred years after him, all the flattop area was the place of a temple. A water cistern was placed here, but a prison was never placed among the temples.

When Theodosius removed the pagan temple, he recycled the building material and incorporated the old staircase into a new basilica.

The staircase is the older part, which leads up to the top, where we see the foundation of a pagan temple. Theodosius incorporated the old staircase into a basilica which he built at the top of the plateau.

The question remains, where is the prison of the Apostle Paul? We do not know. In historic places, like Philippi, tradition is stronger than fact itself. The Orthodox and Catholic Churches come to this place to have services once per year to honor the imprisonment of the Apostle Paul.

In other places of excavation, like in Athens, the prison is connected to the administrative section. And that makes sense. So, Paul’s prison may be behind the general’s office, an area which has not yet been excavated.

Excavation work around the general’s office stopped when the professor assigned to focus on the residential/urban area of Philippi, died. The work in that area went into transition. The transition is incredibly special.

One day in the future the area behind the administrative offices will be developed, and excavated, and then we will see if the prison of the Apostle Paul is behind the General’s Office in Philippi, Greece.

31. Travel Greece with a Bible in Your Suitcase | Ruins of the Philippi Octagon | Philippi, Greece | 2 Corinthians 4:5

by Lorelei GaugerTour GreecePosted on No Comments

The early church gathered in a simple space, in the shape of a round. The church people sat facing one another. This makes sense because the emphasis in the early church was the equality of the body of Christ.

In 345 A.D, the church building was demolished but the marble mosaic floor was not destroyed. It remained intact and reused by the church community when the new owners of the Octagonal Church built a new building on top of the old mosaic.

The flooring of the church in Philippi was the common mosaic of the secular houses of its time. The flooring is not identified as a unique mosaic tile. The entrance to the room was in the middle of the long side, not through one of the short sides. So, a person entering the room, entered directly in the middle of the room. From the position of the entrance, we can suppose that the seats were placed all around the room, facing the door. (Lydia’s Chapel is a 1970’s, modern interpretation of the ancient Octagon Church in Philippi.)

Before we go further to speak of later additions on this building, let us open the Bible to 2 Corinthians. Paul wrote, in 2 Corinthians 4:5. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord with ourselves as your servants (slaves) for Jesus’ sake.

Paul here is saying, “Look, we proclaim Jesus Christ, not ourselves. We, Paul and Timothy, are your slaves.” Paul was not presenting the church people as slaves to Christ. He was saying, “We are slave to you all – We (Paul and Timothy) are slaves to you who are the church, the body of Christ.”

Imagine the Apostle Paul or Timothy as the leaders of the church and they say to you, “Look, do you know who we are? It is us, Paul, and Timothy. Church, we are your slaves.” A slave, a δούλος, was a property, like a piece of furniture. This would give the right to answer back a command, something like, “Take me on your shoulders now and bring me to my home,” or “Wash my face,” or other commands. The word slave is different from the word servant because a servant is a free person whose job is to be a servant.

Paul and Timothy presented themselves to the church people as slaves to Christ. “We are slave to you all – We (Paul and Timothy) are slaves to you who are the church, the body of Christ.” But that changed in Philippi, Greece. The focus on equality shifted when the leaders of the church, the ones who were the slaves, became the ruling caste.

In the early church of Philippi there are no signs of a built-in table, or an altar, or built-in seats (like thrones) for special church people. Everything in the room was portable and wooden. Nothing was built on the mosaic floor.

Then, a little platform, the bema, was the first thing added to the church building. The bema was a platform where somebody could start to speak to the people who were sitting all around, or it was for a place for The Lord’s Supper on the wooden platform/table.

In Philippi a mosaic tile, made by Porphyrios in honor of the apostle Paul, was marked by an inscription, “Porphyrios, bishop, made the embroidery of the basilica of Paul in Christ.”

Other old mosaic tiles are also around the Octagon Church in Philippi, Greece:

Mosaic tiles Philippi, Greece

By the ruins of the Philippi Octagon, we can understand more about the process of how the church changed in its early history. In the fourth century the church passed from apostolic simplicity to the complexity of the state church.

In 391 A.D., Theodosius made the slaves of the church the ruling caste of the church, and part of the wall of the church was demolished, destroying the architectural symmetry of the building. An additional area was added, the apsidal area. From the outside the building seemed to be a square, but, inside it, was an octagon.

The synthronon became the new front row for the authorities of the state church. The synthronon became the common front for the authorities. Those who had been slaves became the rulers.

The early church preexisted the addition of the synthronon, but with the addition of the synthronon we had this weird thing in church: the authorities sat up in front, but the people still sat in the round, not facing the authorities.

Below is a picture of the white marble fence of presbyterium – remains. Shown to the right of the fence are the circular remaining holes for the support pillars to hold the fence.

The area in front of the leaders’ “thrones” was elevated and surrounded by a fence called the fence of presbyterium (or the fence of presbytery.) And the leaders, those who were formally slaves were now rulers (above and no longer equals.) The rulers could not sit at the same level as the common believers (their subjects.)

