They without delay proceeded to Philippi, the chief city of that part
of Macedonia, taking its name from that sage monarch who laid the
foundation of the Macedonian dominion over the Grecian world, and gave
this city its importance and splendor, re-building it, and granting
it the honors of his peculiar favor. Under the Roman conquest it had
lost no part of its ancient importance, but had been endowed by Julius
Caesar, in a special decree, with the high privileges of a Roman
colony, and was in the apostolic age one of the greatest cities in that
part of Europe. Here Paul and his companions staid for several days;
and seeking on the sabbath, for some place where they could, in that
heathen land, observe the worship, and celebrate the praises of the
God of their fathers, they wandered forth from the great pagan city,
and sat down, away from the unholy din of mirth and business, in a
retired place on the banks of the little stream which ran by the town,
being made up of numerous springs that rise at the foot of the hills
north of it,――which gave it the name of CRENIDES, or “the city of
_springs_;”――the common name of the town before its conquest by Philip.
In such places, by the side of streams and other waters, the Jews were
always accustomed to construct their places for social worship; and
here, in this quiet place, a few Jewish residents of the city resorted
for prayer, remembering the God of their fathers, though so far from
his sanctuary. Those who thus kept up the worship of God in this place,
are mentioned as being women only; for it may always be observed that
it is among the softer sex that religion takes its deepest root, and
among them a regard to its observances is always found, long after
the indifference generated by a change of circumstances, or by the
engrossing cares of business, has turned away the devotions of men.
So was it in Philippi; while the sons of Judah had grown indifferent
to those observances of their religion, which were inconvenient,
by interfering with the daily arrangements of business intercourse
with their heathen fellow-citizens, the daughters of Zion came still
regularly together, to the place where prayer was wont to be made.
Here the apostolic company met them, and preached to them the new word
of grace, now revealed for all the scattered race of Israel, far and
near,――and not for them only, but also for the Gentiles. Among these
gentle auditors of the word of grace, now first proclaimed in Greece,
was a Jewess, named Lydia, who had emigrated from Thyatira, in Lydian
Asia, and now carried on in Philippi, a trade in the purple dye, for
which the region from which she came was so famous, even from the time
of Homer. While listening to the words of Paul, her heart was opened
to the comprehension of the truth of the gospel, and she professed
her faith in Jesus. Having been baptized with all her household, she
was so moved with regard for those who had thus taught her the way of
salvation, that she earnestly invited them to make her house their home.
Complying with her benevolent and hospitable invitation, Paul, Silas,
Timothy and Luke, took up their abode in her house, and remained there
throughout their whole stay in Philippi.
Such was the beginning of the propagation of the gospel in
Greece,――such was the foundation of the first church ever planted east
of the Hellespont; and thus did Europe first receive the doctrines of
that faith, which now holds in all that mighty division of the world, a
triumphant seat, and constitutes the universal religion of the nations
that hold within themselves the sources of art, learning,――all the
refinements of civilization,――and of the dominion of half the globe.
Four pilgrims entered the city of Philippi, unknown, friendless, and
scorned for their foreign, half-barbarian aspect. Strolling about from
day to day, to find the means of executing their strange errand, they
at last found a few Jewish women, sitting in a little retired place,
on the banks of a nameless stream. To them they made known the message
of salvation;――one of the women with her household believed the gospel,
and professed the faith of Jesus;――and from this beginning did those
glorious results advance, which in their progress have changed the
face of Europe, revolutionized the course of empires, and modified the
destiny of the world!
