15Philippians: Life in Christ Philippians was probably the last of the four prison epistles to be written, but in the New Testament canon it is placed second, following Ephesians It is the brightest and most joyful of all Paul’s writings, and one of its ministries has been to rejuvenate the spiritual life of multitudes of Christians I PREPARATION FOR STUDY Review the things learned in Chapter 14 about the prison epistles Recall that Paul wrote Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon at the same time, and shortly thereafter he wrote to the church at Philippi II BACKGROUND A AUTHOR Paul was the author of this epistle He names his colaborer Timothy (Timotheus) in the salutation of 1:1 because Timothy was with him when he wrote the letter (Cf Col 1:1; Philem 1.) B DESTINATION The city of Philippi The opening verse of Philippians identi es its destination as a congregation of the city of Philippi Let us first consider the city itself a Geography Refer to Map V, page 337, which shows the geographical setting of the prison epistles Observe the following: (1) Philippi was a city of the province of Macedonia (2) The city is just inland (about ten miles) from the coastal town of Neapolis (Read Acts 16:11-12, which records Paul’s stopover at Neapolis on his rst visit to Philippi.) (3) Observe that Philippi is located on the Egnatian Way, a major overland route of Macedonia When Paul sent Epaphroditus back to Philippi from Rome (2:25), the trip no doubt was via the Appian Way through Italy (see map), followed by an eighty-mile boat trip across the Sea of Adria, then the land journey on the Egnatian Way (4) Observe other coastal cities that Paul visited after leaving Philippi on his second missionary journey: Amphipolis, Apollonia, Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, Corinth b Name In 350 B.C the city was named Philippi, after Philip of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great Its former name was Krenides (Little Fountains) c Political status The city became a Roman colony in 42 B.C “It was a miniature Rome … exempt from taxation and modeled after the capital of the world.”1 Luke recognized its popular acclaim by calling Philippi “the chief city of that part of Macedonia” (Acts 16:12).2 d Population Estimates range from 200,000 to 500,000 residents, as of Paul’s time Most of those were Greeks, with a smaller contingent of Jews and Romans Read Acts 16:13 and observe where Paul held his rst evangelistic meeting in the city Might this suggest that there was no synagogue (Jewish place to worship) in the city, since Paul usually had his rst public contacts with the people in the synagogue? One writer has described the typical citizen of Philippi thus: “The Macedonians, like the old Romans, were manly, straightforward and a ectionate They were not skeptical like the philosophers of Athens, ... which shows the geographical setting of the prison epistles Observe the following: (1) Philippi was a city of the province of Macedonia (2) The city is just inland (about ten miles) from the coastal... (2:25), the trip no doubt was via the Appian Way through Italy (see map), followed by an eighty-mile boat trip across the Sea of Adria, then the land journey on the Egnatian Way (4) Observe other... contacts with the people in the synagogue? One writer has described the typical citizen of Philippi thus: ? ?The Macedonians, like the old Romans, were manly, straightforward and a ectionate They were