Theodosius said, “The church has to be a state religion.” So, all over the empire, independent church communities, churches which had developed their own personal character, had to form unions under the observation of a state officer. The state officer, called the Metropolitan Bishop, was appointed by the emperor to give an account of the state churches to the emperor. Bishop in Greek means overseer, the one who looks and is responsible for what is under him. The state church adopted a pyramidal administration.

If a church denied joining Theodosius’ scheme, it automatically was claimed as heretical. Regardless of what that local church believed, without ever being asked about doctrine, they were claimed as heretics. This is the first time in history when “the church” was no longer persecuted by the state, however the real church was persecuted by the state.

At the same time in history, the church adopted the sacrament of transubstantiation. So, the church authorities needed not a portable table, but an altar. And for that reason, inside the elevated section in front of the thrones they built an altar.

In 395 AD/fifth century, when the church became the state church it also became the owner of three city quarters.

The church was no longer a poor, persecuted, underground community. It had authority and treasures. Gold and silver coins from different periods up to the fifth century have been found on the flooring of the church. The pagan temple, which had coexisted and functioned alongside the state church up to this time, was not demolished. It became the property of the church.

The Via Ignatia ran along the site of the amphitheater. Part of the road connected with Via Ignatia was closed and turned into corridors of the church complex.

A vat was used for making wine and big jars were used for storing grain.

The church had a guest house and public baths.

A baptistery was added to the complex in the fifth century.

The little village of Philippi was excavated in 1950 and opened to the public in 2000.

Why wasn’t it open to the public for 50 years? The interpretation of the monuments created a fight among the three groups of archeologists: the Greek Orthodox, the French Catholic, and Greek and French Atheists. The Atheists said, “Look, we found the missing link between idolatry and Christianity. Look at the location of the pagan temple and the Christian church. They are next door to each other. ” The Atheists believed that Christianity was the development of ancient idolatry. The Greek Orthodox and the French Catholic found elements that did not fit with their present church tradition. They claimed their tradition was directly from Jesus Christ and the apostles, although their traditions are not identified with each other. Although they say they have the same spring, they are not the same.

For that reason, still today, the archeological announcements for Philippi are contradictory and not complete. You need to include the church history of the fourth century, match the dates, know what happened and why it happened.

Across the street from the little village of Philippi, Greece is the ancient theater, where Christians were persecuted.

30. Travel Greece with a Bible in Your Suitcase | Burial Chamber | Philippi, Greece

by Lorelei GaugerTour GreecePosted on No Comments

Under this blue, square foundation is a burial chamber! Over this underground grave, a small pagan temple was erected in the second century B.C. where this human was worshiped. The pagan temple was erected, exceptionally, right over the grave of somebody, a real person.

Walking the Ignatian Road, from the booth to the pagan temple and burial site of the Cabeirian priest.

Along the Ignatian Road, walking towards the site of the burial chamber/pagan temple, are numerous rocks and monuments. One of the more interesting stone monuments is labeled with a Latin inscription from the late Imperial Period – later Hadrian or Marcus Aurelius time period.

Latin inscription from the later Hadrian or Marcus Aurelius time period.
The underground burial chamber of a young man, a priest of the Cabeirian Mysteries.

Now, you have to know, that even the founders of the city were never buried in the city. Nobody was buried in the city! But we have this exceptional case of somebody so important to the people, for the society, who was buried in the city. His grave, underneath the foundations of a pagan temple, was found intact. And so, we know exactly who this man was by the inscriptions: a young man, priest of the Cabeirian Mysteries. Here we have a person who was a priest, practitioner of the ecstatic phenomenon and he was impressive to the people of Philippi. So, when he died, they buried him in the city to be an amulet for the city, a protection for the city and he was worshipped.

This young priest was a practitioner of ecstatic phenomenon. This ecstatic phenomenon, with predictions, and fire dancing, and other things, are mentioned in the Bible. We read about ecstatic phenomenon in Corinth, in the first letter to the Corinthians. A place of such rituals was the Island of Samothrace (opposite of Alexandroupoli) where the Apostle Paul spent an overnight before coming to Philippi (Acts 16:11.)

The Cabeirian Mysteries, like the Eleusinian Mysteries of Ilocandia, were mystical rituals regarding death, resurrection and theogony, and marriage between gods and humans. Phillip II met his wife, Olympias (Ολυμπια) at the Cabeirian Mysteries of Samothrace, and Son Alexander was born. Olympias, the Queen, claimed that Alexander was not Philipp’s son, but Zeus’ son – something that caused lots of inner problems in the family. Big problems.

29. Travel Greece with a Bible in Your Suitcase |Temple of the Imperial Worship | Philippi, Greece

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Here is a monument set up to honor a patron. Possibly, this person was a former slave who was set free by a certain man and then to honor this man, the former slave erected a monument here.

We read his titles and read the name with the ancient inscription, Pythōnos, and the inscription of his job and we learn that his man was proud to announce himself – that he belonged to Python.

So, the case of the slave girl in Acts 16, having a spirit of Python, was not unique to her.