An incident soon occurred, however, which brought them into more public
notice, though not in a very desirable manner. As they went out to
the usual place of prayer on the bank of the stream, they at last were
noticed by a poor bedeviled crazy girl, who, being deprived of reason,
had been made a source of profit to a set of mercenary villains, who
taking advantage of the common superstition of their countrymen about
the supernatural endowments of such unfortunate persons, pretended
that she was a Pythoness, indued by the Pythian Apollo with the spirit
of prophecy; for not only at Delphi, on his famous tripod, but also
throughout Greece, he was believed to inspire certain females to utter
his oracles, concerning future events. The owners and managers of this
poor girl therefore made a trade of her supposed soothsaying faculty,
and found it a very profitable business, through the folly of the wise
Greeks of Philippi. This poor girl had her crazy fancy struck by the
appearance of the apostolic company, as they passed along the streets
to their place of prayer, and following them, perceived, under the
impulse of the strange influence that possessed her, the real character
of Paul and his companions; and cried out after them, “These men are
the servants of the most high God, who show us the way of salvation.”
This she did daily for a long time, till at last, Paul, annoyed by this
kind of proclamation thus made at his heels, turned about, and by a
single command subdued the demoniac influence that possessed her, and
restored her to the freedom of sense and thought. Of course she was
now no longer the submissive instrument of the will of her mercenary
managers, and it was with no small vexation that they found all chance
of these easy gains was forever gone. In their rage against the authors
of what they deemed their calamity, they caught Paul and Silas, as the
foremost of the apostolic company, and dragging them into the forum
or courthouse, where the magistrates were in session, they presented
their prisoners as a downright nuisance: “These men, who are Jews, do
exceedingly trouble our city; and teach customs which are not lawful
for us to adopt nor observe, if we are to maintain the privileges of
Roman citizens.” What the latter part of the accusation referred to,
in particular, it is not easy to say, and probably there was no very
definite specification made by the accusers; for the general prejudice
against the Jews was such, that the mob raised a clamor against them
at once; and the magistrates seeing in the apostles only some nameless
foreign vagabonds, who having come into the city without any reasonable
object in view were disturbing the peace of the inhabitants, had
no hesitation whatever in ordering them to be punished in the most
ignominious manner, and without any question or defense, conforming
to the dictation of that universally divine and immaculate source of
justice,――the voice of the people,――instantly had them stripped and
flogged at the discretion of their persecutors. After having thus
shamefully abused them, they did not dismiss them, but cast them into
prison, and set their feet in the stocks.
“_Philippi_ was a city of Macedonia, of moderate extent, and not
far from the borders of Thrace. It was formerly called Crenides,
from its ♦numerous springs, from which arises a small stream,
mentioned Acts xvi. 13, though it is commonly omitted in the
maps. The name of Philippi it received from Philip, father of
Alexander, who enlarged it, and fortified it as a barrier town
against the Thracians. Julius Caesar sent hither a Roman colony,
as appears from the following inscription on a medal of this
city, COL. IUL. AUG. PHIL. quoted in Vaillant Num. æn. imp.
T. I. p. 160, and from Spon Misc. p. 173. See also Pliny, L. IV.
c. ii. and the authors in Wolfii Curae, πρωτη της μεριδος της
Μακεδονιας πολις, ‘the first city of that district of Macedonia:’
but in what sense the word πρωτη, or ‘first,’ is here to
be taken, admits of some doubt. Paulus Æmilius had divided
Macedonia into four districts, and that in which Philippi was
situated, was called πρωτη, or the first district. But of this
district, Philippi does not appear to be entitled, in any sense,
to the name of πρωτη πολις. For if πρωτη be taken in the sense
of ‘first in respect to place,’ this title belonged rather to
Neapolis, which was the frontier town of Macedonia, towards
Thrace, as appears from Acts xvii. 1. And, if taken in the sense
of ‘first in respect to rank,’ it belonged rather to Amphipolis,
which was the capital of this district of Macedonia, as appears
from the following passage Livii History Lib. XLV. 29. Capita
regionum, ubi concilia fierent, primae regionis Amphipolin,
secundae Thessalonicen, &c. But the difficulty is not so great
as it appears to be. For, though Amphipolis was made the capital
of the first district of ♠Macedonia in the time of Paulus
Æmilius, and therefore entitled to the name of πρωτη, it is not
impossible that in a subsequent age, the preference was given
to Philippi. Or even if Amphipolis still continued to be the
capital of the district, or the seat of the Roman provincial
government, yet the title πρωτη may have been claimed by the
city of Philippi, though it were not the very first in point of
rank. We meet with many instances of this kind, on the medals
of the Greek cities, on which we find that more than one city
of the same province, assumed the title of πρωτη. St. Luke,
therefore, who spent a long time at Philippi, and was well
acquainted with the customs of the place, gave this city the
title which it claimed, and which, according to the custom of
the Greek cities, was inscribed probably on its coins. Hence
it appears that the proposal made by Pierce to alter πρωτη
της μεριδος to πρωτη μεριδος, is unnecessary.” (Michaelis’s
Introduction, Vol. IV. pp. 152‒154. Marsh’s translation.)
