YCGL - Friday, June 21, 2024 - Day 9 - Wow! Philippi! Kavala! Thessaloniki! Am I Tired!!! - Draft

 If yesterday was a marathon travel day, today was a marathon sightseeing day.  Up at 6:45, breakfast at 7:15 and on the bus by 8:00, more or less.  too early for a vacation, that's for sure.  

Our first stop was Philippi.  It is about 100 miles east of Thessaloniki, about 2 hours driving with a stop halfway for a government-required stop for the bus driver.  Which was useful for us also.  Mike Rinehart took a selfie of us overlooking the Aegean Sea.

Philippi -  

Philippi is a large area.  It was an important city 2000 years ago, and to understand its significance, we need a little biblical history.  Paul, St. Paul, was an apostle of Christianity soon after Jesus died and rose again.  He would have been about Jesus' age, maybe a little younger, and did his significant travels in the years 37-62 or 64 CE.  His second missionary trip took him to Asia Minor, i.e., Turkey, and then, following a dream, to Greece.  He landed in Neopolis, now known as Kavala.  His first important stop was to Philippi.  

He would normally go to Jewish Synagogues and preach to the Jews and those interested in Judaism  about Jesus' life, death and resurrection.  However, there was not a synagogue in Philippi.  So, on the sabbath, he went to the nearby river where people gathered to wash and he started preaching there.  One person he influenced was Lydia, a woman of some means because she was a merchant in purple cloth, made with a rare and expensive dye at that time.  Eventually, he baptized Lydia and her household, the first believer in European soil was a woman of means.  It is likely then that Paul was able to start a small church in her home and work from there.  

Our first stop was at the site generally considered to be where Paul baptized Lydia.  The site is outside the city walls and upstream from Philippi.  We got there early enough that we were the only people there.  We had a brief reaffirmation of baptism ceremony along the bank of the stream lead by Pastor Dave Hansen and Bishop Mike Rinehart.  

Dave Hansen

                   Our Group                                                           A small Shrine to Lydia

                                        An Orthodox church at the site

A mosaic of Paul and Lydia

Mosaics around the entry into the church showing the baptism of Lydia's household.

The mosaics on the floor outline the route of Paul's travel from Emphasis in Turkey across the Aegean Sea to Greece, starting in Phillipi and down to Athens. The third is of the apostles who traveled with Paul.

The interior of the church and the baptismal font.

The Acropolis of Philippi

There are very few things left in the city that was here when Paul came. It had been a Greek city but by Paul's time, it was very Roman.  And growing.  Much of the archeology that we see now was from the 4th century BC to the 6th century AD.  And the city apparently died out fairly rapidly after that.

The area is huge, probably 50-70 acres or so.

You enter next to the theater (shown as #2 on the map.)  It was a Greek theater

Site of 4th century Christian church

YCGL - Tuesday, June 25, 2024 - Day 13 - Yes, I am alive and Well and Am a Victim of On-Board Internet

YCGL - Thursday, June 20, 2024 - Day 8 - We are in Thessaloniki