Ecstatic phenomenon and activity were extensive in Philippi, Greece, just as it is in Europe today. Today a lot of people refer to the zodiacs, and go to predictors, fortune tellers and foreseers to find their future (and whom they are going to marry.)  In Greece and other European countries today this is quite common, even on television every morning there are foreseers of this kind. 

We have another monument of somebody who was proud to say I belong to Python. His name was Pythōnos.

Usually archeological sites have layers, with each layer built upon one another. The layers occur after destructions like war, or fire, or earthquake. These layers continue to build through the various destructions that occur for centuries and thousands of years. This makes archeologists incredibly happy because they make identifications based on each archeological layer.

Destruction creates archeological layers, layer after layer. However, we have cities and places where building material, from generation to generation, was not destroyed, but it was recycled and so from these places we do not have layers for identification.

Also, many cities in the world have been forgotten. Of all the mysteries, perhaps none captures the imagination as strongly as finding a lost civilization. There was a city, in the Amazon, created by people who were seeking God. The city was abandoned, then completely buried in the sand, and forgotten, and that was years ago.

Reparation in Philippi, Greece is ongoing today.

At the antechamber of one of the temples, is a sign, Corinthian Temple.

Look behind at the threshold, the gate, and you see a part of the temple pedestal where the Imperial statues were added. This is the site of the Temple of the Imperial Worship.

In the Imperial Roman Period was the economy nation and a phenomenon, which started with Alexander the Great, called syncretism where everyone was allowed to create his own title, his own gods and worship them.

When Octavian became emperor, he adjusted his title to the title “Augustus,” meaning “the respected one.” Up until this time, if someone did not want to mention the god’s specific name, Augustus was the name used to mention the god.

In this same time period people were traveling and, of course, their gods travelled with them. Their gods were added into the temples alongside the worship of the Egyptian gods of Greece. The Roman religious system and the Romans totally adopted the gods and almost completely forgot their old religious system. It was syncretism and the inquirer is given the impression of a fresh, multicultural religious model. In this multicultural, national, religious empire, the strongest tie of unity was the worship of the emperor. Everyone was obliged, regardless of their gods, to dedicate themselves to worshipping the emperor.

Improper behavior against certain gods was perceived a sacrilege, but improper behavior against the worship of the emperor was high treason. And this is what connected religion with politics. Since the time of Nero (64 AD) until the time of Constantine (313 AD) Christians were persecuted. The reason for their persecution was not because of Jesus. Nobody ever asked the Christians about Jesus or asked them to deny Jesus. Whenever they were accused, it was always the same accusation against them: They had another King.

Before Christ died on the cross, his accusation among the priests and the people of Israel, was that although you are a human you made yourself equal to God, so you deserve to die. This is the worst sacrilege.

If they had appeared in front of Pilot and said, “The man here says he is a god.” Then Pilot would have said, “Ok, welcome our new god. Prove that.” And that is all. But they changed the accusation and they said in front of Pilot, “The man says he is a king.” And this is conspiracy, conspiracy against the only king, Caesar.

For the Apostle Paul in Thessaloniki his accusation was essentially the same. Paul was brought in front of the Roman authorities, not in front of the court. The accusation against Paul was that he had another king. Paul was never accused of being a thief, or a murderer. The accusation against him was political treason.

Christians went through a test. They had to throw a bunch of incense into the fire of the altar and speak the words, “Caesar, lord.” And it was enough. The word lord in Greek was quite common and Caesar definitely was one of the lords. Caesar was a lord.

And I think it may not have been a problem for the Christians to say that Caesar is a lord, unless it was given to them that instance that connected that word lord with this Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ.

There were Christians who refused to go through so simple a test.

You know something, Eusebius of Caesarea says that during the time of the persecutions more than six million people were executed, or tortured to death, because they refused to go through this test, a test without even a mention of the name of Jesus Christ.

Christians, during this period of 250 years, were accused of being against the state. They were arrested, and they were brought to the Imperial Temple. These temples were everywhere, in the villages, in the towns, in the cities, everywhere. These temples were in the most proper and official place of the town square, in the agora, located in the center of town. Philippi, Greece had an Imperial Temple in the town square.

28. Travel Greece with a Bible in Your Suitcase | Office of the Generals | Philippi, Greece | Acts 16:16-40

by Lorelei GaugerTour GreecePosted on No Comments

What is the design on this rock?

It is a shield and a spear!

Everybody who saw this symbol, whether Greek or Latin speaking, or illiterate, knew they were standing at the Office of the Generals.

The tools and the equipment that the Athenians had, 600 years prior to this structure, were more or less the same as what we have today, with one exception. They had a weight limit, a limit of up to 14 tons. With a wooden crane, four men could lift up 14 tons. A model of such a crane is at the Museum of the Acropolis in Athens.

I would like you also to look carefully at the floor. It was developed in three levels. The roof of the building was wooden, and filled in with adobe.

We have here a miniature theatre, a theatrical structure. The desks of the generals were set all around in a council room, a small little council room.

What was the function of the council room? It was a place for the generals to speak together about issues that they were facing. The generals met in the council room and sat in the round with their desks facing each other. If they had someone to question, then that person stood in the middle of the room while the generals stood around him.