♦ “numerons” replaced with “numerous”
♠ “Macodonia” replaced with “Macedonia”
“‘_Where prayer was wont to be made._’ xvi. 13. This proseuchae
signifies an oratory, a place appointed for prayer; in heathen
countries, they were erected in sequestered retreats, commonly
on the banks of rivers (as here) or on the sea-shore. Josephus
has preserved the decree of the city of Halicarnassus,
permitting the Jews to erect oratories, part of which is in the
following terms:――‘We ordain that the Jews, who are willing,
both men and women, do observe the Sabbaths and perform sacred
rites according to the Jewish law, and _build proseuchae by
the seaside, according to the custom of their country_; and if
any man, whether magistrate or private person, give them any
hinderance or disturbance, he shall pay a fine to the city.’
(Josephus, Antiquities, lib. xiv, cap. 10.) (Al. 24.)
“Many commentators, viz. Grotius, Drs. Whitby, Doddridge, and
Lardner, agree with Josephus, Philo, and Juvenal, that these
places of worship were synonymous with synagogues. But Calmet,
Prideaux, and Hammond, contend that they were _nearly_ the same,
yet there was a _real_ difference between them; the synagogues
were within the cities, while the proseuchae were without,
in retired spots, particularly in heathen countries, by the
river-side, with galleries or the shades of trees for their only
shelter. Prideaux considers them to be of greater antiquity than
the synagogues, and that they were formed by the Jews in open
courts, that those who lived at a distance from Jerusalem might
offer their private worship as in the open courts of the Temple
or Tabernacle. In the synagogues, Prideaux observes, _public_
worship was performed, and in the proseuchae _private_ prayer
was used to be made. It is highly probable that these proseuchae
were the same which are called in the Old Testament ‘high
places.’ (Hammond on Luke vi. 12, and Acts xvi. 13‒16. Calmet’s
Dictionary voce proseucha. Prideaux’s Connec, part i. book iv.
sub anno 444. vol. I. pp. 387‒390. edition 1720.) (Horne’s
Introduction.)
“‘And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the
city of Thyatira.’ verse 14. It is a remarkable fact, that among
the ruins of Thyatira, there is an inscription extant with the
words ΟΙ ΒΑΦΕΙΣ, _the dyers_. Wheler’s Journey into Greece, vol.
iii. p. 233. Spon, Miscellanea Eruditae Antiquitates, p. 113;
from whence we learn that the art and trade of dyeing purple
were carried on in that city.” (Horne’s Introduction.)
