deSilva, Intro to NT. 565f.

The Historical Setting of Philippians

The Roman colony of Philippi. Philip II of Macedon, father of Alexander the
Great, took over the agricultural settlement called Krenides in 356 BCE, renaming
it Philippi. Macedonia came under Roman control in 168 BCE, but Philippi as
Paul knew it really only took shape during the civil wars that rocked the Roman
republic in the second half of the first century BCE. The final battle between
Caesar’s armies, led by Marc Antony and Octavian (later the emperor Augustus),
and the armies of the assassins of Julius caesar, Brutus and Cassius, took place on
the plains outside Philippi in 42 BCE. Antony and Octavian rewarded veterans
with settlement in Philippi and generous grants of farmland in the hinterland of
that city (Fee, NICNT, 25). After the alliance between Antony and Octavian
broke down, the second civil war was effectively ended with Antony’s defeat near
Actium in 31 BCE. Octavian graciously settled many of Antony’s soldiers in
Philippi, since they had forfeited their claims to land in Italy (Hendrix, “Philippi,”
in ABD, 5:314). Philippi was refounded as a colony of Rome (Acts 16:12) and
named after Augustus’s daughter (Colonia Iulia Augusta Philippensis), whose
citizens thus enjoyed the privilege of Rom an citizenship. The city as a whole and
many of its inhabitants [566] as individuals thus came to owe Augustus the debt
and obligations of clients to a patron.
The city was administered by Roman law a Roman colony being an
extension of Rome itself. In Acts 16:21 the citizens of Philippi identify themselves
as “Romans” first and foremost. This background gives a certain poignancy to
Paul's use of “political” and citizenship language in the letter. He encourages the
Philippian Christians to live less like grateful Roman citizens (especially by not
participating in the imperial cult as a display of loyalty and gratitude) and to place
more stock in their citizenship in the city of God, of which the Philippian church
is a kind of colony (Phil 3:20). He calls them to conduct themselves appropriately
as citizens (politeuesthai, Phil 1:27) through displaying the value of “civic” unity in
their relationships with fellow Christians. This background also accounts for why
the believers in Philippi should experience hostility from the other inhabitants of
the city, since their new commitment to Jesus as “Lord” competed with their
obligation to Rome and her “lord,” the emperor.
Philippi was not a major city,³ but it was strategically located along the Via
Egnatia (see fig. 16.1), which connected Philippi to the southeast with Neapolis
(which served as Philippi’s seaport, under ten miles distant), and to the west with
Thessalonica (one hundred miles distant) and eventually the western coast of
Macedonia. From there it would have been a short sea voyage to Brundisium in
southern Italy, the beginning point of the Via Appia that led to Rome. It was a
city of modest proportions, surrounded by vast farmlands, much of this reflecting
the original land grants to the veterans of the Roman armies. The population was
a blend of the privileged descendants of the veterans, Greeks (either descended
from the inhabitants of the city before it was made a Roman colony or attracted to
the city for its commercial potential), native Macedonians, and foreigners.4
3. Acts 16:12 presents Philippi as “a leading city of the district of Macedonia,” which may
reflect its status as a Roman colony. The leading city of the district world have been Amphipolis, a
larger city that, however, lacked Philippi’s status. See Craig Keener, Acts 15:1–23:35 (Grand
Rapids: Baker Academic, 2014), 2382-83; Helmut Koester, “Paul and Philippi: Evidence from Early
Christian Literature,” in Philippi at the Time of Paul and After His Death, ed. Charalambos
Bakirtzis and Helmut Koester (Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 1998), 51; Markus
Bockmuehl, The Epistle to the Philippians, BNTC (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1998), 10.
4. Hendrix, “Philippi,” 315.
Although archaeologists have excavated much of Philippi, the extensive
development of the city during the later Roman and early Byzantine periods has
made it difficult to recover first-century Philippi.5 The Via Egnatia bisects
“downtown” Philippi, running northwest to southeast at this point. On the south
side of the Via Egnatia lies the forum, the city’s center of commercial activity and
government. The city’s council chamber and several temples have been identified
surrounding the forum (see fig. 16.2).6 Two bath complexes have also
5. Chaido Koukouli-Chrysantaki, “Colonia Julia Augusta Philippensis,” in Bakirtzis and
Koester, Philippi at the Time of Paul and After His Death, 14-15.
6. Ibid., 15-17.

[567] been discovered on the south side of the Via Egnatia. The area to the north
of the forum appears to have been the religious district, though most of the finds
postdate Paul’s visit. The city’s walls and an impressive theater to the east of the
forum (and north of the Via Egnatia) date from the time of Philip and Alexander.7
7. Hendrix, “Philippi,” 315; Koukouli-Chrysantaki, “Colonia Julia Augusta Philippensis,”
18.

A great mix of cultic practices coexisted in Philippi. The imperial cult was strong
in this colony. Inscriptions mention priests of the deified Julius, Augustus, and
Claudius. The temples in the forum were probably dedicated to the imperial
family (specifically to Augustus, Livia, and Claudius) and Rome.8 The cult of the
Roman emperors was not imposed on the people by the emperors but rather
promoted locally in the eastern provinces as a means of showing loyalty and
gratitude to the family of Augustus. The emperors were responsible for
maintaining peace (a particularly valued commodity after the devastation of the
civil wars), for administering justice, for organizing relief in time of famine or
other hardship. In short they provided what was normally sought from the gods—
hence showing them thanks in the form of worship was deemed entirely
appropriate.
8. F. W. Beare, The Epistle to the Philippians (New York: Harper, 1959), 7; Koukouli-
Chrysantaki, “Colonia Julia Augusta Philippensis,” 25.

The traditional Greek gods (deities such as Zeus, Apollo, Dionysus, and
Artemis) enjoyed [568] temples and cult sites here as well. Philippians also
welcomed cults imported from the East, such as the Egyptian cult of Isis and
Osiris or the Phrygian cult of the mother goddess Cybele, although it is unclear
how popular the Eastern cults were prior to the second century CE.9 Although
Paul dismisses all these cults as idolatry, their activity was filled with meaning for
Philippi s inhabitants. Honoring the traditional gods secured their favor and thus
the whole city’s well-being. The more exotic cults promised a more intimate
religious experience, involving the personal protection of the deity and the hope
for a better afterlife. These more personal cults coexisted alongside traditional
religion and imperial cult without tension or competition. Christianity, however,
could admit of no divinity except the one revealed through Jesus. This led to high
tension between the Christian community and the world it left behind.
9. Peter T. O’Brien, The Epistle to the Philippians, NIGTC (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,
1991), 5.

Apart from Acts 16:13, which tells us of a proseuchē, a “place of prayer,”

outside one of the city gates by u nearby stream (presumably for ritual
purification), there are no references to a Jewish community living in Philippi
until the third century CE.10 The term may simply refer to a designated meeting
place in the open air. Josephus (Ant. 14.10 .23-24), however, re- cord s several
decrees giving Jews in the eastern Mediterranean the right to build edifices for
their religious observances, using this same term. In Halicarnassus the Jewish
community’s “place of prayer” was also located by a stream. There might have
been, then, a small structure for the local adherents of Judaism just outside the
city. In either case the number of Jews or God-fearers appears to have been quite
small and composed largely if not entirely of female adherents.
10. Koukouli-Chrysantaki, “Colonia Julia Augusta Philippensis,” 26-35.