We read in the Bible, beginning in Acts 16:16. And it happened that as we (Paul and Silas) were going to the place of prayer, a certain slave-girl, having a spirit of divination met us.

Spirit of divination is a translation of the Greek phrase, πνεῦμα Πύθωνος, Pneuma Pythōnos, which means Spirit of python – the snake python. Pythōnos relates the activity of this slave-girl with the major and international religious center called Delphi (the Oracle of Delphi.) The god of all, in Delphi, was called Pythias. The high priestess of Delphi was called Pythia. Inter-Greek games, organized every four years, were called Pythian games. So, the activity of this slave-girl is related to the activity of the international religious center called Oracle of Delphi.

Acts16:16. And it happened that as we were going to the place of prayer, a certain slave-girl having a Spirit of Pythōnos met us, who was bringing her masters much profit by fortunetelling. Following after Paul and us, she kept crying out, saying, “These men are bond-servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation.”

This slave girl was a servant of a personality, called in the Bible, the father of the lie. She was a possessed person – possessed by a demon.

Is it possible for such a servant, the servant of the father of the lie, to speak the truth? No. Was her message the truth or a lie? A lie.

In reading the original text, the Greek text, the reader would be alerted that the slave girl was proclaiming that Paul and Silas were there to proclaim a way of salvation. The astute reader understood her lie and would understand that Paul and Silas were in Philippi to proclaim the only, one way to be saved, the way of salvation.

In Philippi, all mysteries and mystical rituals were ways of salvation. The slave girl said that Paul and Silas were servants of the Most High God and they were there to proclaim a way of salvation.

Our Bible translations should read a way of salvation because in the Greek text the definite article is missing in front of the word way. She said they were proclaiming a way, one among many ways, to be saved. And that was her lie. There are some English translations that pick up on it but if yours does not, erase the definite article “the” and put in the indefinite article “a” in Acts 16:16.

This was her lie: “These men are bond-servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you a way of salvation.”

Paul and Silas were proclaiming the way of salvation.

Acts 16:17-20a “These men are bond-servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you a way of salvation.” And she continued doing this for many days. But Paul was greatly annoyed, and turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!” And it came out at that very moment. But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the agora (the town square, the little paved square) before the authorities, and when they had brought them to the chief magistrates…

First Paul and Silas were dragged to the agora and then they were brought before the chief generals. Your translation might use the word magistrates. Instead of magistrates, mark your copy of the text to read generals. Paul and Silas were brought before the chief generals. Stratēgos (στρατηγοῖς – the original Greek word) means generals and it has been incorrectly translated as magistrates in some translations.

So, “they brought them in front of the chief generals.”

Archeologists knew about this place because of the Bible and they came to Philippi to verify the Bible. This place was buried until 1914. To see Philippi is to touch the history and authenticity of the New Testament with your bodily self.

Paul and Silas were brought before the chief generals in the council room of the Office of the Generals. The Office of the Generals is not a room of magistrates. They were not brought before the magistrates because Paul and Silas were not breakers of the penal law, they were not thieves, nor murderers. They were brought before the generals because they were accused of a political crime. Paul and Silas said there was a king other than Caesar. In Thessaloniki, this political crime was pronounced as conspiracy/high treason, as a political crime.

Bema in Philippi, Greece

Acts 16:20-40 And when they had brought them to the chief generals, they said, “These men are throwing our city into confusion, being Jews, and are proclaiming customs which it is not lawful for us to accept or to observe, being Romans.” [Where was this revolt against Paul and Silas? Outside, on the agora, the town square] And the crowd rose up together against them, and the chief generals tore their robes off them, and proceeded to order them to be beaten with rods. And when they had inflicted many blows upon them (this happened at the bema) they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to guard them securely; and he, having received such a command, threw them into the inner prison, and fastened their feet in the stocks. But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them; and suddenly there came a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison house were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s chains were unfastened. And when the jailer had been roused out of sleep and had seen the prison doors opened, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Do yourself no harm, for we are all here!” And he called for lights and rushed in and, trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas, and after he brought them out, he said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved, you and your household.” And they spoke the word of the Lord to him together with all who were in his house. And he took them that very hour of the night and washed their wounds, and immediately he was baptized, he and all his household. And he brought them into his house and set food before them, and rejoiced greatly, having believed in God with his whole household. Now when day came, the chief generals sent their policemen, saying, “Release those men.” And the jailer reported these words to Paul, saying, “The chief generals have sent to release you. Now therefore, come out and go in peace.” But Paul said to them, “They have beaten us in public without trial, [remember, the bema, where they were beaten, was close to the council room!] men who are Romans, and have thrown us into prison; and now are they sending us away secretly? No indeed! But let them come themselves and bring us out.” And the policemen reported these words to the chief generals. And they were afraid when they heard that they were Romans, and they came and appealed to them, and when they had brought them out, they kept begging them to leave the city. And they went out of the prison and entered the house of Lydia, and when they saw the brethren, they encouraged them and departed.