Here was fine business for the apostle and his companion! “_Come over
into Macedonia and help us!_” Such were the words of deep agonizing
entreaty, in which the beseeching Macedonian had, in the night-vision,
summoned the great apostle of the Gentiles to this new field of
evangelizing labor. Taking that summons for a divine command, he had
obeyed it――had crossed the wide Aegean, and sought in this great city
of Macedonia, the occasions and the means of “helping” the idolatrous
citizens to a knowledge of the truth as it was in Jesus. Week after
week they had been inoffensively toiling in the faithful effort to
answer this Macedonian cry for help; and what was the result and the
reward of all these exertions? For no crime whatever, and for no reason
except that they had rescued a gentle and unfortunate spirit from a
most degrading thraldom to demoniac agencies, and to men more vile
and wicked than demons, they had been mobbed,――abused by a parcel
of mercenary scoundrels,――stripped naked in the forum, and whipped
there like thieves,――and at last thrown into the common jail among
felons, with every additional injury that could be inflicted by their
determined persecutors, being fettered so that they could not repose
their sore and exhausted bodies. Was not here enough to try the
patience of even an apostle? What man would not have burst out in
furious vexation against the beguiling vision which had led them away
into a foreign land, among those who were disposed to repay their
assiduous “help,” by such treatment? Thus might Paul and Silas have
expressed their vexation, if they had indeed been misled by a mere
human enthusiasm; but they knew Him in whom they had trusted, and were
well assured that He would not deceive them. So far from giving way to
despondency and silence, they uplifted their voices in _praise_! Yes,
_praise_ to the God and Father of Jesus Christ, that he had accounted
them worthy to suffer thus for the glory of his name. “At midnight
Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises to God, and the prisoners heard
them.” In the dreary darkness,――inclosed between massive walls, and
bound in weighty fetters, their spirits rose in prayer,――doubtless
for those persecutors whom they came over to “help,” and not for
themselves,――since their souls were already so surely stayed on God.
To him they raised their voices in praise, for their own peace and joy
in believing. Not yielding like those inspired by the mere impulses of
human ambition or wild enthusiasm,――they passed the dreary night, _not_
“In silence or in fear.――
They shook the depths of the prison gloom,
With their hymns of lofty cheer.――
Amid the storm they sang,”
for He whom they thus invoked did not leave them in their heroic
endurance, without a most convincing testimony that their prayers and
their songs had come up in remembrance before him. In the midst of
their joyous celebration of this persecution, while their wondering
fellow-prisoners, waked from their sleep by this very unparalleled
noise, were listening in amazement to this manifestation of the manner
of spirit with which their new companions were disposed to meet their
distresses,――a mighty earthquake shook the city, and heaved the whole
prison-walls on their foundations, so that all the firmly barred doors
were burst open, and, what was more remarkable, all the chains fell
from the prisoners. The jailer waking up amidst this horrible crash,
and seeing all the prison-doors open, supposed that the prisoners had
all escaped; and knowing how utterly certain would be his ruin if his
charge should thus be broken,――in a fit of vexation and despair, he
drew his sword, and would have instantly killed himself, had not Paul,
seeing through the darkness the frenzied actions of the wretched man,
called out to him in a loud voice, clear and distinct amid the dreadful
din, “Do thyself no harm, for we are all here.”
Hearing these consolatory words, the jailer called for a light, and
sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas,
saying,――“Sirs! What must I do to be saved?” They replied――“Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, with all thy
house.” The jailer of course spoke of being saved merely from present
danger,――and appalled by the shock of the earthquake, concluded at
once that it had some connection with the prayers and songs of the
two Jewish prisoners, whom he knew to have been unjustly punished
and imprisoned. He supposed therefore, that from those who were the
occasion of the awful occurrence, he might best learn the means of
escaping its destructive consequences. But his alarmed inquiries were
made instrumental in teaching him the way of escape from a peril of far
greater magnitude, threatening his spirit with the eternal ruin that
would fall at last on all the sinful opposers of the truth. The two
imprisoned preachers then proclaimed to him the word of the Lord, and
not only to him, but to all that were in his house. No sooner had the
jailer thus learned, by their eloquent words, the real character and
objects of his prisoners, than he immediately determined to make them
all the atonement in his power, for the shameful treatment which they
had received from his fellow-citizens. He took them that same hour
of the night, and washed their stripes, and was baptized with all his
house. Of course he could no longer suffer those who were the authors
of his hopes of salvation, to lie any longer among felons; and he
immediately brought them out of the jail into his own house, and gave
them food, making it a sort of festal ♦occasion for himself and his
whole family, who were all rejoicing with him in the knowledge of
the gospel. When it was day the magistrates sent the officers of
justice with a verbal order for the release of the two prisoners, of
whose abominable usage they were now quite ashamed, after a night’s
reflection, without the clamors of a mob to incite them; and perhaps
also their repentance may have been promoted by the great earthquake
during the night, for which the Greeks and Romans would, as usual,
seek some moral occasion, looking on it of course, as a prodigy,
expressive of the anger of the gods, who might be supposed perhaps,
to be indignant at the flagrant injustice committed against these two
friendless strangers. But however satisfactory this atonement might
seem to the magistrates, Paul was by no means disposed to let them off
so quietly, after using him and Silas in this outrageous manner, in
absolute defiance of all forms of law and justice. To this permission
thus given him to sneak off quietly, he therefore returned the
indignant answer――“They have openly beaten us uncondemned, though we
are Roman citizens, and they have cast us into prison; and now do they
thrust us out so slily? No, indeed; but let them come themselves and
fetch us out.” This was alarming news indeed, to the magistrates. Here
they were found guilty of having violated “the sacred privilege of
Roman citizenship!”――a privilege which always shielded its possessor
from irregular tyranny, and required, throughout the Roman world, that
he should never be subjected to punishment without the most open and
formal investigation of the charge; a privilege too, whose violation
would bring down on them the most remorseless vengeance of the imperial
fountain of Roman power. So nothing would do, but they must submit to
the uncomfortable necessity of bringing down their magisterial dignity,
to the low business of visiting their poor, abused prisoners in the
jail, and humbly apologizing for their own cruelty.
♦ “accasion” replaced with “occasion”
The magistrates of the great city of Philippi therefore came to the
prison, and brought out their abused victims, respectfully requesting
them to depart out of the city. The two prisoners accordingly consented
to retire quietly from the city, without making any more trouble for
their persecutors. Going first to the house of their kind hostess,
Lydia, they saw the brethren who had believed the gospel there, during
their apostolic ministrations, and having exhorted them, bade them
farewell, and in company with their two companions, Timothy and Luke,
left the city.
Turning southwestwards towards Greece proper, and keeping near the
coast, they came next to Amphipolis, a Macedonian city on the river
Strymon, near where it flows into the Strymonic gulf; but making
no stay that is mentioned, they continued their journey in the same
direction to Apollonia, an inland town on the river Chabrius, in the
peninsula of Chalcidice; whence turning northwest they came next to
Thessalonica, a large city at the head of the great Thermaic gulf.
In this place was a synagogue of the Jews,――the first that they had
found in their European travels; for in this thriving commercial place
the Jews were, and always have been, in such large numbers, that they
were abundantly able to keep their own house of worship and religious
instruction, and had independence enough, as well as regard for the
institutions of their fathers, to attend in large numbers weekly at
this sanctuary. So zealous and successful indeed had they been in their
devotion to their religion, that they had drawn into a profession of
the faith of the God of Israel, a vast number of Greeks who attended
worship with them; for such was the superior purity of the religion
of the Jews, which regarded the one only living God, who was to be
worshiped not in the debasing forms of statues, but in spirit and truth,
that almost every place throughout the regions of Grecian civilization,
in which the Jews had planted their little commercial settlements,
and reared the houses of religious instruction, showed abundance
of such instances as this, in which the bright intellectual spirit
of the Greek readily appreciated the exalted character and the holy
truth of the faith owned by the sons of Israel, and felt at once
how far more suited to the conceptions of Hellenic genius was such
a religion, than the degrading polytheism which the philosophy and
poetry of a thousand years had striven in vain to redeem from its
inherent absurdities. Among these intelligent but mixed congregations,
Paul and his companions entered, and taking advantage of the freedom of
religious discourse allowed to all by the order of a Jewish synagogue,
they on three successive sabbaths reasoned with them out of the
scriptures, on that great and all-absorbing point in the original
apostolic theology,――that the Christ, the Messiah, so generally
understood to be distinctly foretold in the Hebrew scriptures, was
always described as destined to undergo great sufferings during his
earthly career, and after a death of shame, was to rise from the
grave;――and at last concluded with the crowning doctrine――“This Jesus,
whom I preach to you, is this Christ.”