The Office of the Generals is a place that historically has not been associated with the Bible. But now, because of archeology, it is a place that is associated directly to the Bible,. There is no doubt that this is the actual location of the Office of the Generals in Acts 16. The Bible says that Paul and Silas were brought in front of the generals. We stepped upon the same floor where Paul and Silas, 2000 years ago, stepped, were accused, and faced those in authority.

The scene in Acts 16 occurs at the Office of the Generals.

Office of the Generals, Philippi Greece

The crowd rose up against Paul and Silas in the agora (the town square.)

Agora, the town square (where the crowds revolted) in Philippi, Greece

Paul and Silas were beaten at the Bema.

Bema platform with steps, where the crowds inflicted many blows upon Paul and Silas in Philippi, Greece. Acts 16:20-40.

26. Travel Greece with a Bible in Your Suitcase | Via Ignatia from the Gate of Neopolis to the Gate of Thrace | The Necropolis | Philippi, Greece

by Lorelei GaugerTour GreecePosted on One Comment

From the entrance at the main gate, the Gate of Neopolis, Via Ignatia passed through the village and exited through the Gate of Thrace. The ancient road, Via Ignatia, connected Neopolis and Philippi, Greece.

Via Ignatia traversed right through the middle of the little village of Philippi, dividing it into two parts.  

Architects built a ring road that goes around the antiquities and the ruins of Philippi.

The ring road joins Via Ignatia along its way to Drama, Greece. 

Ancient Philippi is surrounded by city walls.

We hope someday to see the ancient city gate rebuilt by archaeologists. Archaeologists have excavated part of Via Ignatia at the Old Gate of the ancient village.

The acropolis, a sacred place and not inhabited by citizens was protected by city walls.  The city walls go all the way up the hill to where the old acropolis used to be.

Dating back to 4BC, the time of Phillip II, is the foundation of a side little gate. Beside the gate was a tower so that the soldiers could see from above and protect the gate.

The square blocks on the right are the foundation for the protective tower of the gate that was once built here.

Right outside of the city walls is the cemetery, the necropolis, νεκρόπολις, i.e. the city of the death.

We walked, and ran, along the ring road as we approached Philippi.

Philippi was founded in 360 BC by Thasians, remodeled in 356 BC by Philip and renamed Philippi. In 42 BC we have the Battle of Philippi.

At one time there were two towers at the entrance gate of Philippi, Greece, where people could officially enter the city. You could see the right tower, but the left tower was buried under the road. The Apostle Paul, and those from Neopolis entered the Philippi from that gate.

Here are the signs located at the entrance to Philippi.

Since the Neolithic time, Greeks have lived with earthquakes. Philippi, Greece is a highly seismogenic place. The Greeks developed aseismic building methods – still in use today in the countryside.  They built stone foundations that were a little bit deeper than normal, affixed a wooden structure and filled it with adobe. Then they plastered the wall. This method provided flexibility to the whole building and absorbed vibrations from an earthquake, making it safe for the people inside.

This aseismic structure was particularly good because it was thermal insulated and very flexible in an earthquake. But it had a disadvantage: it must always be roofed. Without a roof, gradually the rain melts the building down to a layer of clay. A two or three floor building without a roof can be brought down to water level (where we were stepping now.) Then the knowledge of the use of the rooms in the upper floors totally vanished. We cannot reconstruct them, but today, we can gain a lot of information about them, information that fifty or sixty years ago the people could not even imagine.

You cannot take a shovel and start taking off dirt because every layer preserves elements of time, elements of a level. An archaeological dig today is a terribly slow process and extremely expensive.  

Massive excavation is considered a crime in archaeology. In some places, like in Israel, the state sometimes decides that entire layers, centuries and centuries of layers, be removed without any study, down to the layer that interests the government. You can see excavations in Jerusalem today with excavators, something that is totally improper in archaeological research because we must see gradual developments, studying the layers, from time to time, from period to period, from year to year and record it.

25. Travel Greece with a Bible in Your Suitcase | Ruins of the Octagonal Church | Lydia’s Chapel aka Saint Lydia’s Baptistery | Philippi, Greece | Philippians 2:25-30

by Lorelei GaugerTour GreecePosted on No Comments

Back in the Golden Age of Theology, between the Constantinian decree of 313 AD and Theodosius I (391 AD) people were free to worship and buildings were built to house churches. The church was not a state institution.

Church buildings at that time were usually round but they could be circular, octagonal, or hexagonal.

The very first-round building was a building of the Athenian government in Athens at the time of democracy, 5 BC.

These are pictures of the ruins of the Octagonal Church in nearby Philippi.

The next picture is Lydia’s Chapel, also known as Saint Lydia’s Baptistery. The Chapel is a 1970’s, modern interpretation of the ancient Octagon Church in Philippi.

The flooring at the entrance of Saint Lydia’s Baptistery is a mural depicting south-eastern Europe. The mural shows Paul’s route to Ephesus, Troas, Neopolis, Philippi, Thessaloniki, Athens, Corinth and back to Ephesus. Mosaics are the most difficult way of making a mural.

In the early octagonal churches people looked towards the faces of one another, not towards an altar, bishop, throne, or pulpit because the emphasis in church doctrine was on all the members of the church body.

The original Octagon of Philippi would have had a small bema, a platform for a person to stand on and preach some words.

At the end of 4 AD holy communion commemorated the Last Supper of Jesus Christ. When the church became a state institution, and adopted the doctrine of transubstantiation, holy communion was no longer a supper, but a sacrifice.

And for a sacrifice they needed an altar. So, we had another structure, an altar added in the church.

In the middle of Lydia’s Chapel is a baptismal basin for infants and a wooden table for The Lord’s Supper.

At the dome of most church buildings we usually see a picture of Jesus depicted as the Almighty King, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords i.e. Jesus Everything.

However, at this chapel, high in the circular dome of the ceiling, is a wall mosaic depicting the baptism of Jesus.

Above His head is the symbol of the Holy Spirit.

On the other side of the dome (not shown) is a semicircular loop/spot which rises, depicting the voice of the Father. God the Father is not depicted because nobody has ever seen the face of the Father.

The eastern church does not depict God the Father. For that reason, it does not depict the Holy Trinity except symbolically, with one scene from the New Testament and one scene from the Old Testament. The scene here, from the New Testament, the baptism of Jesus Christ, depicts the Holy Trinity, to the Eastern Church.

The inside of the lower part of the dome depicts the fish in the living water where Jesus was baptized.

On the lower walls of the chapel are several other depictions, including the arrival of the Apostle Paul to Neopolis/Kavala (shown here,) a baptism, the Macedonian call to Paul outside the walls of Troas, the Apostle Paul meeting the ladies by the banks of the river, and two scenes of the imprisonment of the Apostle Paul.

The portraits in the chapel refer to local and general church history. 

In Lydia’s Chapel Epaphroditus holds a letter to the church in Philippi from the Apostle Paul.

Philippi was just a village, not rich, but the villagers of the church followed the Apostle Paul’s ministry. Both Corinth and Ephesus were rich capital cities and of course the members of those churches included rich people.

But when the church of Philippi heard that Paul was in prison in Rome they sent Epaphroditus from Philippi to Rome. Epaphroditus walked on Via Ignatia (Ignatian Road) up to the Adriatic Sea. It was a long journey of possibly a month or more, and then he had to find a ship to cross the Adriatic Sea to continue his walking on Via Appia (Appian Way) to Rome.  Epaphroditus risked being accused of being a cooperative of a prisoner, but he finally found Paul and gave aid to him. And then he was sick to death. The people of Philippi heard that their fellow man was dying in Rome and were incredibly sad.

But finally, Epaphroditus did not die. When Epaphroditus got well the Apostle Paul decided to give more joy to the people of Philippi, and he sent Epaphroditus back to Philippi with a letter (Philippians 2:25-30.) Epaphroditus was the carrier of the New Testament letter to Philippi, in which Paul expressed his gratitude to the people of Philippi for the aid that he received from them. The Apostle Paul was immensely proud to say to the Corinthians and Ephesians that he never became a load to anyone. His own hands helped him and his companions.

24. Travel Greece with a Bible in Your Suitcase | River of Lydia | Philippi, Greece | Matthew 27:27-28 | Mark 15:16-17 | Acts 16: 6-15

by Lorelei GaugerTour GreecePosted on No Comments

Why gather at the banks of the rivers? Living water is the water of the river and the sea, living water is not the water of the lake. Nor is it the water of the well. Living water was necessary for Jewish purification ceremonies.

After coming out of Egypt, Jewish people found themselves for the first time, scattered among the pagans (awful to them, because they considered the pagans at almost the same level as animals.) To a Jew, pagans were unclean.

Jewish slaves gathered by the rivers of Babylon to cry and grieve for the lost glory of Israel. They gathered outside of the pagan city by the banks of the rivers (Psalm of the Exile in the Old Testament is Psalm 157.) As the Jewish people gathered and read prophecy they were encouraged for the future. So informally, by the river, the Jewish synagogue began as an institution of the diaspora. The word synagogue is not a Hebrew word. It is a Greek word, meaning gathering.

According to Jewish tradition, Ezra was the one who made gatherings by the rivers of Babylon an institution, the institution of the synagogue. Then Cyrus gave the Jews permission to go back home and some of them returned to Jerusalem bringing the institution with them.

A synagogue is not a temple. The synagogue never replaced the temple and this is why there was the coexistence of the second temple with the synagogue throughout the days of Jesus until a little bit later when the Romans destroyed the city of Jerusalem and the temple.

The synagogue was mostly a place for teaching and social gathering. But the priesthood goes from the temple. The rabbi was not a priest. A rabbi could be anyone who was a scholar. The priests were of a certain tribe, from the tribe of Levi.

The habit of keeping the quarters in the synagogue outside, away from the unclean, impure, pagan cities gradually was abolished among the Jewish people when they became rich, more commercial and more political at the beginning of the 2nd century BC. Gradually Jewish communities and synagogues moved into the pagan cities, with some exceptions. The Apostle Paul visited the synagogue of Corinth, Athens and Thessaloniki. We have an exception of piety where we find Jewish people gathered outside of the city.