This glorious annunciation of a new and spiritual dispensation, was
at once well received by a vast majority of the hearers――but more
especially by the Greeks, whose conceptions of the religion which they
had espoused, were far more rational and exalted than even the notions
of the original Israelites, whose common ideas of a Redeemer being
connected and mixed up, as their whole faith was, so much with what
was merely national and patriotic in their feelings, had led them
to disregard the necessarily spiritual nature of the new revelation
expected, and had caused them almost universally to image the Messiah
as a mere Jewish conqueror, who was to aim mainly at the restoration
of the ancient dominion of long-humbled Judah. Therefore, while the
Greeks readily and joyfully accepted this glorious completion of the
faith whose beginnings they had learned under the old covenant,――the
Jews for the most part scornfully rejected the revelation which
presented to them as their Messiah, “a man of sorrows,”――a Galilean,――a
Nazarene,――one without pomp or power; the grand achievment of whose
earthly career was that most ignominious death on the cross. No: this
was not the Messiah for whom they looked and longed, as the glorious
restorer of Israel, and the bloody conqueror of the Gentiles; and it
was therefore with the greatest indignation that they saw the great
majority of those converts from heathenism, whom they had made with
so much pains, now wholly carried away with the humbling doctrines
of these new teachers. Thus “moved with _envy_,” the unbelieving Jews
resorted to their usual expedient of stirring up a mob; and accordingly,
certain low fellows of the baser sort among them, gathered a gang, and
set the whole city on an uproar,――an effect which might seem surprising,
from a cause apparently so trifling and inadequate, did not every
month’s observation on similar occurrences, among people that call
themselves the most enlightened and free on the globe, suffice to show
every reader, that to “set a whole city in an uproar,” is the easiest
thing in the world, and one more often done by “certain lewd fellows
of the baser sort,” about the merest trifle, than in any other way.
And here then again, is another of those fac-simile exhibitions of
true human nature, with which the honest and self-evident story of Luke
abounds; and in this particular instance what makes him so beautifully
graphical and natural in his description of this manifestation of
public opinion, is the fact that he himself was a spectator of the
whole proceedings at Thessalonica,――and therefore gives an eye-witness
story. The mob being thus gathered, immediately made a desperate
assault on the house of Jason, where Paul and Silas were known to lodge,
and sought to drag them out to the people. (One would think that this
was a mere prophetic account of perfectly similar occurrences, that
pass every month under the noses of modern Europeans.) Paul and Silas,
however, had been wise enough to make off at the first alarm, and had
found some place of concealment, beyond the reach of the mob. Provoked
at not obtaining the prime object of the attack, the rascals then
seized Jason and other Christians whom they found there, and dragged
them before the magistrates, crying――“These that have turned the world
upside down, have come hither also,――whom Jason has entertained; and
they all do contrary to the statutes of Caesar, saying that there is
another king,――one Jesus.” This communication of the mode in which
the great mundane inversion had been effected by these four travelers
and their new converts, excited no small commotion among all the
inhabitants; for it amounted to a distinct charge of a treasonable
conspiracy against the Roman government, and could not fail to bring
down the most disagreeable consequences on the city, if it was made
known, even though it should amount to nothing. However, the whole
proceedings against Jason and his friends were conducted with a
moderation truly commendable, and far above any mob-action in these
enlightened times; for without any personal injury, they simply
satisfied themselves with taking security of Jason and his companions,
that they should keep the peace, and attempt nothing treasonable, and
then quietly let them go. Who would expect any modern European mob to
release their victims in this moderate and reasonable way?