The first convert in Phillipi was a lady, not a Jew but a Greek, an immigrant. The name ascribed to her, Lydia, may be her personal name or her national name noted from the region of her hometown, Thyatira, a town in the region of Lydia. Possibly being the only foreigner in a small community she may have been called by her national name, Lydia (just as we call someone “The American,” or “The Greek.”)

Lydia seems to have been an emancipated lady. We have to say a few things about the emancipation of women in antiquity. Until the 20th century AD women in Europe did not vote. Women depended on a man, their father, or their brother, and when they got married, their husband. Still in some countries a wife takes the surname of her husband. Formerly, in Europe they took also the first name of their husband in the family court. So, we cannot talk about the emancipation of a proper lady.

There were improper ladies who decided not to be submitted to a man who they had their own houses. They hired other ladies to work for them. These ladies were colleagues. Colleagues to whom? To men. Their houses offered services, like Giza ladies of the Japanese tradition with prostitution as the source of their main income. Most of the time they were educated ladies, so philosophical debates and meetings were organized at their houses, with music, and amusement. Very often, instead of going to a cafeteria (which did not exist at that time) the men,went to the ladies’ houses to eat. In ancient society these ladies were almost equal to men. They could directly address their word to a man and look at their eyes. They could go alone to the center of the city, they could do work that usually the men did. They were equal, except that they were not accepted to vote. The voting of women in Europe and in many countries came after the second world war.

Lydia was not one of the colleagues. Lydia was something else.

Lydia, a business lady, did a job that usually was the job of a man. We assume that this lady, from Thyatira, was a widow with minor children and did not have the support that was expected for her and her children from her husband’s family. So, she had to raise up her children, take up the situation on her hands and move to where she could find the Roman Imperial of the job that she employed, possibly the job of her deceased husband.

Lydia was a purple maker and dealer.

Do you know how the purple was produced? From snails, plentiful in the Aegean Sea, belonging to the scientific family of Murex. People collected the snails from the sea. They had to keep them all alive. They chose the right number of snails for fabric they had to dye and then smashed them onto fabric. They could only use fabric which had been produced from animals, wool, and silk, not cotton nor linen. The color was not a fixed color, but nine different shades of the color purple, from deep red to red mixed with blue. The Eastern people called different shades “purple,” Here, red was called purple. At the River of Lydia today, scarves are sold which are red (not red mixed with blue.) They are labeled as “purple of Lydia.”

Remember in the New Testament Gospels, the description of the torture of Jesus? One of the Gospels, Matthew 27:27-28 says that He was flogged with a red garment and the other Mark 15:16-17 says, with purple. Somebody might say that we have a gospel disagreement, but we do not because for the Eastern Mediterranean people, including the Greeks, purple is, still today, the deep red.

Let us open the Bible to see what happened when the Apostle Paul arrived at Philippi by the banks of the River of Lydia.

Acts 16:6 They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been prevented by the Holy Spirit from speaking the message in the province of Asia. 16:7 When they came to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them to do this,16:8 so they passed through Mysia and went down to Troas. 16:9 A vision appeared to Paul during the night: A Macedonian man was standing there urging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us!” 16:10 After Paul saw the vision, we attempted immediately to go over to Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them. 16:11 We put out to sea from Troas and sailed a straight course to Samothrace, (very close to Andropolis) the next day to Neapolis (the Port of Kavala today),16:12 and from there we came to Philippi, (a ruin to visit today) which is a leading city (translated: a city colony) of that district  (translated: “city colony” of the first portion) of Macedonia.

The Romans divided Macedonia into 4 portions and at Philippi, we are at the first portion, which is Eastern Macedonia.

Acts 16:12 is better translated, “and from there we came to Philippi, a city colony of the first portion of Macedonia.” Philippi was not a leading city, it was a village, a city colony. Which was the leading city? The sub capital of the portion, the city of Amphipolis.

16:12b We stayed in this city for some days. 16:13 On the Sabbath day we went outside the city gate to the side of the river, where we thought there would be a place of prayer, and we sat down and began to speak to the women who had assembled there. 16:14 A woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira,a God-fearing woman, listened to us. The Lord opened her heart to respond to what Paul was saying. 16:15 After she and her household were baptized, she urged us, “If you consider me to be a believer in the Lord, come and stay in my house.” And she persuaded us.

Do you understand how risky it was for Lydia? She invited foreign men to her house, being herself, the head of the house. It was a very, very delicate situation. She could easily have been characterized in the society as not being a good woman.

The Holy Spirit prohibited to Paul for preach the gospel east and north.

After Alexander the Great, the world was divided into the cultured east and the barbarian west. It was very, very reasonable for Paul to go east. Even the Romans had the Proverb, in Latin, Ex oriente lux, meaning, the light comes from the east.

But the Holy Spirit prohibited Paul from preaching the gospel in the cultured east.