“_Amphipolis_ is a city of Macedonia, on the confines of Thrace,
called so, as Thucydides informs us, (lib. iv. p. 321,) because
the rivers encompassed it. Suidas and others place it in Thracia,
giving it the name of the Nine Ways. It had the name likewise of
Chrysopolis.” (Wells, Whitby.)
“_Apollonia_, a city of Macedonia, lying between Amphipolis and
Thessalonica. Geographers affirm that there were fourteen cities,
and two islands of that name. Stephanus reckons twenty-five.”
(Whitby.)
_Thessalonica_, a large and populous city and sea-port of
Macedonia, the capital of the four districts into which the
Romans divided that country, after its conquest by Paulus
Æmilius. It was situated on the Thermian Bay, and was anciently
called Thermae; but, being rebuilt by Philip, the father of
Alexander, after his victory over the Thessalians, it then
received the name of Thessalonica.
“At the time of writing the Epistle to the Thessalonians,
Thessalonica was the residence of the Proconsul who governed the
province of Macedonia, and of the Quaestor who had the charge
of the imperial revenues. Besides being the seat of government,
this port carried on an extensive commerce, which caused a great
influx of strangers from all quarters; so that Thessalonica
was remarkable for the number, wealth, and learning of its
inhabitants. The Jews were extremely numerous here. The modern
name of this place is Salonichi; it is the chief port of modern
Greece, and has a population of sixty thousand persons, twelve
thousand of whom are Jews. According to Dr. Clarke, this
place is the same now as it was then; a set of turbulent Jews
constituted a very considerable part of its population; and when
St. Paul came here from Philippi to preach the gospel to the
Thessalonians, the Jews were numerous enough to ‘set all the
city in an uproar.’” (Williams.)
After this specimen of popular excitement, it was too manifest that
nothing could be done just then at Thessalonica by the apostolic
ministers of Christ, and that very night therefore the brethren sent
off Paul and Silas in the darkness, to Beroea, a city also in Macedonia,
about fifty miles from Thessalonica, exactly west, being on the same
parallel of latitude, standing on the south bank of the river Astroeus.
Arriving there, they went into the synagogue of the Jews, who were
here for the most part of a much better character than the mean Jews of
the great trading city of Thessalonica, and being more independent and
spiritual in their religious notions, were also much better prepared
to appreciate the spiritual doctrines preached by Paul and Silas.
They listened respectfully to the new preachers, and when the usual
references were made to the standard passages in the Old Testament,
universally supposed to describe the Messiah, they diligently examined
the passages for themselves, and studied out their correspondence with
the events in the life of Jesus, which were mentioned by his preachers
as perfectly parallel with these distinct prophecies. The natural
result of this nobly candid and rational examination of this great
question was, that many of these fair-minded and considerate Jews of
Beroea professed their perfect conviction that Jesus was the Christ,
and had by the actions of his life fully answered and completed the
prophetic types of the Messiah. Here, too, as in Thessalonica, the
Greek proselytes to Judaism readily and heartily accepted the doctrines
of Jesus. But the gospel messengers were not long allowed the enjoyment
of this fine field of apostolic enterprise; for their spiteful foes
in Thessalonica, hearing how things were going on in Beroea, took
the pains and trouble to journey all the way to that place, for the
express purpose of hunting out the preachers of Jesus by a new mob:
and in this they were so successful, that the brethren, according to
the established rules of Christian expediency, immediately sent away
Paul to the south, because he seemed to be the grand object of the
persecution; but Silas and Timothy being less obnoxious, still remained
in Beroea.
“_Beroea_ was a city of Macedonia; a great and populous city.
Lucian de Asino, p. 639. D.” (Whitby.) It was situated to the
west of Thessalonica, and not “_south_,” as Wells absurdly says,
“almost directly on the way to Athens.”