21. Travel Greece with a Bible in Your Suitcase | Kavala, Christopolis, Biblical Neopolis, Greece | Philippians 3:20 | Acts 16:11 |

by Lorelei GaugerTour GreecePosted on No Comments

The people of Thasos, initially built the city port of Neapolis, now called Kavala. In the seventh century before Christ, Neopolis was built to help the people transport pine-wood raw material from the mainland to the island of Thasos, for building the ships of that time.

Searching for a good quality of wood, they also discovered that this area also had gold.  The ship builders came to negotiations with the local people and built a city in 360 B.C. The city was called Springs because of the springs that were close by.

When they started to dwell there, cultivating the land around there, they had trouble with the locals, around the town of Springs. So, they invited Phillip II to come and solve the problem. Phillip came, and being a very clever politician, he discovered all about the gold and so he kicked out from the city the people who had found it, the Thasians, and he built the city after his own name, Philippi.

The old city was on the peninsula, still surrounded by the city walls and at the top you see the citadel which is the acropolis of the Ancient Neopolis. 

In Philippi, Phillip II minted gold coins which were used by Alexander to start his campaign to Persia. When there was no more gold in the mines Philippi declined into an agricultural little village. It came back onto the stage of history and became very famous at the year 42 BC when outside of the city walls of Philippi was a very famous battle of the Roman civil wars.

At Philippi, the Army of the Republicans led by Cassius and Brutus (who had assassinated Julius Caesar, who had attempted to become an emperor/dictator, two years earlier) met to fight against the Imperial Army led by the successors of Julius Caesar, Octavian and Mark Anthony. Although the Republican Army was more capable, skilled and bigger they were defeated and both Cassius and Brutus committed suicide. The winners of that battle, finally, were the Imperials with their army, Octavian and Mark Anthony.

So the battle of Philippi marks the end of an entire period of Roman history, the Republican Period, and the beginning of a new period, the Imperial Period, something which made this battle extremely important in Roman history. This is the reason why both Octavian and Mark Anthony decided to remodel the City of Philippi, and to give the city (although it was really a village and not a city) all the rights of a Roman colony – to settle their veterans from both the armies and to give to Philippi freedom from taxes. So, Philippi got special privileges, a special political system, which applied directly to Rome.

In the letter of the Apostle Paul to Philippi we find a word related with policy and the political system, mentioned 2 times but is not mentioned in any other book of the New Testament.  This word, used by the Apostle πολιτευεστε, means, dealing in a political way (worthy of the Gospel) or our political situation/system (is in heaven.) In Philippians 3:20, Paul is saying, “Philippians, we are proud because you have an exceptional system offered to you by the Romans, but don’t forget that your political system actually is in heaven.” This is the little village that the Apostle Paul visited in the middle of the 1st century AD. There he established the first Christian church on European soil starting his mission west.

Before it came here the gospel was only in Asia.

The City of Philippi was a Christian center and a living city until the 8th century AD. At 8 AD there were earthquakes in the area and the city was ruined completely and abandoned and almost forgotten. Now the main city became the port city of Neopolis and so in the next century, 9 AD, Neopolis became a small Christian center and for the first time the city of Neopolis decided to change the name of their city, which didn’t look very much like the meaning of their name, New City, and to name the city the City of Christ. So, it was called Christopolis, the City of Christ, from 9th century to the 15th century.

In the 15th century the Ottomans came to the city and it became a became major station of their cavalry. The Ottomans came to the city, made a military base – a main station for their cavalry and from the word καβαλάριά, ka-va-la-ri-a, the city was renamed to Kavala, which is its present name. So, Kavala, Christopolis, and the Biblical Neopolis, are the same city.

Minarets are a sign of the mosques. The Muslim population in this area of Kavala is about 100,000 people, which is 1% of the Greek population. 

Right after the genocide against the Greeks, in Turkey in 1922, there was an exchange of population between Greece and Turkey. 300,000 Turks from Greece went to Turkey and approximately 2 million Greeks from Asia Minor came to Greece.  These people in Kavala decided to make up their own group, among themselves, and to  identify themselves as Greek Muslims, not Turks. This is the reason they were not included in that exchange of population by the treaty of Lausanne of 1922.

In the street stands a big aqueduct, Roman style, built 400 years ago (16th century.) It was built by Suleiman the Magnificent, who also built the walls of Jerusalem.

In Kavala there is a church dedicated to St. Nicholas in front of which is a monument with a mosaic commemorating the coming of the Apostle Paul to Kavala. On the mosaic the Macedonians are calling the Apostle Paul from Asia, from Troas to Europe. The mosaic shows the Apostle Paul coming out of his boat and stepping to the front of Neapolis. (Acts 16:11)

We are Christians today in the west because one day in the middle of the 1st century AD in this port of Kavala a ship came bringing a person holding some scrolls and the scrolls were the New Testament, the message of the gospel. Kavala, Greece is the gate of the gospel for all the western world. 

We departed from Neoplois to go to Drama, another city close to Kavala, where we had a performance.

Soon we would learn more about the Macedonian calling, the mission of the Apostle Paul to the west.